
{"publication_number": "US-2012050746-A1", "abstract": "apparatus , method and data processing for increasing the depth range and signal to noise ratio in fourier domain low coherence interferometry and in fourier domain optical coherence tomography using a 2 dimensional detector array is provided . the depth range and the noise of the fd lci and fd oct depend on the number of pixels in the detector that are used for imaging . as the depth range is proportional and the noise is inversely proportional to the number of pixels , the use of increased number of pixels of a 2d detector array increases the depth range and the signal to noise ratio many fold .", "application_number": "US-87082510-A", "description": "fig1 shows the schematic of a conventional fd lci optical system . the signal from the optical source is splitted into two parts using a beam splitter . one part goes towards the reference arm and the other part towards the sample . the signal reflected from the sample and the reference arms are combined at the beam splitter which further split it into two parts . one part travels back towards the optical source and the other part towards a dispersion grating . this dispersion grating can be transmission grating or a reflecting grating but for illustration purposes we are showing a reflecting grating . the signal that is reflected from the grating is focused on a linear 1d detector array using a spherical lens . the signal reflected from the sample surface and the reference surface interfere together and produce an interference pattern at the 1d detector array . the profile of the intensity pattern at the 1d detector array is give by the following equation . i ( \u03bb )= i r ( \u03bb )+ i s ( \u03bb )+ 2 \u221a{ square root over ( i r ( \u03bb ) i s ( \u03bb ))