RF coil providing reduced obstruction access to image volume in transverse magnet MRI system

An RF coil sub-assembly for a transverse magnet MRI system includes substantially co-planar serially-connected turns mounted on a common substrate. Preferably, half of the turns are directed clockwise, while the other half are directed counter clockwise to produce a plurality of equal commonly directed currents along spaced apart parallel conductors. A low-loss expanded dielectric spacer is used to mount the RF coils within a pre-existing depression formed by the annular magnetic shims of a transverse magnet structure thus substantially eliminating any obstruction to the image volume for at least the RF transmit coils.