1 21168558.

CLAIMS

1. A swept-source optical coherence tomography, OCT, imaging system (400, 600)

for imaging a region (90) of an object (70), comprising:
5 a swept light source (10) arranged to generate a beam (80) of light of a
wavelength which varies over time;
a scanning element (40) arranged to scan the beam (80) of light across the object
(70);
an interferometer (410) having a sample arm (414) and a reference arm (412), and
10 arranged to generate an interference light signal during use of the swept-source OCT
imaging system (400, 600) by combining light scattered by the region (90) of the object
(70) and propagating along the sample arm (414), as a result of the beam (80) being
scanned across the object (70), with light from the beam (80) propagating along the
reference arm (412);
15 a photodetector (50) arranged to receive the interference light signal and
generate an electrical signal (S) that is indicative of the interference light signal, the
electrical signal (S) comprising frequency components spanning a frequency band
(1000), the frequency components being caused by interference of the light scattered by
the region (90) of the object (70) and propagating along the sample arm (414), with the
20 light from the beam (80) propagating along the reference arm (412);
a band-pass filter module (420) arranged to generate a filtered electrical signal (S F)
by band-pass filtering the electrical signal (S);
a sample acquisition module (440) arranged to acquire samples of the filtered
electrical signal (SF); characterised by
25 a control module (430) arranged to set a pass band of the band pass filter module
(420) such that the band-pass filter module (420) extracts at least some of the frequency
components spanning the frequency band (1000) from the electrical signal (S), the
control module (430) being further arranged to set a sampling rate of the sample
acquisition module (440) such that the sample acquisition module (440) band-pass
30 samples the filtered electrical signal (S F to acquire a set of samples of the filtered
electrical signal (SF) for generating OCT image data representing an image of the region
(90) of the object (70).
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2. The swept-source OCT imaging system (400, 600) according to claim 1, wherein
the band-pass filter module (420) comprises a tunable band-pass filter having a pass
band with a tunable center frequency, and wherein the control module (430) is arranged
to set the pass band of the band-pass filter module (420) by adjusting the center
5 frequency of the pass band based on a location indicator which is indicative of a location
of the region (90) along a propagation direction of the beam (80) of light incident on the
object (70) during use of the swept-source OCT imaging system (400, 600) to acquire the
set of samples of the filtered electrical signal (S F) for generating the OCT image data
representing the image of the region (90) of the object (70).
10
3. The swept-source OCT imaging system (400, 600) according to claim 1, wherein
the band-pass filter module (420) comprises a tunable band-pass filter having a pass
band with a tunable bandwidth, and wherein the control module (430) is arranged to set
the pass band of the band-pass filter module (420) by adjusting the bandwidth of the
15 pass band based on a range indicator indicative of a size of the region (90) along a
propagation direction of the beam (80) of light.

4. The swept-source OCT imaging system (400, 600) according to claim 1, wherein
the band-pass filter module (420) comprises a plurality of non-tunable band-pass filters
20 each having a different pass band, and wherein the control module (430) is arranged to
set the pass band of the band-pass filter module (420) by selecting a non-tunable band-
pass filter from among the plurality of non-tunable band-pass filters to band-pass filter
the electrical signal (S) to generate the filtered electrical signal (S F), wherein the
selecting is performed based on a location indicator which is indicative of a location of
25 the region (90) along a propagation direction of the beam (80) of light incident on the
object (70) during use of the swept-source OCT imaging system (400, 600) to acquire the
set of samples of the filtered electrical signal (S F).

