FIG. 7.

This figure shows three-plane views of the axially acquired blipped-CAIPIRINHA EPI acquisitions at slice acceleration factors of (A) four and (B) six. Four-slice MB-RF (A, top) was achieved by using regular quad-band pulses in combined CP mode, while SMS-pTX (A, bottom) was achieved by simultaneously applying dual-band pulses at different frequencies on the two coil rows. Analogously, hexa-band pulses were used for six-slice MB-RF, and two tri-band pulses for SMS-pTX. The receive sensitivities of the dual rows along z allow only for the separation of two axial slices, therefore CAIPIRINHA shifts of FoV/2 and FoV/3 were needed to reconstruct four and six simultaneous slices by drawing on the in-plane coil sensitivities.