Data acquisition system for photoacoustic systems

Abstract

Medical devices are rapidly becoming portable and mobile. The end user anticipates that the devices would be simple to manage and run within arm's reach. On similar lines, we developed a portable data acquisition system-based sensing/monitoring device for the photoacoustic technique. In this technique, the Photoacoustic effect makes it possible to image opaque systems, especially biological samples and to analyze their conditions, deformities, and so on. In the context of Photoacoustic Instrumentation, a single photodetector based prototype photoacoustic scanner was incontestable to be a hit in early photoacoustic studies. Although imaging speed, system cost, and resolution are greatly enhanced, this type of traditional photoacoustic system is effective for collecting signals from a single sensor. But for imaging applications, it is essential to use multiple sensors at different locations in order to generate tomographical images. However, the biggest challenge is that for multiple sensors around the sample, we need multiple acquisition systems which makes the system bulky and also very expensive. Another challenge that comes with multiple acquisition systems is the difficulty to do online signal processing. Therefore, there is a strong need to build a low-cost data acquisition system that is compact especially to replace those oscilloscopes. Hence, a low-cost portable data acquisition system-based photoacoustic sensing/monitoring system has been proposed in the project to overcome the above-stated challenges. The thesis discusses a detailed description of the proposed setup and its components. Lastly, applications of photoacoustic imaging are also discussed. The applications include both biomedical and non biomedical applications.