RF transmit robustness of dual-row MRI array at 300 MHz

We evaluated the performance of overlapped 8 and 16 channel dual-row near-field arrays with radiative elements of axial length 90 mm, after optimization of both array circuit and near-field behavior at 297.2 MHz. For each number of channels, an array performance measure was evaluated for four human head-and-torso model positions and three circuit level optimization strategies. For both channel numbers, this measure was very similar when optimizations were applied based either on “mode” or power reflected by the entire array. Reducing the number of array channels simplified array construction, at the cost of an intrinsic reduction of safety excitation efficiency and complexity of circuit level optimization.