• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.267-271
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• 2008

The RF shimming technique has been used to improve the transmit RF field homogeneity in highfield MRI. In the RF shimming technique, the amplitude and phase of the driving currents in each coil element are optimized to get homogenous flip angle or uniform image intensity. The inductive and capacitive coupling between the coil elements may degrade the RF field homogeneity if not taken into account in the optimization procedure. In this paper, we have analyzed the coupling effects on the RF shimming using a sixteen-element TEM RF coil model operating at 300 MHz. We have found that the coupling effects on the RF shimming can be reduced by putting high dielectric material between the active rung and the shield.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.565-573
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• 2021

The spatial distribution of electromagnetic fields in the human body can be adjusted by using high dielectric materials. This method has a complementary compared to other methods. However, it can be used as a powerful dielectric shimming tool in certain applications. It can be manufactured in a geometrically free shape and a pad manufactured according to the purpose can be applied without any change of the system. Especially in ultrahigh magnetic field (UHF) MRI, the clinical high dielectric pad used to increase the intensity of the transmit (B1+) and receive (B1-) fields, which has low sensitivity due to the high operating frequency, has great potential. In addition, there are few studies applied to UHF MRI. Therefore, in this study, a high dielectric material pad made of calcium titanate suspension was developed in the laboratory. And the signal increase of clinically useful images was confirmed in various protocols of UHF 7T MRI.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.761-769
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• 2022

Pads with high dielectric materials have been used in a variety of applications to locally improve the field sensitivity and homogeneity of RF pulses in clinical MRI studies. In this study, we aimed to improve such pads in consideration of the practical problems associated with the application of actual clinical images. A high permittivity pad to increase the attenuated B1 field strength was fabricated and tested in 7T MRI. Sim4Life simulation and experimental results show stronger and relatively uniform B1 near field. In order to improve the image quality in the whole cerebellum, known as a region with low sensitivity, a guide was made to reduce the mechanical change of the pad. In order to improve the wearing comfort, the pad was designed by dividing it into upper and lower parts. The facial pad showed an overall signal increase effect in areas such as the turbinate in the nasal cavity. Signal increase was expected in areas such as the frontal lobe and eyes, but the effect was either insignificant or it was difficult to see the effect in the imaging protocol. In conclusion, this paper showed a cerebellar-optimized pad with an improved nasal signal while maintaining its effectiveness.