3D-Gradient Coil Structures for MRI Designed using Fuzzy Membership Functions

The design of high-performance gradient coils is essential for modern magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) applications. This work presents a new and alternative design methodology that explores three-dimensional (3D) solution space by combining fuzzy membership functions to model and re-shape the coil structure, given the magnetic field, electrical and mechanical constraints. The method was applied to design a short, unshielded asymmetric gradient coil for breast imaging. The resulting dome-shape coil has superior gradient performance compared to a standard fingerprint coil. New quadrupolar gradient coil designs for breast imaging are also obtained with the proposed method.