Center for Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering, Medical University of Vienna, 1090, Vienna, Austria.
AIT Austrian Institute of Technology GmbH, 1210, Vienna, Austria.
Sci Rep. 2021 Oct 26;11(1):21052. doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-00637-4.
Photonic integrated circuits (PIC) provide promising functionalities to significantly reduce the size and costs of optical coherence tomography (OCT) systems. This paper presents an imaging platform operating at a center wavelength of 830 nm for ophthalmic application using PIC-based swept source OCT. An on-chip Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) configuration, which comprises an input power splitter, polarization beam splitters in the sample and the reference arm, and a 50/50 coupler for signal interference represents the core element of the system with a footprint of only [Formula: see text]. The system achieves 94 dB imaging sensitivity with 750 [Formula: see text]W on the sample, 50 kHz imaging speed and 5.5 [Formula: see text]m axial resolution (in soft tissue). With this setup, in vivo human retinal imaging of healthy subjects was performed producing B-scans, three-dimensional renderings as well as OCT angiography. These promising results are significant prerequisites for further integration of optical and electronic building blocks on a single swept source-OCT PIC.
光子集成电路(PIC)为大幅减小光学相干断层扫描(OCT)系统的尺寸和成本提供了有前景的功能。本文提出了一种基于 PIC 的扫频源 OCT 眼科应用成像平台,其中心波长为 830nm。系统的核心元件是片上马赫-曾德尔干涉仪(MZI)结构,仅占[Formula: see text]的面积,它包括输入功率分配器、样品和参考臂中的偏振分束器,以及用于信号干涉的 50/50 耦合器。该系统在样品上实现了 94dB 的成像灵敏度,具有 750[Formula: see text]W 的 50kHz 成像速度和 5.5[Formula: see text]m 的轴向分辨率(在软组织中)。使用该设置,对健康受试者进行了体内人视网膜成像,生成了 B 扫描、三维渲染以及 OCT 血管造影。这些有前景的结果是进一步将光学和电子构建模块集成到单个扫频源-OCT PIC 上的重要前提。