Photoacoustic tomography based on a novel linear array ultrasound transducer configuration

Photoacoustic tomography has the unique capability of visualizing optical absorption in deep tissues up to several centimeters, while still maintaining high acoustic spatial resolution. However, the linear array based photoacoustic tomography suffers from the limited view challenge due to its finite aperture size, so the quality of the reconstructed image will be degraded by the limited-view artifacts. In this paper, a feasible solution of photoacoustic imaging configuration based on a novel extended linear array transducer was carried out. In the simulation, the multi-view extended arrays were placed at 60 degree to optimize the proposed configuration. The extended geometry of linear array transducer was experimentally calibrated first and then this setup was used to conduct the corresponding multi-view photoacoustic experiment. Both the simulation and experiment results verified this multi-view extended aperture could address the limited view problem and this method had the potential to provide the approximate full view image quality. In addition, the resolution was also enhanced due to the spatially compounding. The feasibility of this configuration will be further investigated in the small animal whole body photoacoustic tomography.