Patent ID: 7751056

Claim:
An optical tomographic imaging apparatus, comprising a plurality of light source units, each for outputting a light beam having a continuous spectrum within a wavelength range, the light beams outputted from the plurality of light source units having wavelength ranges which are different from each other; a plurality of beam splitting means, each for splitting a corresponding one of the light beams outputted from the plurality of light source units into measuring and reference beams, the reference beams propagating through independent optical paths without mixing with each other, the measuring beams being irradiated onto the measuring object to produce a corresponding plurality of reflected beams reflected from the measuring object; a plurality of beam combining means, each for combining a corresponding one of the reflected beams with the corresponding reference beams that correspond to the corresponding reflected beam in terms of the wavelength range; a plurality of interference beam detection means, each for detecting a corresponding one of each of a plurality of interference beams generated when the corresponding reflected beam is combined with each of the corresponding reference beams by each of the beam combining means as a spectral interference signal; and a tomographic image processing means for generating a tomographic image of the measuring object by performing frequency analysis using the plurality of spectral interference signals detected by the plurality of interference beam detection means.