Patent ID: 8154289

Claim:
A method for producing a radiofrequency (RF) excitation field with an RF coil that forms a part of a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system, the steps comprising: a) determining a desired pattern of RF excitation; b) calculating, using the desired pattern of RF excitation, a plurality of weighting factors related to an RF waveform and a plurality of k-space locations related to a magnetic field gradient waveform, wherein the calculation enforces joint sparsity in the plurality of k-space locations and the plurality of weighting factors; c) calculating, from the calculated plurality of k-space locations, the magnetic field gradient waveform; d) calculating, using the calculated plurality of weighting factors, an RF pulse waveform indicative of the desired pattern of RF excitation; e) producing, with the MRI system, a magnetic field gradient using the magnetic field gradient waveform calculated in step c); and f) producing, with the MRI system, an RF pulse using the RF pulse waveform calculated in step d) such that an RF excitation field is produced.