APPARATUS AND METHODS FOR UNIFORM SAMPLE CLOCKING

• US 20090046295A1
• Filed: 07/14/2008
• Published: 02/19/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 07/12/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Volcano Corporation (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Original Assignee: Volcano Corporation (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Inventors: Milner, Thomas E., Kemp, Nathaniel J., Kuranov, Roman, McElroy, Austin Broderick
• Granted Patent: US 8,049,900 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 356/479
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0066 Optical coherence imaging
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0073 by tomography, i.e. reconstruction of 3D images from 2D projections A61B5/0066 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/6852 Catheters
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7257 using Fourier transforms
• CPC Class Codes: G01B 2290/25 Fabry-Perot in interferometer, e.g. etalon, cavity
• CPC Class Codes: G01B 9/02004 using frequency scans
• CPC Class Codes: G01B 9/02057 by using common path configuration, i.e. reference and object path almost entirely overlapping
• CPC Class Codes: G01B 9/02062 Active error reduction, i.e. varying with time
• CPC Class Codes: G01B 9/02067 by electronic control systems, i.e. using feedback acting on optics or light
• CPC Class Codes: G01B 9/02069 Synchronization of light source or manipulator and detector
• CPC Class Codes: G01B 9/02083 characterised by particular signal processing and presentation
• CPC Class Codes: G01B 9/02091 Tomographic interferometers, e.g. based on optical coherence
• CPC Class Codes: G01M 11/3127 using multiple or wavelength variable input source
• CPC Class Codes: G01M 11/3172 Reflectometers detecting the back-scattered light in the frequency-domain, e.g. OFDR, FMCW, heterodyne detection
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 21/4795 spatially resolved investigating of object in scattering medium in vivo A61B

Abstract

A method and a system for Uniform Frequency Sample Clocking to directly sample the OCT signal with a temporally-non-linear sampling clock derived from a k-space wavemeter on the external sample clock input port of a digitizer.

Claims

1. A clocking method for optical coherence tomography, comprising the steps of coupling a swept source laser to a uniform frequency sample clock pathway and generating a clocking signal corresponding to the swept source laser.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein coupling step further comprises the steps of characterizing the swept laser source, creating a digital representation of the clocking signal by the characterizing step, and generating the clock signal as an output to a digitizer.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising the step of outputting the clock signal for each laser sweep of the swept laser source triggered by an electrical synchronization pulse from the swept source laser output.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising the step of providing at least one waveform to an arbitrary waveform generator and generating the waveform during a triggering event.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the coupling step further comprises coupling an auxiliary wavemeter to the swept source laser and processing an output of the auxiliary wavemeter to generate the clocking signal.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising the step of outputting the clock signal for each laser sweep of the swept laser source triggered by an electrical synchronization pulse from the swept source laser output.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the processing step further comprises a digital processing step.

8. The method of claim 6, further comprising the step of repeatedly outputting the digitally-processed signal by an arbitrary waveform generator.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising the step of collecting an intensity profile of the laser sweep with a sweep detector, shaping the intensity profile with a delay generator, and coupling the shaped intensity profile to a switching circuit.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising the step of coupling the auxiliary wavemeter output to the switching circuit and outputting the clock signal from the electronic switching circuit under a first condition.

11. The method of claim 5, wherein the processing step is an analog processing step.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising the step of coupling the auxiliary wavemeter to a sampling circuit during the limited duty cycle of the swept laser source and deriving the clock signal from a pre-locked voltage controlled oscillator during the non-sweeping segment of each duty cycle.

13. The method of claim 4, wherein the processing step further comprises an analog processing step further comprising coupling the analog processing output to a digitizer, coupling the digitizer output to digital to analog processor to generate the clock signal.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein coupling step further comprises the steps of coupling the swept source laser to a uniform frequency sample clock generator and generate the clocking signal.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the uniform frequency sample clock generator further comprises a gas cell providing a metric on the absolute lasing wavelength at digitized sampling times and an optical wavemeter coupled to a digitizer providing the relationship between the sampling time and lasing wavelength, further comprising determining the wavenumber bias of the swept laser source.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the uniform frequency sample clock generator further comprises a detector channel and a gas cell channel to generate a gas cell pulse, differentiating the gas cell pulse to replace the maximum absorption gas cell lines with a zero crossing voltage, producing a transistor-transitor logic pulse with rising edges corresponding to the central wavelength of the absorption gas cell lines, repeatedly outputting the shape of the laser source sweep, and producing a window pulse to select one of the gas cell pulses.

17. A system for uniform frequency sample clocking comprising:

a. a sampling circuit deriving an external sample clock signal from an auxiliary wavemeter during the limited duty cycle of a tunable laser source and a pre-locked voltage controlled oscillator during the non-sweeping segment of each duty cycle;

b. a phase locked loop to sync the voltage controlled oscillator output with the auxiliary wavemeter output, at which time the external sample clock is switched from the optical wavemeter output to the output of the voltage controlled oscillator, wherein

c. the lock is regained when the laser begins to sweep and the output is switched to the k-space auxiliary wavemeter output.

18. An optical coherence tomographic system comprising:

a. a swept light source including a plurality of fiber optic couplers to subdivide the swept light source into a primary optical coherence tomographic interferometer, and a uniform frequency sample clock pathway to generate a clock signal allowing an acquisition of the optical coherence tomographic signal data directly in the wavenumber (k) space.

19. The optical coherence tomographic system of claim 18, wherein the uniform frequency sample clock pathway comprises an auxiliary wavemeter, and an optical trigger generator;

a. a digitizer coupled to the photoreceiver from the primary optical coherence tomographic interferometer and the photoreceiver from the auxiliary wavemeter;

wherein the external clock derived from the auxiliary wavemeter is regenerated by an arbitrary waveform generator to allow the acquisition of optical coherence tomographic signal data directly in the wavenumber (k) space.

20. The optical coherence tomographic system of claim 18, wherein the uniform frequency sample clock pathway comprises a signal interferometer, a reference interferometer, a clocking interferometer, and a spectrally fixed trigger,

a. the interference fringe of the single interferometer and the interference fringe of the reference interferometer are coupled to a digitizer;

b. the interference fringe of the clocking interferometer is coupled to an analog processor to serve as the external clock signal; and

c. spectrally fixed trigger includes a gas cell and single detector, wherein the gas cell forms at least one narrowband TTL pulse and the pulse is selected using a time window produced by the single channel detector to serve as the spectrally fixed trigger for the digitizer.