Patent ID: 6870368

Claim:
A magnetic resonance imaging apparatus comprising: an RF coil system comprising at least two sets of at least two RF coils which detect RF signals from a region of interest, at least two receiver channels which receive and, process the detected RF signals, and a control unit which controls at least a plurality of switches, depending on the imaging parameters, that selectively route and/or divert a first and a second detected RF signal from a first set of the at least two RF coils towards separate receiver channels via different paths of at least two possible paths, where a switch of said plurality of switches is positioned along each path of said at least two possible paths defining at least four possible paths, the plurality of switches selectively diverting said first and second detected RF signals along two different paths of the at least four possible paths, wherein at least one selectively diverted first and second detected RF signal is combined with a respective detected RF signal from a second set of the at least two RF coils which has been selectively diverted by a different switch of said plurality of switches along another additional path and forms combined signals therefrom, wherein the additional path includes a portion of one of said two different paths of said at least four possible paths; and said control unit applies the combined RF signals to separate receiver channels.