The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Mar. 23, 2004
Filed:
Jul. 01, 2002
Michael J. Mandella, San Jose, CA (US);
Mark H. Garrett, Morgan Hill, CA (US);
Gordon S. Kino, Stanford, CA (US);
Optical Biopsy Technologies, Inc., San Jose, CA (US);
Abstract
This invention provides an angled-dual-axis optical coherence scanning microscope comprising a fiber-coupled, high-speed angled-dual-axis confocal scanning head and a vertical scanning unit. The angled-dual-axis confocal scanning head is configured such that an illumination beam and an observation beam intersect optimally at an angle &thgr; within an object and the scanning is achieved by pivoting the illumination and observation beams jointly using a high-speed scanning element. The vertical scanning unit causes the angled-dual-axis confocal scanning head to move towards or away from the object, thereby yielding a vertical cross-section scan of the object, while keeping the optical path lengths of the illumination and observation beams unchanged. By incorporating MEMS scanning mirrors and fiber-optic components, the angled-dual-axis optical coherence scanning microscope of the present invention can be miniaturized to provide a particularly powerful tool for in vivo medical imaging applications.