To increase granularity in human neuroimaging science, we designed and built a next-generation 7 Tesla magnetic resonance imaging scanner to reach ultra-high resolution by implementing several advances in hardware. To improve spatial encoding and increase the image signal-to-noise ratio, we developed a head-only asymmetric gradient coil (200 mT m^(-1), 900 T m^(-1)s^(-1)) with an additional third layer of windings. We integrated a 128-channel receiver system with 64- and 96-channel receiver …