Spectral phase-based automatic calibration scheme for swept source-based optical coherence tomography systems

The automatic calibration in Fourier-domain optical coherence tomography (FD-OCT) systems allows for high resolution imaging with precise depth ranging functionality in many complex imaging scenarios, such as microsurgery. However, the accuracy and speed of the existing automatic schemes are limited due to the functional approximations and iterative operations used in their procedures. In this paper, we present a new real-time automatic calibration scheme for swept source-based optical coherence tomography (SS-OCT) systems. The proposed automatic calibration can be performed during scanning operation and does not require an auxiliary interferometer for calibration signal generation and an additional channel for its acquisition. The proposed method makes use of the spectral component corresponding to the sample surface reflection as the calibration signal. The spectral phase function representing the non-linear sweeping characteristic of the frequency-swept laser source is determined from the calibration signal. The phase linearization with improved accuracy is achieved by normalization and rescaling of the obtained phase function. The fractional-time indices corresponding to the equidistantly spaced phase intervals are estimated directly from the resampling function and are used to resample the OCT signals. The proposed approach allows for precise calibration irrespective of the path length variation induced by the non-planar topography of the sample or galvo scanning. The conceived idea was illustrated using an in-house-developed SS-OCT system by considering the specular reflection from a mirror and other test samples. It was shown that the proposed method provides high-performance calibration in terms of axial resolution and sensitivity without increasing computational and hardware complexity.