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US 11,627,874 B2Granted
Miniaturized mobile, low cost optical coherence tomography system for home based ophthalmic applications
AssigneeAcucela Inc.
InventorsLukas Scheibler, Matthias Pfister, Urban Schnell, Stefan Troller, Ryo Kubota
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Abstract
Improved optical coherence tomography systems and methods to measure thickness of the retina are presented. The systems may be compact, handheld, provide in-home monitoring, allow the patient to measure himself or herself, and be robust enough to be dropped while still measuring the retina reliably.
Claims22
A compact optical coherence tomography (OCT) system to measure a distance between tissue layers of an eye, the compact OCT system comprising:
- a detector;
- a light source configured to generate a light beam comprising a plurality of wavelengths;
- a plurality of optical elements coupled to the light source to direct the light beam into the eye and generate an interference signal at the detector;
- and
- circuitry coupled to the detector and the light source to determine the distance between tissue layers in response to the interference signal,
- wherein the compact OCT system is configured to measure a change in the distance between tissue layers at a precision less than an axial resolution of the compact OCT system, the change in the distance between tissue layers comprising a first thickness at a first time and a second thickness at a second time,
- wherein the light source comprises a vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL) configured to vary an emission wavelength of the light beam over a range from about 5 to 10 nm.
4 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.