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Scanning thermoacoustic tomography in biological tissue
Author(s) -
Ku Geng,
Wang Lihong V.
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
medical physics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.473
H-Index - 180
eISSN - 2473-4209
pISSN - 0094-2405
DOI - 10.1118/1.598984
Subject(s) - ultrasonic sensor , transducer , thermoacoustics , acoustics , signal (programming language) , thermoelastic damping , microwave , tomography , materials science , perpendicular , electromagnetic acoustic transducer , optics , ultrasonic testing , physics , thermal , computer science , geometry , mathematics , quantum mechanics , meteorology , programming language
Microwave‐induced thermoacoustic tomography was explored to image biological tissue. Short microwave pulses irradiated tissue to generate acoustic waves by thermoelastic expansion. The microwave‐induced thermoacoustic waves were detected with a focused ultrasonic transducer. Each time‐domain signal from the ultrasonic transducer represented a one‐dimensional image along the acoustic axis of the ultrasonic transducer similar to an ultrasonic A‐scan. Scanning the system perpendicularly to the acoustic axis of the ultrasonic transducer would generate multi‐dimensional images. Two‐dimensional tomographic images of biological tissue were obtained with 3‐GHz microwaves. The axial and lateral resolutions were characterized. The time‐domain piezo‐electric signal from the ultrasonic transducer in response to the thermoacoustic signal was simulated theoretically, and the theoretical result agreed with the experimental result very well.