Patent ID: 8605290

Claim:
A method of scanning a target, said method comprising: generating probe radiation; generating reference radiation; imposing different frequency content on different components of said reference radiation to form composite reference radiation; modifying the average spatial relationship between said different components of said reference radiation by modifying the average spatial separation between a first and a second reflective elements in the path of the reference radiation, where said first reflective element is a partially reflective element and said second reflective element is a highly reflective element, whereby said modification of said average separation modifies the regions of the target that are scanned; applying said probe radiation to said target; capturing at least part of said probe radiation scattered from within said target to form captured scattered probe radiation; combining said captured scattered probe radiation and said composite reference radiation to form a composite interferometric signal; and processing said composite interferometric signal to achieve a scan of said target, where said scan is composed of different sets of scan segments obtained at different average spatial separations between said first and said second reflective elements.