Apparatus and methods for detecting optical components and their misalignment in optical coherence tomographic systems
AssigneeCarl Zeiss Meditec AG
InventorsYingjian WANG, Homayoun BAGHERINIA
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Abstract
Systems and methods are presented which allow the detection of the presence, type, and misalignment of optical components in the optical train of an optical coherence tomographic instrument to be determined from the use of OCT depth information.
Claims18
A method of operating an optical coherence tomography (OCT) system to analyze one or more optical components of an OCT system, said OCT system including a light source generating a beam of radiation that is divided along a sample path and a reference path, said system having an adjustable imaging depth wherein a relative optical path length between the reference arm and the sample arm can be changed, said method comprising:
- obtaining OCT measurement data at an imaging depth;
- evaluating the OCT measurement data to detect the presence, the location, or the alignment of the one or more optical components;
- and,
- displaying or storing the results of said evaluation.
A method to identify the correctness of an optical configuration of an optical coherence tomographic system comprising:
- obtaining OCT measurement data of the eye of a patient or that of a model eye;
- identifying one or more surfaces within the OCT measurement data;
- processing said data to determine shape metrics of the identified surfaces;
- comparing the determined shape metrics with normative ranges to determine whether the optical configuration is correct;
- and,
- displaying or storing the results of the comparison.
An optical coherence tomographic (OCT) system for imaging a sample, comprising:
- a light source for generating a beam of light;
- a divider for splitting the beam along separate sample and reference paths;
- optics for directing the light over one or more locations on the sample;
- a detector for receiving interfered light returned from both the sample and reference paths;
- and,
- a processor for analyzing signals generated by the detector, in which said processor locates the presence, locations, and the alignments of one or more optical components of the OCT system based upon said signals.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.