Figure 3: 1.5- and 3-T scanner receive coil SNR characterization.

(a) Normalized SNR versus depth into the phantom for coils fabricated with different permutations of printed components at 3 T, with schematic showing coil position 3 mm away from conductive fluid. Bar graph summarizes trends shown in relative SNR for each coil type. Dot on bar graph shows predicted SNR extracted from bench top quality factor measurements. (b) Relative measured (bars) and bench top-predicted (dots) image SNR of printed coils at 1.5 and 3 T. (c) Relative SNR for control and printed coils versus increasing coil offsets from the top surface of the phantom. Black dashed-dotted line highlights the position offset where the control coil shows equal SNR to the printed coils when the printed one has no offset from the top surface of the phantom. Light thin lines represent calculated best case performance when preamplifiers are added to the coil. Error bars show standard deviation. (d) Average normalized SNR profile for printed coils flexed around the surface of a curved saltwater phantom (blue) and placed on a flat phantom (red) at 3 T. Wide coloured bands indicate the s.d. across several coils.