Instrumentation for the accurate measurement of phase and amplitude in optical tomography

Abstract

A single-channel prototype for a frequency-domain optical tomography system is presented. The two main goals in the design of the system were the measurement of phase with minimal systematic errors and a high enough signal-to-noise ratio to detect the small changes in the absorption of brain tissue during brain activity. Although the system inherently is an imaging system, the aspects of the system that relate to multichannel operation will be published separately, as this part of the system is not yet finished. The instrument is described in detail, including the radio-frequency system, the light detection system, and the light source. Factors that affect the accuracy of the measured phase include phase drift, radio-frequency coupling between the source and detector electronics, phase-amplitude cross talk, and others. To increase the range of intensities that can be measured, the gain of the detector is adjusted while keeping the mean anode current small compared with the quiescent current through the voltage bleeder of the photomultiplier tube so that cross talk is avoided. The calibration of the measurements is considered, and the data measured on a phantom are compared with a time-resolved instrument as well as with a finite-element forward model. The instrument allows the measurement of phase to an accuracy of 0.5° between 80 fW and 80 nW at a modulation frequency of 100 MHz, giving a dynamic range of 1:106. With a time constant of 0.3 s, phase noise is 0.5° at 1 pW and decreases to 0.06° in a typical activation measurement at 3 cm separation between the optodes. Amplitude noise is 0.8% at 1 pW and 0.1% at 3 cm separation.