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Proceedings of the Second Joint EMBSBMES Conference

Houston. TX, USA Cctober 23-26,ZM)Z

Simulation of Equivalnet Circuits for MRI Surface Coils

M. C.Mantaras12, A. 0.Rodriguez'
'Department of Electrical Engineering, UAM-Iztapalapa, Mexico, DF-09340, Mexico.
'Department of Bioengineering, Faculty of Engineering, LJNER, Entre Rios, Argentina.

Absrrucr-Optimisation of RF coils for Magnetic Resonance quality factor of this resonant circuit was calculated for
Imaging Is normally a combination of experience and theory. different values of inductance and resistenace. Quality
Therefore, the ability to measure the key coil parameters Is factors for all parameters was computed according to:
very Important to obtaln the best performance of a col1
design. However, simulating an equivalent circuit of the coil
can provide us guldelines to constrnci efcleni coil
prototypes. Coil parameters such as resonant Requeucy and
quality factor can he simulated using an equivalent RLC
circuit of a surface coli. The SPICE OPUS slmulator was used
to perform the simulation of the equivalent circuit of two The resonant frequency was f = 64 MHz for all cases.
coils: a squared-shaped coil and a single-Imp coil. Speclra of corresponding to a magnetic field strenght of 1.5 Tesla.
the frequency response represented as the reflection SPICE OPUS programmes were specially written to
coefficients of the coils were obtained. Quality factors are perform all the simulations.
computed from these spectra and compared. Results showed a
gmd agreement with the values predicted by theory for both To compare those parameters oblained with the
type of coils. simulation of the frequency reponse, the theoretical quality
factor was computed with the following formula:
Keywordp - Ru: clrcults, RF Coils, MRI, Quality Factor,
Shunlation.

I. INTRODUCI'ION
RF coils are a widespread commodity within the scientific
and medical communities. The use of this type of coils is
m.RESULTS
intuitively attractive because, the closer the coil is to the
Fig. 1 shows the numerical simulation of a specuum for
object being imaged, the higher signal is expected.
a single-loop coil computed with the SPICE OPUS
Therefore, the understanding of the coil key parameters is
simulator.
paramount to develop coil designs with a high performance.
Although, much of the work related to the development of
Linear regressions of quality factors obtained from both
MRI coils has been reported in the literature [l], which
the theoretical values and the simulated frequency values
reflects that when actually consuucting a RF coil, a
were computed and illustrated in Figs. 2 and 4.
combination of practical experience and theory is needed.
Additionally, the residual values were also computed and
However, the application of an equivalent circuit to
presented in Figs. 3 and 5.
simulate the performance of a MRI coil has not received
much attention from the scientific community.

In this paper, a simple RLC circuits are used as equivalent

circuits of a squared-shaped coil and a single-loop coil.
Then, the SPICE OPUS simulator [2] is applied to the
circuits mentioned previously to simulate the frequency
response of the coil. Consequently, the quality factor for
different circuit parameters is measured from the reflection
coefficients generated by the simulated spectra for the two
types of coil. Results are compared against those predicted
by theory.

11. METHODOLOGY

A simple resonat circuit composed of the following Fig. 1: Simulated frequency response of a single-loop coil.
components: a capaciulance (C), an inductance (9and a The frequency response is the reflection coefficient of the
resistance (R) was used to represent a single-loop coil. The coil.

0-7803-7612-9/02/$17.00 Q 2002 IEEE 1736

IV. DISCUSSION
CONCLUSION REFEREXSS
I] J. Rn Electroma euc Anal sis and Design, Boca
The simulated reflection coefficients offered promising katon: CR’C Press, 199~pp.137,-1&.
results since a ~<O.oOolwas ohatined in the m e s of RF .I
[21 URL: http:Nwww.fe.unl-1~.sdsplce/welcome.hhnI
coils. Regression plots for the two cases show a clear
difference. This is probably due to that the circuit simulator
takes into consideration other variables than Eq. (2). like
temperature.

A simple RLC circuit together with the SPICE OPUS

simulator can be used to accurately simulate the key
parameters determing the coil performance. This approach
can he extended to the study of more complex coil
configuration. such a5 the phased-array coils.

.....,. ~ . . ,. .

0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 4

1.4 0.8
im [SI im [SI

Fig. 2 Of QualityFactor vs a Ward- Fig. 4 Plot of Quality Factor vs 1/R for a single-loop coil
shaped coil

Fig. 5: Residual values of the single-loop coil generated

Fig. 3: Residual values of the squared-shaped coil from the data fittings: R= 1.000,p < O.ooO1 and F = 2359
generated from the data fittings: R = 1.000, p e 0.0001 and

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