Development of a Compact Photoacoustic Tomography Imaging System with Dual Single-Element Transducers for Image Enhancement

摘要

Objective:This paper proposes a new photoacoustic computed tomography(PACT)imaging system employing dual ultrasonic transducers with different frequencies.When imaging complex biological tissues,photoacoustic(PA)signals with multiple frequencies are produced simultaneously;however,due to the limited bandwidth of a single-frequency transducer,the received PA signals with specific frequencies may be missing,leading to a low imaging quality.Methods:In contrast to our previous work,the proposed system has a compact volume as well as specific selection of the detection center frequency of the transducer,which can provide a comprehensive range for the detection of PA signals.In this study,a series of numerical simulation and phantom experiments were performed to validate the efficacy of the developed PACT system.Results:The images generated by our system combined the advantages of both high resolution and ideal brightness/contrast.Conclusion:The interchangeability of transducers with different frequencies provides potential for clinical deployment under the circumstance where a single frequency transducer cannot perform well.