5. The swept-source OCT imaging system (600) according to any preceding claim,
30 wherein
the scanning element (40) is arranged to scan the light beam generated by the
swept light source (10) by varying a scan angle of the scanning element (40), and
the swept-source OCT imaging system (600) further comprises:
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an A-scan data generating module (610) arranged to generate A-scan data of a

plurality of A-scans (820, 830) by calculating an inverse Fourier transform of the samples
of the filtered electrical signal (S F) that have been acquired by the sample acquisition
module (440) for varying values of the scan angle, wherein each A-scan (815) of the
5 plurality of A-scans (820, 830) is based on samples of the filtered electrical signal (S F)
acquired by the sample acquisition module (440) from a respective region (90) of a
plurality of regions in the object (70) that have been imaged in the scan;
a tomographic data generating module (620) arranged to generate tomographic
data by arraying the A-scans (820, 830) to form an array (850) of the A-scans,
10 wherein A-scan elements (810) of each A-scan (815) in the array (850) are
arranged along a first direction (Y) of the array (850), and the A-scans (820, 830) are
arrayed in a second direction (X) of the array (850), and
wherein the tomographic data generating module (620) is arranged, when
generating the tomographic data, to offset by an offset amount each A-scan (815) of the
15 array (850) along the first direction (Y) relative to other A-scans (820, 830) in the array
(850), wherein the offset amount is based on a location indicator indicative of a location
of the region (90) along a propagation direction of the beam (80) of light incident on the
object (70) during use of the swept-source OCT imaging system (400, 600) to acquire the
set of samples of the filtered electrical signal (S F) for generating the OCT image data
20 representing the image of the region (90) of the object (70).

6. The swept-source OCT imaging system (400, 600) according to any of claims 1 to
4, further comprising:
a filter module (910) arranged to generate a second filtered electrical (S FZ) signal
25 by filtering the electrical signal (S); and
a second sample acquisition module (920) arranged to acquire a second set of
samples of the second filtered electrical signal (S FZ),
wherein the control module (430) is further arranged to:
set the pass band of the band-pass filter module (420) such that the band-pass
30 filter module (420) extracts frequency components of the electrical signal (S) in a first
sub-band (1120) of the frequency band (1000) and substantially attenuates frequency
components of the electrical signal (S) outside the first sub-band (1120);
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set the sampling rate of the sample acquisition module (440) such that the sample
acquisition module (440) acquires the set of samples by band-pass sampling the
frequency components of the electrical signal (S) in the first sub-band (1120) of the
frequency band (1000), the first sub-band (1120) corresponding to a first sub-region of
5 the region (90) of the object (70);
set a pass band of the filter module (910) such that the filter module (910)
extracts frequency components of the electrical signal in a second sub¬band (1140) of
the frequency band (1000) which partially overlaps the first sub-band (1120), wherein
the second sub-band (1140) corresponds to a second sub-region of the region (90),
10 wherein partial overlap (1150) between the first sub-band (1120) and the second sub-
band (1140) corresponds to an overlapping region between the first sub-region and the
second sub-region; and
set a second sampling rate of the second sample acquisition module (920) such
that the second sample acquisition module (920) acquires the second set of samples by
15 sampling the frequency components of the electrical signal in the second sub-band
(1140) using the second sampling rate, the second sampling rate being different from
the first sampling rate.

7. The swept-source OCT imaging system (600) according to claim 6, further

20 comprising an A-scan data generating module (610) arranged to generate A-scan
data of an A-scan (815) by:
calculating an inverse Fourier transform of the first set of samples to generate a
first subset of the A-scan data; and
calculating an inverse Fourier transform of the second set of samples to generate
25 a second subset of the A-scan data.

8. The swept-source OCT imaging system (600) according to claim 7, wherein the
swept-source OCT imaging system (600) further comprises a tomographic data
generating module (620) arranged to generate an A-scan (815) by:
30 mapping data from the first subset of A-scan data to a first set of A-scan elements
(810) of the A-scan (815) based on a location of the first sub-region along a propagation
direction of the beam (80) of light incident on the object (70) during use of the swept-
source OCT imaging system (600) to acquire the set of samples of the filtered electrical
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signal (SF) for generating the OCT image data representing the image of the region (90)
of the object (70); and
mapping data from the second subset of A-scan data to a second set of A-scan
elements (810) of the A-scan (815) based on a location of the second sub-region along
5 the propagation direction of the beam (80) of light.

