Patent ID: 8415950

Claim:
An MRI system comprising: a main magnet having a bore there through; a plurality of gradient coils positioned about the bore of the main magnet; an RF transmit coil disposed within the bore of the main magnet and configured to generate an RF field, the RF field exciting nuclei of a subject positioned within the bore to generate RF resonance signals; an array of RF receive coils disposed within the bore of the main magnet and positioned relative to the RF transmit coil so as to receive the RF resonance signals; and a detuning circuit coupled to each RF receive coil in the array of RF receive coils and being selectively switched between a disabled and an enabled state to control a resonance and impedance of the RF receive coil; wherein each RF receive coil is caused to receive RF resonance signals when its respective detuning circuit is in the disabled state; and wherein each RF receive coil is caused to modify an amplitude and phase of the RF field generated by the RF transmit coil when its respective detuning circuit is in the enabled state.