Patent ID: 10317189

Abstract:
Optical coherence tomography light sources can be non-linear and attempts to linearize them can lead to asynchrony between the light source and A-line scans and missampling in the scans causing signal noise. Accordingly, a system and methods are provided herein to detect missampling by obtaining a plurality of interferograms; providing at least two wavenumber reference signals at different wavenumbers, wherein the wavenumber reference signals comprise attenuated or enhanced portions of each of the plurality of interferograms; aligning each of the plurality of interferograms according to one of the at least two wavenumber reference signals; and for each of the plurality of interferograms, identifying an interferogram as missampled if another of the at least two reference signals does not align with a corresponding reference signal in a statistically significant number of the plurality of interferograms. An optical element, for example, an optical notch, may be used to generate the reference signals.