Multiple-reference OCT

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Multiple-reference OCT

 Integration of OCT for affordable point-of-care (POC) diagnostic applications and personal-care monitoring should lead to miniature, inexpensive, portable, robust optical instrumentation that is accurate and simple to use. However, the current embodiments of OCT systems are highly expensive, utilize large-form-factor optical design, and require accurate alignment of complex optics, making them impractical for the POC environment.

Our group, in collaboration with Compact Imaging, Inc., has pioneered a low-cost, compact OCT modality called Multiple-reference OCT (MR-OCT). MR-OCT system utilizes a miniature optical delay, which utilizes a single miniature actuator (like a piezoelectric transducer or voice coil or vertical scanning MEMS) and a partial mirror to generate the recirculating optical delay for extended axial-scan range. MR-OCT technology promises to fit into a robust, cost-effective design: the platform can be largely solid-state and can be implemented by the optics and assembly technology used for the production of CD/DVD-ROM pick-up head technology.