Volumetric optoacoustic imaging using a T-shaped array - a simulation study

3D optoacoustic imaging requires either mechanical displacement of the probe or the usage of 2D matrix array or even 3D detector geometries. In a simulation study, we investigated the possibility of performing 3D optoacoustic imaging with a T-array geometry consisting of 2 linear sub-arrays in a 90° arrangement. The ability of different reconstruction algorithms (delay and sum beamforming with optional non-linear filtering, model-based reconstruction) to reconstruct point sources was assessed. Our study shows that DAS leads to severe artefacts due to the symmetry of the detector setup. However, using non-linear filtering, the artefacts can be diminished by ~ 18 dB, the resolution can be improved by approximately 50% and point-sources can be adequately reconstructed.