Abstract

Optical coherence microscopy (OCM) is an interferometric technique that combines principles of confocal microscopy and optical coherence tomography (OCT) to obtain high-resolution en face images. Axial and lateral resolutions of several microns can be achieved using OCM depending on the numerical aperture (NA) of the objective and sample properties. We address the computational complexity that is inherent in spectral-domain OCM systems that limits its real-time capability as a microscope. An architecture that will improve the efficiency of the computation involved is presented. Currently, spectral-domain OCM images are obtained by individually taking the Fourier transform of each axial scan in cross-sectional frames and computationally slicing them to generate en face images. The real-time architecture presented here relies on the fact that only one Fourier domain point of a given axial scan needs to be computed rather than computing all the Fourier domain points, which can frequently require a significant amount of time to compute. This new realization has been shown to reduce the processing time to obtain the en face OCM images by a factor of 30.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number044013
JournalJournal of biomedical optics
Volume13
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - 2008

Keywords

  • en face image
  • numerical aperture
  • optical coherence microscopy
  • optical coherence tomography

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Biomedical Engineering
  • Biomaterials
  • Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials
  • Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'High-speed processing architecture for spectral-domain optical coherence microscopy'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this