Design of optoacoustic imaging system for deep penetration medical diagnostics

Abstract

This final year project focuses on optoacoustic imaging, namely, acoustic resolution photoacoustic microscopy (AR-PAM). It is a non-invasive method to get high-resolution images deep within biological tissue so that diseases such as early-stage cancer can be detected. As it is still relatively new, there is a lot of room for improvement in terms of both hardware and software implementation. Optoacoustic imaging blends the merits of both optical imaging as well as acoustic imaging, resulting in much higher resolution and contrast being captured as compared to a single imaging modality alone. In this thesis, the design of an optoacoustic imaging circuit and system is studied and implemented. The findings from in-vivo animal experiments are also presented. The raw images derived from these experiments are then made to have higher resolution using algorithms and MATLAB software