Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) of the human brain has evolved into an indispensable method for mapping functional pathways in the brain, especially in the human visual cortex¹. At ultra-high fields of 7 Tesla and above, the sharp increase in Contrast-to-Noise ratio for blood oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) techniques, most prominently echo planar imaging (EPI), further facilitates this acquisition methodology². High-resolution BOLD imaging also improves by using RF transmit (Tx) and receive (Rx) coils with enhanced sensitivities in the region under investigation i.e the human visual cortex. At the same time, it is equally important to present the subject under investigation with a large field-of-view (FoV) visual stimulus that incorporates both central and peripheral visual fields. To this end, we constructed a 4 channel Tx / 16 channel Rx coil (Visual Arc) at 7 Tesla with the purpose of undertaking sub-millimeter EPI experiments. Here we discuss the relative advantages of using a frontally open, half cylindrical Tx coil array, coupled with a dense phased Rx array optimised for high spatial resolution in the occipital, inferior and medial temporal visual cortex with a large subject FoV. The 7T Visual Arc coil constructed for these experiments consists of a 4 channel phased array half-cylindrical Tx coil, with 16 phased array receiver loops, each ~6 cm in diameter, arranged in a 8x2 matrix that encapsulates the occipital and temporal human visual cortex³ (Figure 1). Data was acquired with the Visual Arc coil and a standard 32-channel whole-head coil (Nova Medical, MA, USA) across 3 healthy subjects at two resolutions: 1.2mm and 0.8mm isotropic. Both RF coils are equipped with viewing mirrors that facilitate visual stimulation; however, the subject Field of View (FoV) is larger on the Visual Arc coil than it is on the Nova. During acquisition, subjects viewed a stimulus that was mirror-projected onto a transluscent screen inside the magnet bore. The stimulus consisted of an alternating pattern of a blank screen with a central red fixation dot for 6 seconds followed by a circular flashing checkerboard pattern for 3 seconds, for a total 18 times in a single run. Results from both coils were coregistered to the anatomical data from the whole-head coil to further aid the coil comparison and analysis. Data was collected on a Siemens MAGNETOM 7T actively shielded system with an SC72 70mT/m gradient coil using the University of Minnesota multi-band (MB) EPI package for GE BOLD EPI at 1.2mm (50 slices, TE=17, TR=2000, PF=6/8, GRAPPA 3, BW= 1488 Hz/Px, no MB) and 0.8mm (31 slices, TR=2000, TE=23, PF=6/8, GRAPPA 3, BW=1102 Hz/Px, no MB) isotropic.The tSNR maps (Figure 2) indicate higher, uniform receive sensitivity for the visual coil at depths that include gyral crowns and sulcal fundi in the cortex at both resolutions (green arrows), as is expected of its smaller receive loop size, with a sharp drop-off further into the sample for both coils. Additionally, the fMRI activation maps (Figure 3) suggest that the Visual Arc coil provides better receive sensitivity along the visual cortex periphery, and aided by a larger subject FoV incorporating both central and peripheral visual fields, we see functional activation deeper into the cortical tissue with the Visual Arc at both 0.8 mm and 1.2 mm isotropic resolutions. The custom built 4 channel Tx / 16 channel Rx coil offers a significant advantage over a standard 32 channel whole head coil when imaging the human occipital and temporal visual cortex. The Tx array allows for flexible B₁⁺ shimming and provides a homogeneous excitation profile in the region of interest. The Rx array allows for a high SNR value with enough penetration depth to image the entire visual cortex region into sulcal depths. Future work would involve incorporating upto 32 receiver loops of smaller diameters and increasing the number of Tx coils in order to achieve more localised brain coverage, higher SNR and increased control over B₁⁺ fields.