Parallel optical coherence tomography system using an integrated photonic device

An integrated photonic chip for parallel optical coherence tomography (OCT) scanning, the photonic chip comprising:

• an optical input port configured to receive a singular input beam from a light source;
• a plurality of optical output ports configured to transmit a plurality of sampling beams from the chip to a sample and to receive a plurality of reflected sampling beams from the sample;
• a first branched waveguide structure comprising a Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) arm, a reference arm, and a sampling arm, the first branched waveguide configured to divide the incident singular beam into an MZI input beam transmitted by the MZI arm, a reference input beam transmitted by the reference arm, and a sampling input beam transmitted by the sampling arm;
• an MZI waveguide structure configured to receive the MZI input beam and to generate MZI interference signals indicative of a phase of the input beam;
• a multiple branched waveguide structure comprising a plurality of interconnected waveguide channels formed in a substrate of the photonic chip, the waveguide channels defining a splitter region configured to optically couple sampling input beam of the sample arm to each of the output ports and an interferometer region configured to define a plurality of photonic interferometers, wherein the photonic interferometers are arranged to receive a reference light and a plurality of reflected light signals returned from the sample, the photonic interferometers being configured and operable to combine the reflected light signals with the reference light to produce a plurality of OCT interference signals which are emitted to an array of OCT output ports;
• a pair of MZI output ports operatively coupled to the MZI waveguide structure, the MZI port configured to deliver the MZI interference signals to at least one balanced detector;
• and
• the array of OCT output ports operatively coupled to the photonic interferometers, the array of OCT output ports configured to deliver the OCT interference signals to an array of balanced detectors.

An integrated photonic chip for parallel optical coherence tomography (OCT) scanning, the photonic chip comprising:

• an optical input port configured to receive a singular input beam from a light source;
• a plurality of optical output ports configured to transmit a plurality of sampling beams from the chip to a sample and to receive a plurality of reflected sampling beams from the sample;
• a first branched waveguide structure comprising a reference arm and a sampling arm, the first branched waveguide configured to divide the incident singular beam into a reference input beam transmitted by the reference arm and a sampling input beam transmitted by the sampling arm;
• a multiple branched waveguide structure comprising a plurality of interconnected waveguide channels formed in a substrate of the photonic chip, the waveguide channels defining a splitter region configured to optically couple sampling input beam of the sample arm to each of the output ports and an interferometer region configured to define a plurality of photonic interferometers, wherein the photonic interferometers are arranged to receive a reference light and a plurality of reflected light signals returned from the sample, the photonic interferometers being configured and operable to combine the reflected light signals with the reference light to produce a plurality of OCT interference signals which are emitted to an array of OCT output ports;
• the array of OCT output ports operatively coupled to the photonic interferometers, the array of OCT output ports configured to deliver the OCT interference signals to an array of balanced detectors;
• and
• an array of balanced photodetectors integrated between the plurality of photonic interferometers and the array of OCT output ports.