Patent ID: 8125225

Claim:
A magnetic resonance imaging apparatus, comprising: a main magnet to generate a substantially uniform main B 0 magnetic field through an examination region; and a radio frequency coil system to: produce a prespecified B 1 magnetic field within the examination region to selectively excite magnetic resonances in at least a portion of a subject within the examination region, the radio frequency coil system including: a first coil layer comprising a first coil array to generate a primary B 1 I magnetic field; and a second coil layer comprising a second coil array to generate a secondary B 1 II magnetic field, the second coil array being disposed substantially parallel to the first coil layer with a defined air gap in a radial direction, the first and second coil arrays being coupled and cooperating to: manipulate the primary B 1 I magnetic field with the secondary B 1 II magnetic field to selectively produce the prespecified B 1 magnetic field; and acquire image data based on the magnetic resonances, wherein the image data is used to reconstruct an image representation of the at least a portion of the subject; and a memory to store the image data.