Fabrication and characterization of PVCP human breast tissue-mimicking phantom for photoacoustic imaging

Human tissue-mimicking phantoms are important for characterizing and optimizing ultrasound and photoacoustic imaging systems. We demonstrated the applicability of a polyvinyl chloride plastisol (PVCP) phantom to photoacoustic imaging studies. The acoustic properties of the fabricated PVCP phantom were measured to have a sound speed of 1370 m/s, attenuation coefficient of 0.71 dB/cm/MHz, and acoustic impedance of 1.39 Mrayl. Reduced scattering coefficients, absorption coefficient, and refractive index were obtained, as 1.31 mm -1 , 0.001 mm -1 , and 1.636 at 780 nm by optical measurements, respectively. Therefore, the PVCP phantom was found to be similar enough to human breast tissue in photoacoustic properties.