Coherence-Weighted Synthetic Focusing Applied to Photoacoustic Imaging Using a High-Frequency Annular-Array Transducer

This paper presents an adaptive synthetic-focusing scheme that, when applied to photoacoustic (PA) data acquired using an annular array, improves focusing across a greater imaging depth and enhances spatial resolution. The imaging system was based on a 40-MHz, 5-element, annular-array transducer with a focal length of 12 mm and an 800-µm diameter hole through its central element to facilitate coaxial delivery of 532-nm laser. The transducer was raster-scanned to facilitate 3D acquisition of co-registered ultrasound and PA image data. Three synthetic-focusing schemes were compared for obtaining PA A-lines for each scan location: delay-and-sum (DAS), DAS weighted with a coherence factor (DAS + CF), and DAS weighted with a sign-coherence factor (DAS + SCF). Bench-top experiments that used an 80-µm hair were performed to assess the enhancement provided by the two coherence-based schemes. Both coherence-based schemes increased the signal-to-noise ratio by approximately 10 dB. When processed using the DAS-only scheme, the lateral dimension of the hair in a PA image with 20 dB dynamic range was between 300 µm and 1 mm for imaging depth ranging from 8 to 20 mm. In comparison, the DAS + CF scheme resulted in a lateral dimension of 200 to 450 µm over the same range. The DAS + SCF synthetic focusing further improved the smallest-resolvable dimension, which was between 150 and 400 µm over the same range of imaging depth. When used on PA data obtained from a 12-day-old mouse embryo, the DAS + SCF processing improved visualization of neurovasculature.