Reactive-element based decoupling network for a two-element MRI phased array.

A reactive-element based Decoupling Network (DN) for 7-Tesla Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) phased arrays is presented to compensate for the effect of mutual coupling between array elements. The DN network consists of two reactive elements connected in parallel between a two-element array, each element in the array is a rectangular loop-shape microstrip transmission line Radio Frequency (RF) coil. Integrated with an L-shaped tunable matching network, the decoupled elements can be tuned easily to operate at the working frequency of the 7-Tesla MRI system. Numerical modeling is carried out using CST to design, characterize and verify the performance of the decoupling and matching network for a two-element MRI array. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]