Patent ID: 8842287

Claim:
An optical coherence tomography (OCT) imaging system comprising: a light source configured to emit light; a beam splitter configured to, receive the light from the light source, split the light into a first light portion directed along a sample arm comprising a sample and a second light portion directed along a reference arm comprising a reference mirror, receive a first reflected light portion from the sample arm and a second reflected light portion from the reference arm, and combine the first and second reflected light portions to obtain an interference signal; and a controller comprising logic configured to perform an auto-focusing process to determine an optimal focal position for a lens in the sample arm in order to bring the sample into focus, the auto-focusing process consisting essentially of: adjusting the position of the lens to each of a plurality of focal positions, the focal positions spanning a focusing range; obtaining an image of the sample at each of the focal positions; determining a figure of merit value for each image; determining a mathematical function corresponding to a best-fit curve based on the figure of merit values; and identifying the optimal focal position based on the best-fit curve.