Simulations and phantom measurements are used to evaluate the ability of time-domain diffuse optical tomography using Mellin-Laplace transforms to quantify the absorption perturbation of centimetric objects immersed at depth 1-2 cm in turbid media. We find that the estimated absorption coefficient varies almost linearly with the absorption change in the range of 0-0.15 cm but is underestimated by a factor that depends on the inclusion depth (~2, 3 and 6 for depths of 1.0, 1.5 and 2.0 cm respectively). For larger absorption changes, the variation is sublinear with ~20% decrease for δμ = 0.37 cm. By contrast, constraining the absorption change to the actual volume of the inclusion may considerably improve the accuracy and linearity of the reconstructed absorption.

Abstract. Silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) have been very recently introduced as the most promising detectors in the field of diffuse optics, in particular due to the inherent low cost and large active area. We also demonstrate the suitability of SiPMs for time-domain diffuse optical tomography (DOT). The study is based on both simulations and experimental measurements. Results clearly show excellent performances in terms of spatial localization of an absorbing perturbation, thus opening the way to the use of SiPMs for DOT, with the possibility to conceive a new generation of low-cost and reliable multichannel tomographic systems. © The Authors. Published by SPIE under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. Distribution or reproduction of this work in whole or in part requires full attribution of the original publication, including its DOI.