Patent ID: 7135864

Claim:
An RF apparatus comprising: an RF coil assembly having a circular coil arrangement and having a pair of independent drive channels connected to the circular coil arrangement, the RF coil assembly designed to generate a polarized B 1 field about a volume-of-interest; an RF coil assembly controller operationally connected to the RF coil assembly to control input to the pair of independent drive channels to create a substantially elliptical polarized B 1 field about a subject having a generally elliptical cross-section disposed within the volume-of-interest; wherein each independent drive channel is configured to receive a respective drive input, and wherein the RF coil assembly controller is further configured to at least one of vary an amplitude of each respective drive input and a phase difference between the respective drive inputs to create the substantially elliptical polarized B 1 field; wherein the RF coil assembly controller is further configured to create a horizontal elliptical polarized B 1 field by diverging the pair of independent drive channels with drive inputs of equal signal amplitude and phase shift between the pair of independent drive channels of less than ninety degrees.