A high temperature superconductor tape RF receiver coil for a low field magnetic resonance imaging system

Abstract

High temperature superconductor (HTS) thin films have been applied in making a low loss RF receiver coil for improving magnetic resonance imaging image quality. However, the application of these coils is severely limited by their limited field of view (FOV). Stringent fabrication environment requirements and high cost are further limitations. In this paper, we propose a simpler method for designing and fabricating HTS coils. Using industrial silver alloy sheathed Bi (2-x)Pb xSr 2Ca 2Cu 3O 10 (Bi-2223) HTS tapes, a five-inch single-turn HTS solenoid coil has been developed, and human wrist images have been acquired with this coil. The HTS tape coil has demonstrated an enhanced FOV over a six-inch YBCO thin film surface coil at 77 K with comparable signal-to-noise ratio. © 2005 IOP Publishing Ltd.