A cryogenic 14‐channel (13)C receiver array for 3T human head imaging

PURPOSE: This article presents a novel 14‐channel receive‐only array for (13)C human head imaging at 3 T that explores the SNR gain by operating at cryogenic temperature cooled by liquid nitrogen. METHODS: Cryostats are developed to evaluate single‐coil bench SNR performance and cool the 14‐channel array with liquid nitrogen while having enough thermal insulation between the coils and the sample. The temperature distribution for the coil array is measured. Circuits are adapted to the −189°C environment and implemented in the 14‐channel array. (13)C images are acquired with the array at cryogenic and room temperature in a 3T scanner. RESULTS: Compared with room temperature, the array at cryogenic temperature provides 27%–168% SNR improvement over all voxels and 47% SNR improvement near the image center. The measurements show a decrease of the element noise correlation at cryogenic temperature. CONCLUSION: It is demonstrated that higher SNR can be achieved by cryogenically cooling the 14‐channel array. A cryogenic array suitable for clinical imaging can be further developed on the array proposed. The cryogenic coil array is most likely suited for scenarios in which high SNR deep in a head and decent SNR on the periphery are required.