Agfa Healthcare Nv

Rainer Scheunemann

Rainer Nebosis

Edgar-Gerald Kopp

The invention relates to a system for optical coherence tomography having an interferometer () which has a beam splitter (), a reflector (), an illumination arm (), a specimen arm () and a reference arm (). In order to increase the compactness of the system with at the same time a high image quality a specimen objective is provided in the specimen arm () of the interferometer () by means of which light is focussed into a focus lying in or on the specimen (). Moreover, in the reference arm () of the interferometer () a reference objective is provided by means of which light is focussed onto the reflector (). The optical properties of the specimen objective differ from the optical properties of the reference objective.

System for optical coherence tomography with different optical properties of specimen and reference objectives

The invention relates to a system and a corresponding method for optical coherence tomography having at least one interferometer for emitting light with which a specimen is irradiated, a specimen arm comprising a specimen objective by means of which light emitted by the interferometer is focused in a focus lying within the specimen, a detector for collecting light which is reflected by the specimen, and a control unit for controlling the system such that during the collection alight, which is respectively reflected at different depths of the specimen, the imaging properties of the specimen objective are changed.

System and method for focus tracking optical coherence tomography

The invention relates to a system and to a corresponding method for optical coherence tomography having an interferometer () for emitting light with which a specimen () is irradiated, the interferometer () comprising a beam splitter () and at least one reflector () the optical distance (I) of which from the beam splitter () is changeable, and a detector () which has a plurality of detector elements arranged in an area by means of which the light which is reflected by the specimen () is collected. In order to simplify and speed up the recording of three-dimensional images of the specimen () provision is made such that the optical distance (I) between the reflector () and the beam splitter () is changed by an optical path (L) which is substantially greater than an average wavelength (&#x3bb;) of light () which is injected into the interferometer (): L&#x3e;&#x3e;&#x3bb;, during the change of the optical distance (I) between the reflector () and the beam splitter () by the optical path (L) the light reflected by the specimen () being collected a number of times by the detector elements of the detector (), by means of which the light reflected by a number of two-dimensional sections at different depths of the specimen () is collected.

System and method for optical coherence tomography

The invention relates to a system and to a corresponding method for optical coherence tomography having an interferometer () which has a beam splitter (), a first reflector () and a reflector () the optical distance (I) of which from the beam splitter () is changeable by a speed (v), and a detector () for collecting light which is reflected by a specimen () to be examined. In order to reduce the times required for the most reliable possible recording of interference patterns, provision is made such that the intensity of the light (or) injected into the interferometer () or emitted by the interferometer () is modulated with a modulation frequency (f) which is not equal to the Doppler frequency (f), the Doppler frequency (f) being given by twice the ratio of the speed (v) of the change of the optical distance (I) between the reflector () and the beam splitter () to the average wavelength (&#x3bb;) of the injected light ():=2.

The invention relates to a system and to a corresponding method for optical coherence tomography having an interferometer () for emitting light with which a specimen () is irradiated, the interferometer () comprising a beam splitter () and at least one reflector () the optical distance (I) of which from the beam splitter () is changeable, a specimen objective by means of which light emitted by the interferometer () is focussed in a focus lying within the specimen (), and a detector () for collecting light which is reflected by the specimen (). For simpler and quicker recording of the sharpest possible images of the specimen () provision is made such that during a change of the optical distance (I) between the reflector () and the beam splitter () the light respectively reflected at a number of different depths of the specimen () is collected by the detector (), and during the collection of the light respectively reflected at the different depths of the specimen () the imaging properties of the specimen objective are changed such that the focus comes within the range of the respective depth of the specimen ().

System and method for optical coherence tomography and method for calibrating said type of system

The invention relates to a system and to a corresponding method for optical coherence tomography having a light source () for producing light (), a first interferometer (), a second interferometer () and an optical fiber () by means of which light emitted by the first interferometer () is conveyed to the second interferometer (). For simpler and more efficient injection of the light emitted by the first interferometer () into the optical fiber () provision is made such that light is injected into the first interferometer () which has a first number of transversal modes, and the optical fiber () has at least one multi-mode fiber into which the light passing out of the first interferometer () is injected such that in the optical fiber () a second number of transversal modes is stimulated which is conveyed to the second interferometer (), the second number of transversal modes being substantially greater than the first number of transversal modes.

System and method for optical coherence tomography with spectrally modulated light injected into optical fibre

The invention relates to a system and to a corresponding method for optical coherence tomography having an interferometer () and a detector system () which comprises a detector () for collecting the light reflected by a specimen () to be examined and has a sensitivity to the light reflected by the specimen (). In order to reduce the times required for the most reliable possible recording of interference signals provision is made such that the sensitivity of the detector system () to the light reflected by the specimen () and impinging on the detector () is modulated with a modulation frequency.

System and method for optical coherence tomography with modulated detector sensitivity

The invention relates to a system for optical coherence tomography having an interferometer (), a detector () with a first number of detector elements for collecting light, and an optical fiber () with a second number of individual fibers for transmitting light from the interferometer () to the detector (). In order to increase the compactness of the system with at the same time high image quality provision is made such that the detector elements have a first center-center distance and the individual fibers have a second center-center distance, the first center-center distance between the detector elements being greater than the second center-center distance between the individual fibers.

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Munich, Germany

Rainer Scheunemann