10.5-T MRI volume excitation using traveling-wave microstrip probes

This paper presents a volume excitation study of a human-sized MRI bore at 10.5 T using a circular patch, an interdigitated capacitor probe (ICP) array, and a combination of the two. Compared to an experimentally verified single patch probe excitation, the ICP array allows for B+ shimming by modifying the magnitude and phase of the elements to fill the field void left near the edges of an uniform phantom. Simulations using full-wave FDTD show an increase in field coverage inside of the uniform phantom which can further be improved by the addition of a simple, passive slow-wave helical boundary structure.