Development and Validation of Robust and Cost-Effective Liquid Heterogeneous Phantom for Time Domain Near-Infrared Optical Tomography

• DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-14190-4_33
• Publication Date: 2022-12-17T07:03:09Z
• Authors: A. Kalyanov; J. Jiang; E. Russomanno; M. Ackermann; A. Di Costanzo Mata; R. Mindel; L. Miller; M. Wolf
• Keywords: Diffuse optical imaging

Diffused light imaging techniques, such as near-infrared optical tomography (NIROT), require a stable platform for testing and validation that imitates tissue optical properties. The aim of this work was to build a robust, but flexible liquid phantom for BORL time-domain NIROT system Pioneer. The phantom was designed to assess penetration depth and resolution of the system, and to provide a heterogeneous inner structure that can be changed in controllable manner with adjustable optical properties. We used only in-house produced 3D-printed elements and mechanics of a budget 3D-printer to build the phantom, and managed to keep the overall costs below $500. We achieved stable and repeatable movement of an arbitrary structure in 3+1 degree of freedom inside the phantom and demonstrated its performance in a series of tests. Thus, we presented a universal and cost-effective solution for testing NIROT, that can be easily customised to various systems or testing paradigms.