The coil of the RF transmitter, inside the MR imager is used in excitation of the spins. Also called transmit-only coil it is used to create the B1 field. As a radio frequency generator send this coil bursts of RF pulses. These pulses serve to disturb the spins in the patient.

A coil designed to excite or detect spins using two orthogonal transmit and/or receive channels. As a transmitter coil, there is a factor of 2 reductions in power required. The receiver coil has a better SNR than a linearly polarized coil.

Duty cycle is the time during which the gradient system can be run at maximum power. The duty cycle is based on the total time and includes the cool down phase. The duty cycle on the RF pulse during MRI is restricted based on the specific absorption rate (SAR) limit.
SAR limits restrict radio frequency heating effects. The specific absorption rate increases with field strength, radio frequency power and duty cycle, type of the transmitter coil and body size. The especially in high and ultrahigh magnetic fields, important SAR issue can be readily addressed by reducing the RF duty cycle due to longer repetition times (TR) and the use of parallel imaging techniques. A TR longer than the minimum needed provides time for the tissue to cool down, but for the cost of a longer scan time. A parallel imaging technique reduces the RF exposure and the scan time.

See also High Field MRI.

The portion of a MR spectrometer comprising the sample container and the RF coils, with some associated electronics. The RF coils may consist of separate receiver and transmitter coils in a crossed coil configuration, or, alternatively, a single coil to perform both functions.

A coil that produces an RF field with circular polarization. The RF power received from the RF power amplifier comes in two signals (quadrature detection), which have a phase difference of 90°. The RF transmit coil converts the power into a circularly polarized RF magnetic field.
Quadrature coils can be used as both, transmit and/or receive coil. When used as a transmitter coil a factor of two power reduction over a linear coil results; as a receiver an increase in SNR of up to a factor of √2, can be achieved.

See also the related poll result: '3rd party coils are better than the original manufacturer coils'