Towards low cost multiple reference optical coherence tomography for in vivo and NDT applications
Abstract
Developing a cost-effective, compact, and easy-to-use optical coherence tomography (OCT) platform based on smartphones for personal care and point-of-care (POC) diagnostics can enable rapid and accurate diagnosis with reduced cost and time. However, current embodiments of commercially available OCT systems are bulky, expensive and only suitable for stationary use in clinical applications. This thesis describes the design and implementation of a novel, low-cost OCT technology called multiple reference OCT (MR-OCT) for next-generation smartphone based personal care and POC applications. MR-OCT is an extension of time-domain OCT (TD-OCT), with the addition of a partial mirror (PM) placed a small distance in front of the reference mirror (RM). The combination of the PM and the oscillating RM generates a composite reference signal based on multiple reflections between the partial mirror and the oscillating reference mirror to provide reference light corresponding to increasing depths. This arrangement enables MR-OCT to be implemented at low cost and as a miniature device. The results demonstrated in this thesis show the feasibility of MR-OCT and demonstrate a wide range of industrial, medical and consumer level applications. The first generation MR-OCT setup utilised a piezoelectric transducer (PZT) as a depth scanning mechanism. Although, a PZT transducer provides excellent linearity, the cost and size of the PZT controller is a limiting factor for producing a low-cost and…
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