Title: Design and analysis of matching network for stepped impedance structured 1.5 Tesla magnetic resonance imaging RF surface coil

Authors: Krishnan Thiyagarajan; Thangavelu Kesavamurthy

Addresses: Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore 641004, Tamil Nadu, India ' Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore 641004, Tamil Nadu, India

Abstract: In this paper a new impedance matching technique is proposed to improve the return loss performance of the stepped impedance 1.5 Tesla Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) RF coil. Recently the concepts of stepped impedance microstrip transmission line sections were used in MRI RF volume coil developments. In this paper to further advance this approach a Stepped Impedance Structure (SIS) is focused for surface type RF coils along with suitable impedance matching network. The matching network consists of a lumped capacitor and inductor forming an L shaped structure. The quality factor based design procedure is followed to determine the value of matching network components. The performance of L section design is verified for different SIS RF coil width values. A performance comparison of L section matching network for different SIS RF coil width values is also presented. The workability of the proposed matching network has been verified using Advanced Design System (ADS) S-parameter simulation results.

Keywords: stepped impedance; impedance matching network; quality factor; magnetic resonance imaging; MRI; radio frequency; Smith chart; RF surface coils; microstrip transmission line sections; simulation.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBET.2015.072993

International Journal of Biomedical Engineering and Technology, 2015 Vol.19 No.3, pp.230 - 243

Received: 27 Feb 2015
Accepted: 04 Jun 2015
Published online: 11 Nov 2015 *

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