MRI system RF coil assembly with a birdcage transmit only coil and a pseudo-chain-link receive only coil array

1. An RF coil assembly of a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system, comprising:

a birdcage transmit-only coil having a substantially cylindrical shaped defined by one or more rungs and one or more end rings; and

a multi-channel receive-only phased array coil comprising a plurality of ring-shaped receive-only coils, wherein the receive-only coils are connected to each other in a pseudo-chain-link configuration to form a substantially cylindrical shape, each of the plurality of ring-shaped receive-only coils comprises arc-shaped segments, and the arc-shaped segments include inductive and capacitive segments,

wherein said multi-channel receive-only phased array coil is shorter than and located coaxially inside a space defined by said one or more rungs of said cylindrical transmit-only coil and wherein said multi-channel receive-only phased array coil is spaced a predetermined distance apart therefrom.

2. The RF coil assembly of claim 1 , wherein the predetermined distance between said multi-channel receive-only phased array coil and said transmit-only coil is set to minimize the mutual inductance therebetween.

3. The RF coil assembly of claim 1 , wherein two adjacent receive-only coils have an overlapping portion, and wherein the width of the portion is set to minimize mutual inductance therebetween.

4. The RF coil assembly of claim 1 , further comprising:

a spectrometer configured to generate an RF signal, modulate the generated signal with a carrier wave and output the modulated signal;

a radio frequency amplifier connected to said spectrometer and being configured to amplify the modulated signal;

a quadrature hybrid coupler connected to said radio frequency amplifier and being configured to divide the amplified signal into two radio signals;

noise reduction filters connected to the quadrature hybrid coupler and being configured to reduce noise from the divided radio signals; and

impedance matching circuits connected between the respective noise reduction filters and the transmit-only coil.

5. the RF coil assembly of claim 1 , wherein the number of said receive-only coils is a multiple of four (4).

6. The RF coil assembly of claim 1 , wherein the number of said receive-only coils is sixteen (16).

7. The RF coil assembly of claim 1 , further comprising:

a plurality of impedance matching circuits connected to the respective receive-only coils;

a plurality of PIN diodes connected to the respective impedance matching circuits;

a plurality of noise reduction filters connected to the respective PIN diodes;

a plurality of coaxial cables connected to the respective noise reduction filters;

a plurality of preamplifiers connected to the coaxial cables; and

a spectrometer connected to the preamplifiers,

wherein the RF signals from the respective receive-only coils are passed through the plurality of impedance matching circuits, noise-reduced at the noise reduction filters, passed through the coaxial cables, amplified at the preamplifiers and further amplified at the spectrometer.

8. The RF coil assembly of claim 7 , wherein said preamplifiers comprise low input impedance preamplifiers.

9. The RF coil assembly of claim 1 , wherein said transmit-only coil operates in an inhomogeneous mode.