Patent ID: 8879352
Filing Date: 2014-11-04
Classification: A61B,G01N,G01S

Abstract:
1. A device for obtaining data of a sample, comprising: a light-beam source; an acoustic-wave source comprising an array of multiple point sources of acoustic waves; a parallel plate that is transmissive to a light beam produced by the light-beam source and reflective to acoustic waves produced by the acoustic-wave source, the parallel plate being placed to direct the transmitted light beam and the reflected acoustic waves simultaneously along a first axis to be incident at a situs in or on a sample to cause the sample to produce acoustic echoes from the incident acoustic waves while also producing photoacoustic waves from the incident light beam photoacoustically interacting with the situs; and an acoustic detector array, corresponding to the array of multiple point sources of acoustic waves, placed to receive and detect simultaneously the acoustic echoes and the photoacoustic waves from the situs, thereby producing acoustic-imaging data of an interior of the sample at the situs.