9. The swept-source OCT imaging system (400, 600) according to any of claims 6 to
8, wherein the control module (430) is further arranged to:
set the pass band of the band-pass filter module (420) and the sampling rate of
10 the sample acquisition module (440) based on a location of the first sub-region along a
propagation direction of the beam (80) of light incident on the object (70) during use of
the swept-source OCT imaging system (400, 600) to acquire the set of samples of the
filtered electrical signal (S F) for generating the OCT image data representing the image of
the region (90) of the object (70); and
15 set the pass band of the filter module (910) and the second sampling rate of the
second sample acquisition module (920) based on a location of the second sub-region
along the propagation direction of the beam (80) of light.

10. The swept-source OCT imaging system (400, 600) according to any of claims 6 to
20 9, wherein the filter module (910) comprises a second tunable filter having a pass band
with a tunable center frequency, and wherein the control module (430) is further
arranged to adjust the center frequency of the pass band of the second tunable filter
based a location of the second sub-region along a propagation direction of the beam
(80) of light incident on the object (70) during use of the swept-source OCT imaging
25 system (400, 600) to acquire the second set of samples of the filtered electrical signal.

11. The swept-source OCT imaging system (400, 600) according to claim 10, wherein
the second tunable filter has a tunable bandwidth, and the control module (430) is
further arranged to adjust the bandwidth of the second tunable filter based on a range
30 indicator indicative of a size of the second sub-region along the propagation direction of
the beam (80) of light.
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12. The swept-source OCT imaging system (400, 600) according to any of claims 6 to
9, wherein the filter module (910) comprises a second plurality of non-tunable band-
pass filters having pass bands with different center frequencies, and wherein the control
module (430) is arranged to set the pass band of the filter module (910) by selecting a
5 non-tunable band-pass filter from among the second plurality of non- tunable band-pass
filters, wherein the selecting is performed based on a location indicator which is
indicative of a location of the second sub-region along a propagation direction of the
beam (80) of light incident on the object (70) during use of the swept-source OCT
imaging system (400, 600) to acquire the second set of samples.
10
13. The swept-source OCT imaging system (400, 600) according to any preceding
claim, wherein the reference arm (412) comprises a plurality of optical delay lines (1220-
1 to 1220-4), each optical delay line having a different optical path length, and wherein
the swept-source OCT system (400, 600) further comprises an optical switch (1210),
15 wherein the control module (430) is further arranged to:
generate a reference arm adjustment signal based on a location indicator
indicative of a location of the region (90) along a propagation direction of the beam of
light incident on the object during use of the swept-source OCT imaging system (400,
600) to acquire the set of samples of the filtered electrical signal (S F) for generating the
20 OCT image data representing the image of the region (90) of the object (70); and
control the optical switch (1210), based on the reference arm adjustment signal,
to select an optical delay line of the plurality of optical delay lines (1220-1 to 1220- 4) to
allow light to propagate in the reference arm (412) using the selected optical delay line
and thereby set an optical delay between the light propagating along the reference arm
25 (412) and the light propagating along the sample arm (414).

14. The swept-source OCT imaging system (400, 600) according to claim 13, wherein
the control module (430) is arranged to control the optical switch (1210) to select, as the
optical delay line, an optical delay line of the plurality of optical delay lines (1220-1 to
30 1220-4) such that a frequency of the interference light signal is below a cut-off
frequency of the photodetector (50).
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15. The swept-source OCT imaging system (400, 600) according to any preceding
claim, wherein the object is an eye, and the swept-source OCT imaging system is an
ophthalmic swept-source OCT imaging system.

5 16. The swept-source OCT imaging system (400, 600) according to any of claims 1 to
4, wherein the object is an eye, and wherein
the scanning element (40) is arranged to scan the beam of light (80) generated by
the swept light source (10) by varying a scan angle of the scanning element (40); and
the control module (430) is arranged to adjust the pass band of the band-pass
10 filter module (420) and the sampling rate of the sample acquisition module (440) using a
predetermined variation of the pass band and the sampling rate with the scan angle,
such that the sample acquisition module (440) acquires samples from multiple regions
(90) of the eye (70) along a scan direction of the scan for forming an image of a cross-
section of a retina (85) that is of substantially constant thickness from a surface of the
15 retina (85).