Optics: measuring and testing – By light interference – Using fiber or waveguide interferometer
Reexamination Certificate
2008-06-17
2008-06-17
Connolly, Patrick (Department: 2877)
Optics: measuring and testing
By light interference
Using fiber or waveguide interferometer
Reexamination Certificate
active
07388672
ABSTRACT:
An interferometer configured for use in optical coherence domain (OCT) reflectometry systems is disclosed. In the preferred embodiments, efficient routing of light and a balanced detection arrangement provide a high signal to noise ratio. In a first set of embodiments, a 3×3 coupler is used to split light along separate sample and reference paths and also for combining light returning from those paths and supplying the interfered collected light to the detection system. In an alternate set of embodiments, a pair of cascaded 2×2 couplers provides a similar function. The interferometer can be used with various OCT modalities including time-domain and frequency domain approaches.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5268738 (1993-12-01), Baney et al.
patent: 5321501 (1994-06-01), Swanson et al.
patent: 5459570 (1995-10-01), Swanson et al.
patent: 5491524 (1996-02-01), Hellmuth et al.
patent: 5956355 (1999-09-01), Swanson et al.
patent: 6134003 (2000-10-01), Tearney et al.
patent: 6175669 (2001-01-01), Colston et al.
patent: 6198540 (2001-03-01), Ueda et al.
patent: 6282011 (2001-08-01), Tearney et al.
patent: 6384915 (2002-05-01), Everett et al.
patent: 6608717 (2003-08-01), Medford et al.
patent: 6657727 (2003-12-01), Izatt et al.
patent: 6687008 (2004-02-01), Peale et al.
patent: 7126693 (2006-10-01), Everett et al.
patent: 7256894 (2007-08-01), Chen et al.
patent: 7330270 (2008-02-01), O'Hara et al.
patent: 2003/0156296 (2003-08-01), Englund et al.
patent: 2004/0239938 (2004-12-01), Izatt
patent: 2004/0239943 (2004-12-01), Izatt et al.
patent: 2005/0213103 (2005-09-01), Everett et al.
patent: 2006/0093276 (2006-05-01), Bouma et al.
patent: 2007/0076217 (2007-04-01), Baker et al.
patent: 44 03 929 (1995-08-01), None
patent: 1 253 398 (2002-10-01), None
B.E. Bouma et al., “Power-efficient nonreciprocal interferometer and linear-scanning fiber-optic catheter for optical coherence tomography,”Optics Letters,vol. 24, No. 8, Apr. 15, 1999, pp. 531-533.
J.G. Fujimoto, “Optical coherence tomography for ultrahigh resolution in vivo imaging,”Nature Biotechnology,vol. 21, No. 11, Nov. 2003, pp. 1361-1367.
J.G. Fujimoto et al., “Optical Coherence Tomography: An Emerging Technology for Biomedical Imaging and Optical Biopsy,”Neoplasia,vol. 2, Nos. 1-2, Jan.-Apr. 2000, pp. 9-25.
D. Huang, et al., “Optical Coherence Tomography,”Science,vol. 254, No. 5035, Nov. 22, 1991, pp. 1178-1181.
K. Takada, “Noise in Optical Low-Coherence Reflectometry,”IEEE Journal of Quantum Electronics,vol. 34, No. 7, Jul. 1998, pp. 1098-1108.
M.A. Choma et al., “Instantaneous quadrature low-coherence interferometry with 3×3 fiber-optic couplers,”Optics Letters,vol. 28, No. 22, Nov. 15, 2003, pp. 2162-2164.
A.M. Rollins et al., “Optimal interferometer designs for optical coherence tomography,”Optics Letters,vol. 24, No. 21, Nov. 1, 1999, pp. 1484-1486.
M.C. Tomic et al., “Low-coherence interferometric method for measurement of displacement based on a 3×3 fibre-optic directional coupler,”Journal of Optics A: Pure and Applied Optics,vol. 4, (2002), pp. S381-S386.
M.V. Sarunic et al., “Instantaneous complex spectral domain OCT using 3×3 fiber couplers,”Proceedings of SPIE—Coherence Domain Optical Methods and Optical Coherence Tomography in Biomedicine VIII(Bellingham, WA), vol. 5316, (2004), pp. 241-247.
A.M. Rollins et al., “Emerging Clinical Applications of Optical Coherence Tomography,”Optics and Photonics News,vol. 13, No. 4, Apr. 2002, pp. 36-41.
J.M. Schmitt, “Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT): A Review”IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics,vol. 5, No. 4, Jul./Aug. 1999, pp. 1205-1215.
W.V. Sorin et al., “A Simple Intensity Noise Reduction Technique for Optical Low-Coherence Reflectometry,”IEEE Photonics Technology Letters,vol. 4, No. 12, Dec. 1992, pp. 1404-1406.
E. A. Swanson et al., “Optical Coherence Tomography, Principles, Instrumentation, and Biological Applications,”Biomedical Optical Instrumentation and Laser-Assisted Biotechnology,A. M. Verga Scheggi et al. (eds.) pp. 291-303, 1996 Kluwer Academic Publishers, Printed in the Netherlands.
R.C. Youngquist et al., “Optical coherence-domain reflectometry: a new optical evaluation technique,”Optics Letters,vol. 12, No. 3, Mar. 1987, pp. 158-160.
S. Yazdanfar et al., “Self-referenced Doppler optical coherence tomography,”Optics Letters,vol. 27, No. 23, pp. 2085-2087.
Everett Matthew J.
Hacker Martin
Zhou Yan
Carl Ziess Meditec, Inc.
Connolly Patrick
Richey Scott M
Stallman & Pollock LLP
LandOfFree
High efficiency balanced detection interferometer does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with High efficiency balanced detection interferometer, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and High efficiency balanced detection interferometer will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2804758