US 12,140,426 B2
Optical coherence tomography system
Rainer Hainberger, Vienna (AT); and Stefan Nevlacsil, Vienna (AT)
Assigned to AIT AUSTRIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY GMBH, Vienna (AT)
Appl. No. 17/598,000
Filed by AIT AUSTRIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY GMBH, Vienna (AT)
PCT Filed Jul. 31, 2020, PCT No. PCT/EP2020/071620
§ 371(c)(1), (2) Date Feb. 1, 2022,
PCT Pub. No. WO2021/023642, PCT Pub. Date Feb. 11, 2021.
Claims priority of application No. 19189873 (EP), filed on Aug. 2, 2019.
Prior Publication US 2022/0290970 A1, Sep. 15, 2022
Int. Cl. G01B 9/02091 (2022.01); G01B 9/02 (2022.01); G01B 9/02015 (2022.01)
CPC G01B 9/02091 (2013.01) [G01B 9/02027 (2013.01); G01B 9/02051 (2013.01); G01B 2290/70 (2013.01)] 13 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A time-domain or frequency domain system, comprising:
a sample light path between a source interface and a detector interface;
a reference light path between the source interface and the detector interface; and
a photonic integrated circuit;
wherein the reference light path is at least partially separate from the sample light path;
wherein the sample light path comprises a forward sample light path between the source interface and a sample interface, and a backward sample light path between the sample interface and the detector interface;
wherein the forward sample light path and the backward sample light path are at least partially provided by the photonic integrated circuit; and
the photonic integrated circuit comprises an integrated sample-side polarization beam splitter arranged in the forward sample light path and the backward sample light path;
wherein the system comprises at least two detector interfaces and a corresponding number of sample light paths between the source interface and the respective detector interface as well as a corresponding number of reference light paths between the source interface and the respective detector interface, wherein the photonic integrated circuit comprises at least one integrated sample beam splitter to split the sample light paths between the source interface and the detector interfaces and at least one integrated reference beam splitter to split the reference light paths between the source interface and the detector interfaces.