Saw-tooth shaped legs birdcage RF coil for small animal NMR imaging at 1.5T MRI system

In this paper we are demonstrating a novel method of designing and implementing a modified birdcage type Radio Frequency (RF) coil for small animal Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) imaging. This RF coil is basically a band pass type birdcage coil which is specifically designed to perform the whole body NMR imaging of small animal at 1.5T MRI systems. The designed RF coil contains the saw tooth shaped pattern as the leg conductors. The magnetic field produced at 63.85 MHz resonance frequency by this designed saw toothed shape leg pattern RF coil is significantly stronger than the magnetic field produced by a conventional straight leg band pass type birdcage coil designed with the same dimension. A full wave 3D electromagnetic simulation is carried out to optimize the RF coil dimensions, capacitor values and to study the RF coil electromagnetic characteristics.