Patent ID: 7728591

Claim:
A transmit/receive radio frequency coil for parallel imaging comprising: a non-cylindrical conformal surface that substantially conforms with a magnetic resonance subject; a plurality of conductor loops disposed in or on the non-cylindrical conformal surface; one or more switches connected with the conductor loops, the one or more switches being selectively switched to (i) interconnect the plurality of conductor loops configured as a volume transmit resonator to produce a substantially uniform B 1 field across an imaging volume of the magnetic resonance subject responsive to energizing at a B 1 frequency in a transmit mode and (ii) de-couple the conductor loops in a receive mode to define a receive coil array of decoupled conductor loops which each receive resonance signals from across the imaging volume, the conductor loops each being resonant at the B 1 frequency in both the transmit mode and the receive mode; wherein the plurality of conductor loops when energized at the B 1 frequency define a discretized current density across the non-cylindrical conformal surface that corresponds with the substantially uniform B 1 field in the magnetic resonance subject, and at least one of: (i) wherein the plurality of conductor loops define the discretized current density when energized in the quasi-static domain, capacitance along the conductors maintaining the defined discretized current density at the B 1 frequency, and (ii) wherein at least some of the conductor loops are electromagnetically coupled by mutual inductance therebetween.