Ultra-high field (UHF) (>7 T) transmit (Tx) (1) and transceiver (2,3) surface loop phased arrays combined with RF shimming or parallel transmission have been shown to improve Tx-efficiency (B₁⁺/√P) and homogeneity for human brain imaging up to 9.4 T. Overlapping the loops (4) helps to improve Tx-efficiency and SNR by increasing the penetration depth and eliminating voids. On the other side, overlapping can complicate the decoupling. At fields of < 3T overlapped loops often generate substantial mutual resistance when loaded (4,5) and cannot be well decoupled using common decoupling methods, which compensate only for the mutual reactance (6). Following this idea UHF Tx-arrays are commonly constructed using gapped surface loops (1-3). In this work, based on analytical modeling of the impedance matrix, we optimized the loop geometry and relative positioning to minimize resistive and inductive coupling and constructed an 8-loop overlapped array. Our results show that at 9.4 T overlapping can be successfully used for decoupling of human head transceiver arrays. It also improves Tx and receive (Rx) performance in comparison to gapped arrays. To describe the magnetic, k_m, and electric, k_e, coupling between two rectangular loops placed on a cylindrical surface, we developed a full-wave analytical model based on dyadic Green’s functions (5). Analytical data analysis revealed a strong frequency dependence of k_e and showed that at 400 MHz both k_m and k_e can be cancelled at the same time by overlapping when the loop’s width increased from 8 cm (e.g. as in (2)) to 10.5 cm (Fig.1). In Fig.1 α is the angle between the loop centers. Thus, an optimal choice of loop size and overlap can provide a perfect decoupling of adjacent loops at 9.4 T. Based on this analytical data, we constructed an 8-loop single row (1 x 8) transceiver array (Fig.2) measured 20 cm in width, 23 cm in height, and 10 cm in length. Loop width of 11 cm was required to fit 8 loops on the array holder and also almost perfectly matched our analytical results. Excellent decoupling, i.e. better than -30 dB between adjacent loops and better than -22 dB between all others (Fig.3), was obtained without the need for any additional decoupling strategy. The overlapped array performance was compared to that of a gapped array with the same length and holder size (loop size: 10 cm - length, 8 cm - width). Experimental B₁⁺, SNR (Sum-of-Square), and G-factors maps were obtained using a head and shoulder (HS) phantom (Fig.2) constructed to match tissue properties (ε = 58.6, σ = 0.64 S/m) (1). G-factor maps were obtained using non-accelerated and GRAPPA accelerated gradient echo imaging with acceleration factors (AF) from 1 to 5 and acceleration in the left-to-right (LR) or anterior-to-posterior (AP) directions as described in (1). All data were acquired on a Siemens Magnetom 9.4 T human imaging system. During transmission both arrays were driven in the circular polarized mode with 45º phase shift between the channels. Q_U/Q_L measured from 6.5 to 11 for anterior and posterior loops, respectively.Fig.4 shows experimentally measured B₁⁺, SNR and G-factors maps obtained using gapped and overlapped 8-channel arrays. As seen from Fig.4 overlapping improves both the Tx-performance and SNR. Both B₁⁺ and SNR maps improved by eliminating the voids between the loops (Figs.4A, B). Since at lower fields (< 3 T) overlapping may compromise the parallel Rx-performance we also compared g-factor maps obtained by the two arrays. As an example, Fig.4C shows g-factor maps obtained using both arrays with AF = 3 and acceleration in the LR direction. As seen from Fig.4C and Table1 both arrays produced very similar average g-factor values. The number of overlapped loops can be further extended to 16 in a two-row (2 x 8) array design to improve the longitudinal (along the array axis) coverage.We constructed a 9.4 T (400 MHz) 1x8 overlapped transceiver head array based on the results of the analytical analysis of the coupling between a pair of surface loops. We demonstrated that both the magnetic and electric coupling between the loops can be compensated at the same time simply by overlapping and nearly perfect decoupling (below -30 dB) can be obtained between all adjacent loops without additional decoupling strategies. Tx-efficiency and SNR of the overlapped array was compared favorably to that of a common UHF gapped array of the same dimensions. Parallel Rx-performance was also not compromised due to overlapping.