Determining complicated winding patterns for shim coils using stream functions and the target-field method

In a magnetic resonance imaging equipment, gradient and shim coils are needed to produce a spatially varying magnetic field throughout the sample being imaged. Such coils consist of turns of wire wound on the surface of a cylindrical tube. Shim coils in particular, must sometimes be designed to produce complicated magnetic fields to correct for impurities. Streamline patterns for shim coils are much more complicated than those for gradient coils. In this work we present a detailed analysis of streamline methods and their application to shim coil design. A method is presented for determining the winding patterns to generate these complicated fields. © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.