Imaging apparatus

An imaging apparatus comprising:

• a light source configured to emit light while sweeping a wavelength of the light;
• an interference unit configured to split the light emitted from the light source into illumination light that is incident on a fundus and reference light and to generate interference light obtained by reflection light reflected from the fundus on which the illumination light is incident interfering with the reference light;
• a scan unit configured to scan the illumination light across the fundus;
• a detector configured to detect the interference light generated by the interference unit;
• a converter configured to convert an analog signal generated from the interference light detected by the detector into a digital signal;
• a clock generator configured as an interferometer including an optical path through which part of the light emitted from the light source passes, the optical path being split into a first optical path and a second optical path having an optical path length difference relative to the first optical path, to generate a clock used by the converter sampling the analog signal;
• and
• a processor including a tomographic image obtaining unit configured to obtain a tomographic image of the fundus by using the digital signal converted from the analog signal sampled by the converter in accordance with the generated clock, wherein
• the scan unit is configured to scan the illumination light across the fundus over a scan angle equal to or larger than 47 degrees in air,
• the tomographic image obtaining unit is configured to obtain a tomographic image of the fundus at a distance equal to or larger than 4.0 mm within an eyeball in a depth range,
• the second optical path in the clock generator is configured by using a double path, and
• the clock generator is configured so that the optical path length difference is equal to or larger than 11/n mm in air in a case where the generated clock has a frequency n times a frequency of the interferometer corresponding to the optical path length difference, n being an integer equal to or larger than 1.

An imaging apparatus comprising:

• a light source configured to emit light while sweeping a wavelength of the light;
• an interference unit configured to split the light emitted from the light source into illumination light that is incident on a fundus and reference light and to generate interference light obtained by reflection light reflected from the fundus on which the illumination light is incident interfering with the reference light;
• a scan unit configured to scan the illumination light across the fundus;
• a detector configured to detect the interference light generated by the interference unit;
• a converter configured to convert an analog signal generated from the interference light detected by the detector into a digital signal;
• a clock generator configured as an interferometer including an optical path through which part of the light emitted from the light source passes, the optical path being split into a first optical path and a second optical path having an optical path length difference relative to the first optical path, to generate a clock used by the converter sampling the analog signal;
• and
• a processor comprising a tomographic image obtaining unit configured to obtain a tomographic image of the fundus by using the digital signal converted from the analog signal sampled by the converter in accordance with the generated clock, wherein
• the scan unit is configured to scan the illumination light across the fundus over a scan angle equal to or larger than 47 degrees in air, and
• the tomographic image obtaining unit is configured to obtain a tomographic image of the fundus at a distance equal to or larger than 4.0 mm within an eyeball in a depth range.

An imaging apparatus comprising:

• a light source configured to emit light while sweeping a wavelength of the light;
• an interference unit configured to split the light emitted from the light source into illumination light that is incident on a fundus and reference light and to generate interference light obtained by reflection light reflected from the fundus on which the illumination light is incident interfering with the reference light;
• a detector configured to detect the interference light generated by the interference unit;
• a scan unit configured to scan the illumination light across the fundus;
• a converter configured to convert an analog signal generated from the interference light detected by the detector into a digital signal;
• a clock generator configured to generate a clock used by the converter sampling the analog signal;
• and
• a processor comprising a tomographic image obtaining unit configured to obtain a tomographic image of the fundus by using the digital signal converted from the analog signal sampled by the converter in accordance with the generated clock, wherein
• the scan unit is configured to scan the illumination light across the fundus over a scan angle equal to or larger than 47 degrees in air,
• the tomographic image obtaining unit is configured to obtain a tomographic image of the fundus at a distance equal to or larger than 4.0 mm within an eyeball in a depth range, and
• the clock generator is configured so that the number of times the sampling is performed in a single sampling operation over the depth range of the tomographic image is equal to or larger than 2200.

An imaging apparatus comprising:

• a light source configured to emit light while sweeping a wavelength of the light;
• an interference unit configured to split the light emitted from the light source into illumination light that is incident on a fundus and reference light and to generate interference light obtained by reflection light reflected from the fundus on which the illumination light is incident interfering with the reference light;
• a scan unit configured to scan the illumination light across the fundus;
• a detector configured to detect the interference light generated by the interference unit;
• a converter configured to convert an analog signal generated from the interference light detected by the detector into a digital signal;
• a clock generator configured to generate a clock used by the converter sampling the analog signal;
• and
• a processor comprising a tomographic image obtaining unit configured to obtain a tomographic image of the fundus by using the digital signal converted from the analog signal sampled by the converter in accordance with the generated clock, wherein
• the scan unit is configured to scan the illumination light across the fundus over a scan angle equal to or larger than 47 degrees in air,
• the tomographic image obtaining unit is configured to obtain a tomographic image of the fundus at a distance equal to or larger than 4.0 mm within an eyeball in a depth range, and
• the clock generator is configured so that the clock has a frequency equal to or larger than 500 MHz.

An imaging apparatus comprising:

• a light source configured to emit light while sweeping a wavelength of the light;
• an interference unit configured to split the light emitted from the light source into illumination light that is incident on a fundus and reference light and to generate interference light obtained by reflection light reflected from the fundus on which the illumination light is incident interfering with the reference light;
• a detector configured to detect the interference light generated by the interference unit;
• a converter configured to convert an analog signal generated from the interference light detected by the detector into a digital signal;
• a clock generator configured to generate a clock used by the converter sampling the analog signal;
• and
• a processor comprising a tomographic image obtaining unit configured to obtain a tomographic image of the fundus by using the digital signal converted from the analog signal sampled by the converter in accordance with the generated clock, wherein
• the tomographic image obtaining unit is configured to obtain a tomographic image of the fundus at a distance equal to or larger than 4.0 mm within an eyeball in a depth range, and
• the clock generator is configured to generate the clock having a frequency that corresponds to the distance equal to or larger than 4.0 mm within the eyeball.