Simulation-based evaluation of SAR and flip angle homogeneity for five transmit head arrays at 14 T

INTRODUCTION: Various research sites are pursuing 14 T MRI systems. However, both local SAR and RF transmit field inhomogeneity will increase. The aim of this simulation study is to investigate the trade-offs between peak local SAR and flip angle uniformity for five transmit coil array designs at 14 T in comparison to 7 T. METHODS: Investigated coil array designs are: 8 dipole antennas (8D), 16 dipole antennas (16D), 8 loop coils (8D), 16 loop coils (16L), 8 dipoles/8 loop coils (8D8L) and for reference 8 dipoles at 7 T. Both RF shimming and k(T)-points were investigated by plotting L-curves of peak SAR levels vs flip angle homogeneity. RESULTS: For RF shimming, the 16L array performs best. For k(T)-points, superior flip angle homogeneity is achieved at the expense of more power deposition, and the dipole arrays outperform the loop coil arrays. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: For most arrays and regular imaging, the constraint on head SAR is reached before constraints on peak local SAR are violated. Furthermore, the different drive vectors in k(T)-points alleviate strong peaks in local SAR. Flip angle inhomogeneity can be alleviated by k(T)-points at the expense of larger power deposition. For k(T)-points, the dipole arrays seem to outperform loop coil arrays. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10334-023-01067-1.