title: Studies on the performance of circular and elliptical Z-gradient coils using a simulated annealing algorithm.
abstract: Elliptical z-gradient coils with different ellipticities are optimized using a simulated annealing algorithm. This study demonstrates that when the coil ellipticity was changed from 1.0 to 1.67, the gradient strength was increased by 21% and the coil inductance was reduced by about 34%. At the same time, the gradient inhomogeneity was increased by a factor between 15 to 47%. In these examples we also observed that when the coil ellipticity was increased from 1.0 to 1.11, the gradient inhomogeneity was reduced by a factor between 16 to 19%. This study provides a quantitative assessment of the advantages and disadvantages in coil performance obtained by using elliptical z-gradient coils.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, University of Utah Health Sciences Center, Salt Lake City 84132, USA.
authors.forename: Y P
authors.initials: YP
authors.lastname: Du
authors.forename: D L
authors.initials: DL
authors.lastname: Parker
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D004867:Equipment Design / Q000379:methods; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000295:instrumentation*