Patent ID: 9547060
Date: 2017-01-17
CPC Classifications: G01R

Claim:
1. A method of magnetic resonance (MR) imaging of at least a portion of a body, the method comprising: subjecting the portion of the body to an imaging sequence comprising at least one radiofrequency (RF) pulse, the RF pulse being transmitted toward the portion of the body via an RF coil arrangement to which RF signals are supplied by two or more RF power amplifiers, the RF power amplifiers being activated alternately during the imaging sequence in a time-multiplexed fashion, wherein the RF power amplifiers associated with different groups of coil elements are activated during non-overlapping or partly overlapping time slots and in the case of a non-overlapping activation of the different RF power amplifiers, an incoherent sum of the RF signals is generated during the different activation periods and in the case of a partly overlapping activation of the individual RF power amplifiers, a coherent superposition of the RF signals is generated and wherein the imaging sequence requires an RF duty cycle and/or an RF pulse duration exceeding a specification of at least one of the RF power amplifiers; acquiring MR signals from the portion of the body; and reconstructing an MR image from the acquired MR signals.