Characterization of coupling in planar array coils with arbitrary element geometries

A method is presented which rapidly characterizes the mutual impedance between elements in array coils for MR imaging as a function of offset distances between elements. These “coupling surfaces” allow the designer to quickly determine the overlap distances which minimize coupling between array elements. The method allows arbitrary element geometries and a layered, planar media. Additionally, because the Green´s functions and current distributions are stored in Fourier space, the transverse field distributions are easily obtained, allowing the weighting coefficients form image combination to be determined