Integrated Radiofrequency/Wireless (iRFW) Coil Array for Simultaneous Acquisition and Wireless Transfer of 7T Magnetic Resonance Imaging Data

Abstract

Ultra-high-field (UHF) MRI systems increasingly rely on multi-channel receive arrays to improve imaging performance. However, increasing channel counts introduce challenges related to cabling physical limitations, electromagnetic coupling, and system scalability. Wireless signal transmission from receive coils has been proposed as a potential approach to reduce these limitations. This work investigates the feasibility of implementing integrated RF wireless (iRFW) signal extraction within an MRI receive coil while preserving imaging performance for UHF-MRI systems.An 8-channel 7T MRI head coil was modified to incorporate iRFW technology, enabling the same conductor element to support both MRI and RF radiation for wireless data transmission. Imaging experiments performed on a 7T MRI system demonstrated approximately 94% signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) retention relative to the original coil configuration, indicating minimal degradation to the receive performance. The measured SNR and high gain out of the shield provides good image quality and coupled power to the AP for wireless data transfer. The realized data rate of WIFI-6E throughput for an iRFW coil element is 1.2 Gbps, which would allow a 256-coil element array generating 8 Mbps/coil to transfer 1 s of acquired data in 1.7 s. This time can be reduced to 0.21 s by using four iRFW coil elements in the array, achieving a data throughput of 9.6 Gbps (WIFI 802.11ax 4x4 MIMO), similar to fiber optic or ethernet connections.To support wireless signal reception, compact antenna arrays operating in the 5–6 GHz frequency range were designed and evaluated. Two bowtie design generations were developed, with the second-generation antenna addressing fabrication and mechanical limitations observed in the initial prototype.These results demonstrate the feasibility of integrating wireless RF signal extraction into an MRI receive coil architecture while maintaining imaging performance, representing a proof-of-concept step toward wireless MRI receive arrays for future UHF systems.