Improvement of a system for 2-D optoacoustic imaging using a deconvolution filter

The detection system for optoacoustic tomography (OAT) usually employs broadband piezoelectric sensors based on polymeric materials. Polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) and its copolymers are amongst the most popular ones. Within our knowledge, the existing reconstruction algorithms for OAT neglect the electrical and mechanical relaxation processes of the polymeric material. In a previous work, it was found that the ultimate limits of the polymeric sensor performance are given by the material properties. In this work a deconvolution filter, that minimizes the distortions introduced by the sensor, was developed based on a parametric model. This filter was used in a reconstruction algorithm based on the backprojection method with simulated signals from an 2-D OAT. The results show that it is possible to obtain a remarkable improvement in the resolution of the image.