Compact optical link acquisition for high-speed optoacoustic imaging

Optoacoustic tomography (OAT) is rapidly becoming an important tool in biological and clinical research. Current OAT system implementations commonly feature bulky and expensive hardware impeding wide-scale adoption. We introduce LightSpeed: a compact, high-speed, low-cost and configurable 3D optoacoustic imager based on an optical-link software-defined acquisition platform and fiber-coupled laser diode illumination. We demonstrate real-time imaging capability of the LightSpeed system by fast handheld scanning of human vasculature. LightSpeed attains image quality comparable to conventional data acquisition electronics at a fraction of hardware costs and significantly faster frame rates. It is then poised to result in new generation compact and high-performance handheld OAT scanners facilitating clinical translation.