High-speed scanning photo-acoustic image input apparatus and control method therefor

An apparatus for acquiring a photoacoustic image by high-speed scanning, that converts a one-directional rotational motion of a drive motor into a linear reciprocating motion of a photoacoustic probe connected to the drive motor and generates an image of an object by scanning the object in two dimensions by the linear motion of the photoacoustic probe and a vertical motion perpendicular to the linear motion, comprising:

• a photoacoustic transmitter/receiver that outputs a laser pulse toward the object using a laser generating section and receives an ultrasound image signal from the object using an ultrasound receiver;
• an analog-to-digital converter that receives the ultrasound image signal and converts the ultrasound image signal into a digital image signal;
• a main controller that receives the digital image signal and generates ultrasound image information on the object;
• and
• a trigger controller that receives motion information of the photoacoustic probe, generates a scanning trigger signal corresponding to the motion information, receives information of the laser pulse output, generates a laser trigger signal corresponding to the laser pulse output, generates an output trigger signal corresponding to the laser trigger signal, and outputs the generated output trigger signal to the analog-to-digital converter,
• wherein the main controller sequentially synthesizes images corresponding to the ultrasound image signals corresponding to the output trigger signals in the unit of a scan line to generate an image of the object.