Patent ID: 9638511
Date: 2017-05-02
CPC Classifications: G01B

Claim:
1. A tomographic imaging system comprising: a. a source of low-coherence light for emitting a low-coherence light beam; b. a first beam splitter for dividing the low-coherence light beam into sample path and a reference path; c. a steering optic for recombining light in the reference path with light scattered by a sample along a path containing only a single point on a surface of the sample, with no intervening dispersive element, onto an entire area of an areal focal plane array of detector elements of a camera each detector element characterized by a dynamic range, wherein the first beam splitter, the camera and the steering optic are disposed within a hand-held probe; and d. a processor coupled to receive signal input from the areal focal plane array of detector elements, wherein light in the reference path and light scattered by the sample along the path containing only the single point on the surface of the sample are characterized by respectively offset propagation vectors at incidence upon the camera; wherein the processor is configured to derive depth information from light scattered by the sample along the path containing only the single point on the surface of the sample on the basis of interference fringes between light in the reference path and light scattered by the sample; and wherein a signal dynamic range exceeds the dynamic range of each detector element.