A Numerical Analysis of Semi-dry Coupling Methodology in the Application of HorizontalPhotoacoustic Brain Imaging

The Photo-acoustic imaging methodology containsultrasonic transducers that utilize an acoustic couplant layer.Transmission from an ultrasonic sensor is best receivedwith a couplant to minimize degradation and signal loss,such as gaps or air bubbles. In the application of horizontalphoto-acoustic brain imaging, water is commonly used as acouplant for ultrasonic transducers due to its acousticproperties. The most important challenge of using water iscontact with the infant’s head and its discomfort for thepatient. In this study, based on the finite element method(FEM) we explored the feasibility of the patented semi-drycoupling methodology, including a thin layer of Aqualeneas the dry couplant with water inside of it, to be used inphotoacoustic computed tomography (PACT) systems.