The restricted temporal resolution of photoacoustic imaging due to limited frame rates often prohibits its applications in areas such as real-time 3D imaging. This paper presents an ultrasound/photoacoustic multimodality imaging system that provides an ultrafast frame rate and consists of an ultrasound transducer array with plane wave excitation and a laser with pulse repetition frequency up to 2,000 Hz. Its application to real-time 3D photoacoustic imaging is demonstrated and a synthetic-aperture focusing technique is applied to improve the elevational focusing quality of the mechanically-scanned 1D array. A 3D frame rate of 12 Hz in a volume covering a 19.2 mm × 19.2 mm scanning surface is demonstrated.
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