This project contains pyBirdcagebuilder, a program that calculates ideal capacitor values for birdcage coil designs.
The program is based on the Birdcage Builder program by PennState Health which they have provided for free for a long time, but is becoming increasingly difficult to run on modern computers. Therefore I have decided to make a new open source version based on Python3, to ensure future compatibility.
An alpha version is available in the ellipse_alpha branch. This version makes it possible to calculate values for elliptical birdcages. Only short-axis elliptical birdcages are available for now.
Download the project and run the Python script (pyBirdcagebuilder.py). You might have to install Python before you can run it. (Download)
Alternatively, on the release page a Windows executable is available for download.
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Chin Chih-Liang et al. BirdcageBuilder: design of specified-geometry birdcage coils with desired current pattern and resonant frequency. Concepts in Magnetic Resonance: An Educational Journal. 2002 Jun;15(2):156-63.
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Shizhe Li et al. A Method to Create an Optimum Current Distribution and Homogeneous B1 Field for Elliptical Birdcage Coils. Magn Reson Med. 1997;37:600- 608.
