US 12,076,116 B2
Sensor for tissue measurements
Rami Shnaiderman, Munich (DE); Georg Michael Wissmeyer, Munich (DE); and Vasilis Ntziachristos, Gräfelfing (DE)
Assigned to TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITÄT MÜNCHEN, Munich (DE)
Appl. No. 16/979,028
Filed by TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITÄT MÜNCHEN, Munich (DE)
PCT Filed Mar. 6, 2019, PCT No. PCT/EP2019/055519
§ 371(c)(1), (2) Date Sep. 8, 2020,
PCT Pub. No. WO2019/170176, PCT Pub. Date Sep. 12, 2019.
Claims priority of application No. 18160940 (EP), filed on Mar. 9, 2018.
Prior Publication US 2021/0052164 A1, Feb. 25, 2021
Int. Cl. A61B 5/00 (2006.01); A61B 5/02 (2006.01); A61B 5/145 (2006.01)
CPC A61B 5/0095 (2013.01) [A61B 5/02007 (2013.01); A61B 5/14542 (2013.01); A61B 5/443 (2013.01); A61B 5/7257 (2013.01)] 27 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A sensor for non-invasive optoacoustic measurements of features of skin or other tissue, the sensor comprising:
a casing adapted and configured to be attached to the epidermis of a person; a light source adapted and configured to simultaneously illuminate an illumination volume of the skin or other tissue once the casing is attached to the epidermis of the person;
one or more ultrasound detectors adapted and configured to detect an ultrasound signal emitted from a common detection volume of the skin or other tissue once the casing is attached to the epidermis of the person, wherein an intersection between the illumination volume and the common detection volume defines an interrogation volume that remains fixed once the casing is attached to the epidermis of the person; and
a processing unit adapted and configured to control the light source and/or the one or more ultrasound detectors, wherein the processing unit is adapted and configured to record the ultrasound signal detected by the one or more ultrasound detectors as a function of time, wherein the processing unit is adapted and configured to analyze the recorded ultrasound signal and wherein said analysis comprises dividing the recorded ultrasound signal into temporal subsections corresponding to different layers of the interrogation volume at different depths, attributing the different layers to different temporal subsections, and using the recorded ultrasound signal of a one of the temporal subsections to modify the recorded ultrasound signal of another one of the temporal subsections.