Patent ID: 7482809

Claim:
A method of designing an axial gradient coil having a primary coil and a shield coil for use in magnetic resonance imaging which comprises: a) defining at least one performance characteristic of said axial gradient coil; b) concurrently varying discretization parameters σ P,S and current parameter I within Equation A and Equation B, wherein σ P,S are varied between the values of 0 and 1, wherein Equation A is ∫ 0 Z n ( P ) ⁢ f φ ( P ) ⁡ ( z ) ⁢ ⁢ ⅆ z - ( n - σ P ) ⁢ I = 0 , wherein Equation B is ∫ 0 Z m ( S ) ⁢ f φ ( S ) ⁡ ( z ) ⁢ ⁢ ⅆ z + ( m - σ S ) ⁢ I = 0 and wherein f φ ( P , S ) ⁡ ( z ) is the φ-components of the continuous current density on said primary coil (P) and said shield coil (S), n is an integer between the value of 1 and the number of turns on said primary coil and m is an integer between the value of 1 and the number of turns on said shield coil, and wherein each set of varied discretization parameters and current parameter produces different axial gradient coil designs; c) evaluating at least one performance characteristic of each different axial gradient coil design produced by the varied discretization parameters and the varied current parameter; and d) selecting one of said hypothetical axial gradient coil designs.