Patent ID: 7102350

Claim:
An apparatus for MRI, comprising: an RF birdcage coil having a coil axis, an end ring portion disposed about the axis, and a plurality of legs disposed parallel to the axis and in signal communication with the end ring portion; and an RF shield disposed about the coil and in signal communication therewith, the shield comprising a cylindrically arranged conductive sheet having first and second ends, a plurality of sets of discontinuous slots disposed about the cylindrical sheet and running between the first and second ends, wherein a region of discontinuity within a set of the slots aligns with the end ring portion; wherein the coil and shield are configured to have a desired Q-factor equal to or greater than a defined threshold Q-factor, the defined threshold Q-factor being defined as 50% of the Q-factor that the coil and shield would provide as a result of the shield being made from a sheet of solid copper having a thickness of about three times the skin depth at the Larmor frequency of protons; and wherein the RF shield and coil are capable of providing the desired Q-factor in response to the RF shield being configured by arranging a single sheet of the conductive sheet into the cylindrically arranged conductive sheet with a single seam running between the first and second ends.