Granted Patent B2

US 12,631,703 · App. 18/031,170 · Granted May 19, 2026

Inventors: Christoph Günther Leussler (Hamburg, DE); Steffen Weiss (Hamburg, DE)

Assignee: Koninklijke Philips N.V.

G01R33/34007

Abstract

Claims (44)

1 . A system for magnetic resonance imaging, comprising:

a magnetic resonance imaging device, and

a control unit configured to control the magnetic resonance imaging device,

wherein the magnetic resonance imaging device comprises:

a magnetic resonance bore,

a movable table configured to be movable in and out of the magnetic resonance bore, and

at least two coil elements of at least one coil, the at least two coil elements being configured to be adjacently positioned with relative overlap (R) to each other on the movable table, the at least one coil comprising a first coil and a second coil, the first coil comprising a first outer cover and a first inner core corresponding to at least one first coil element of the at least two coil elements, and the second coil comprising a second outer cover and a second inner core corresponding to at least one second coil element of the at least two coil elements, wherein at least one of the first inner core and the second inner core is configured to slide laterally in two dimensions within at least one of the first outer cover and the second outer cover respectively,

wherein the control unit is configured to:

detect the at least two coil elements,

detect the relative overlap (R) of the at least two coil elements,

determine whether the detected relative overlap (R) is within a predefined critical range, and

adapt the relative position of the coil elements when the detected relative overlap (R) is outside the predefined critical range.

2 . The system according to claim 1 , wherein the at least two coil elements are from different coils.

3 . The system according to claim 2 , wherein the at least one coil has a form of a flat thin blanket-like pad.

4 . The system according to claim 1 , wherein the control unit comprises a coil element detecting unit for detecting the at least two coil elements, and wherein the coil element detecting unit comprises at least one sensor configured to detect markers of the coils, wherein the at least one sensor of the coil element detecting unit is selected of from a 2D-sensor group comprising a optical video sensor, a capacitive sensor, and an inductive sensor, or wherein the at least one sensor of the coil element detecting unit is selected from a 3D-video sensor group comprising a radar sensor, a lidar sensor and an infrared sensor.

5 . The system according to claim 1 , wherein the at least one coil comprises sensing flexible areas.

6 . The system according to claim 1 , wherein the magnetic resonance imaging device further comprises at least one coil holder configured to hold the at least one coil in position.

7 . The system according to claim 1 , wherein at least one of the first coil or the second coil further comprises at least one actuator configured to move at least one of the first inner core or the second inner core at least between a first position without the relative overlap (R) and a second position with the relative overlap (R).

8 . The system according to claim 7 , wherein the at least one actuator is coupled to the control unit, which is configured to control the actuator to move the at least one of the first inner core or the second inner core.

9 . A method for generating images by magnetic resonance imaging, the method comprising:

(a) positioning at least two coil elements of at least one coil with relative overlap (R) to each other on a movable table, the at least one coil comprising a first coil and a second coil, first coil comprising a first outer cover and a first inner core corresponding to at least one first coil element of the at least two coil elements, and the second coil comprising a second outer cover and a second inner core corresponding to at least one second coil element of the at least two coil elements, wherein at least one of the first inner core and the second inner core is configured to slide laterally in two dimensions within at least one of the first outer cover and the second outer cover respectively;

(b) detecting the relative overlap (R) of the coil elements;

(c) determining whether the detected relative overlap (R) is within a predefined critical range;

(d) repeating steps (a) to (c), when the detected relative overlap (R) is outside the predefined critical range; and

(e) starting an image generating process, when the detected relative overlap (R) is within the predefined critical range and the movable table is in a final position for generating images.

10 . The method according to claim 9 , additionally comprising

(f) monitoring the relative overlap (R) of the coil elements during the image generating process, and

(g) re-positioning the coil elements during the image generating process, when the monitored relative overlap (R) is detected to be outside the predefined critical range.

11 . The method according to claim 9 , wherein detecting a relative overlap (R) of the coil elements comprises determining a noise-correlation-matrix.

12 . The method according to claim 11 , wherein the determining whether the detected relative overlap (R) is within a predefined critical range comprises comparing the determined noise-correlation-matrix with a predefined noise-correlation-matrix-threshold and based on a result of the comparison, determining if the detected relative overlap (R) is within the predefined critical range.

13 . The method according to claim 9 , wherein positioning the at least two coil elements further comprises detecting markers provided on the at least one coil or a coil holder, visually and/or audibly guiding a manual positioning of the coil elements based on the detected position of markers into a position corresponding to a relative overlap (R) within the predefined critical range.

14 . The method according to claim 9 , wherein positioning the at least two coil elements of the at least one coil, further comprises an automatic positioning of the at least one coil based on at least one software-controlled mechanism integrated in the at least one coil.

15 . The method according to claim 9 , wherein at least one of the first coil or the second coil further comprises at least one actuator configured to move at least one of the first inner core or the second inner core at least between a first position without the relative overlap (R) and a second position with the relative overlap (R).

16 . The method according to claim 15 , wherein the at least one actuator is coupled to the control unit, which is configured to control the at least one actuator to move the at least one of the first inner core or the second inner core.

17 . The method according to claim 9 , further comprising moving the movable table in the final position after it is the detected relative overlap is determined to be within the predefined critical range or while executing steps to achieve that the detected relative overlap is within the predefined critical range.

18 . A program element configured to be stored on non-transitory computer readable medium of a control unit of a magnetic resonance imaging system wherein execution of the program element causes the system to:

(a) position at least two coil elements of at least one coil with relative overlap (R) to each other on a movable table, the at least one coil comprising a first coil and a second coil, the first coil comprising a first outer cover and a first inner core corresponding to at least one first coil element of the at least two coil elements, and the second coil comprising a second outer cover and a second inner core corresponding to at least one second coil element of the at least two coil elements, which comprises the wherein at least one of the first inner core and the second inner core is configured to slide laterally in two dimensions within at least one of the first outer cover and the second outer cover respectively;

(b) detect the relative overlap (R) of the coil elements;

(c) determine whether the detected relative overlap (R) is within a predefined critical range;

(d) repeat (a) to (c), when the detected relative overlap (R) is outside the predefined critical range; and

(e) start an image generating process, when the detected relative overlap (R) is within the predefined critical range and the movable table is in a final position for generating images.

19 . The program element according to claim 18 , wherein execution of the program element causes the system to:

(f) monitor the relative overlap (R) of the coil elements during the image generating process, and

(g) re-position the coil elements during the image generating process, when the monitored relative overlap (R) is detected to be outside the predefined critical range.

Assignments (1)

Priority Claims (1)

Continuity (1)

References Cited (24)