This work presents spatially compounded plane wave imaging using a laser-induced ultrasound source. The plane wave source consisted of a 30 μm thick film of carbon black-doped PDMS cured on a 100 μm thick polyester substrate and presented a rectangular aperture of 40 × 3 mm. It was placed in front of a linear ultrasound array, passing through the imaging plane allowing overlap of the detection plane and the insonification plane. Illumination was provided by an array of optical fibre bundles placed above the imaging plane, at an angle. We will first present the general imaging set up and instrumentation used, after which details are given on the fabrication of the transmitter itself and on the objects that were imaged. Comparing laser-induced and conventional ultrasound images of wire phantoms shows the point-spread-function to be, in general, slightly better laterally in the conventional case but more homogeneous throughout the imaging plane with the laser-induced source. Imaging of a tissue-mimicking phantom shows a 55% improvement in contrast between a tumour and the background when using laser-induced ultrasound, as compared to the conventional case.

这项工作提出了使用激光诱导超声源的空间复合平面波成像。平面波源由30微米厚的碳黑掺杂PDMS薄膜组成，该薄膜在100微米厚的聚酯基板上固化，呈现40×3毫米的矩形孔径。它放置在线性超声阵列的前面，穿过成像平面，从而使检测平面和超声检查平面重叠。通过成角度放置在成像平面上方的光纤束阵列提供照明。我们将首先介绍所使用的一般成像设置和仪器，然后详细介绍变送器本身的制造以及成像对象。比较线模的激光诱导图像和常规超声图像，可以发现点扩散函数通常为 在常规情况下，在横向上稍好一些，但是在整个成像平面上，使用激光诱导的光源更加均匀。与常规情况相比，模拟组织幻像的成像显示，使用激光诱导的超声时，肿瘤与背景之间的对比度提高了55％。