Patent ID: 8587293

Claim:
A device to determine a position of a magnetic resonance local coil of a magnetic resonance data acquisition unit, comprising: at least one transmission coil associated with a magnetic resonance data acquisition unit, said at least one transmission coil radiating an electromagnetic signal; a magnetic resonance local coil that receives said electromagnetic signal radiated by said at least one transmission coil and that generates a local coil signal dependent thereon, said local coil signal exhibiting an amplitude and a phase; and a computerized position determination device in communication with said magnetic resonance local coil that receives said local coil signal therefrom, and that is configured to evaluate said local coil signal to determine a position of the magnetic resonance local coil relative to a selected location associated with said data acquisition unit, by plotting a signal curve of said local coil signal, selected from the group consisting of a signal curve of said phase and a signal curve of said amplitude, with respect to an axis and identifying said position of said local coil directly from an actual zero-crossing of said axis by the signal curve of said local coil signal.