阅读说明：本技术 一种光学相干层析成像系统 (Optical coherence tomography system ) 是由 苏胜飞 于 2019-12-20 设计创作，主要内容包括：本申请属于光学结构技术领域,提供了一种光学相干层析成像系统,其中,所述光学相干层析成像系统包括：光源、耦合器、参考臂、样品臂、用于放置待测物品的导轨、信号采集设备以及信号处理设备；所述参考臂包括准直透镜以及n个参考反射镜；所述样品臂包括n个样品反射镜组；可以解决目前的光学相干层析成像系统无法实现同时从不同方向对待测物品进行检测的问题。(The application belongs to the technical field of optical structures and provides an optical coherence tomography system, wherein the optical coherence tomography system comprises: the device comprises a light source, a coupler, a reference arm, a sample arm, a guide rail for placing an object to be detected, signal acquisition equipment and signal processing equipment; the reference arm comprises a collimating lens and n reference mirrors; the sample arm comprises n sample mirror groups; the problem that the existing optical coherence tomography system cannot detect the object to be detected from different directions at the same time can be solved.)

1. An optical coherence tomography system, the optical coherence tomography system comprising: the device comprises a light source, a coupler, a reference arm, a sample arm, a guide rail for placing an object to be detected, signal acquisition equipment and signal processing equipment; the reference arm comprises a first collimating lens and n reference mirrors; the sample arm comprises n sample mirror groups; the articles to be detected in the guide rail sequentially move to the nth position of the guide rail along the first position of the guide rail; the n sample reflector groups are respectively positioned in different directions of the guide rail; wherein n is an integer greater than or equal to 2;

the light source is used for emitting broadband light;

the coupler is used for splitting the broadband light to obtain reference light and sample light;

after the reference light is collimated by the first collimating lens, the reference light is respectively reflected by the n reference reflecting mirrors to obtain n reference reflected lights, and the n reference reflected lights are sequentially incident into the coupler;

after being respectively collimated and focused by the n sample reflector groups, the sample light sequentially irradiates to an article to be detected from a first position to an nth position of the guide rail to obtain n sample reflected lights, wherein the n sample reflected lights penetrate into the coupler through the n sample reflector groups and are respectively interfered with n reference reflected lights in the coupler to obtain n paths of interference lights containing spectral information of the same article to be detected in different directions;

the signal acquisition equipment is used for detecting the interference light to obtain an interference signal and transmitting the interference signal to the signal processing equipment;

and the signal processing equipment is used for processing the interference signals to obtain structural images of the sample to be detected in different directions.

2. The optical coherence tomography system of claim 1, wherein the reference light is collimated by the first collimating lens and reflected by a first reference mirror to obtain a first reference reflected light, and wherein the reference light transmitted by the first reference mirror is reflected by the second reference mirror to obtain a second reference reflected light, and wherein the reference light transmitted by the second reference mirror is reflected by the third reference mirror to obtain a third reference reflected light, … …, and wherein the reference light transmitted by the (n-1) th reference mirror is reflected by the nth reference mirror to obtain an nth reference reflected light; the first, second, third, … …, nth reference reflected light is incident on the coupler.

3. The optical coherence tomography system of claim 1 or 2, wherein the n reference mirrors comprise: n-1 transmissive mirrors and one plane mirror.

4. The optical coherence tomography system of claim 3, wherein the exit surface of the transmissive mirror is coated with an anti-reflective coating.

5. The optical coherence tomography system of claim 2, wherein when the object to be measured is disposed at a first position in the guide rail corresponding to a first sample mirror group, the sample light is collimated and focused by the first sample mirror group, then emitted to the object to be measured disposed at the first position, and reflected by the sample to be measured to obtain a first sample reflected light; the first sample reflected light enters the coupler and interferes with first reference reflected light in the coupler to obtain first interference light; when the object to be detected is not placed at the first position and the object to be detected is placed at a second position, corresponding to a second sample reflector group, in the guide rail, the sample light is emitted into the second sample reflector group through the first sample reflector group, is collimated and focused by the second sample reflector group, is emitted to the object to be detected placed at the second position, and is reflected by the sample to be detected to obtain second sample reflected light; the second sample reflected light enters the coupler and interferes with second reference reflected light in the coupler to obtain second interference light; when the object to be detected is not placed at the first position and the second position and the object to be detected is placed at a third position corresponding to a third sample reflector group in the guide rail, the sample light is emitted into the third sample reflector group through the first sample reflector group and the second sample reflector group, is collimated and focused by the third sample reflector group, is emitted to the object to be detected placed at the third position, and is reflected by the sample to be detected to obtain third sample reflected light; the third sample reflected light enters the coupler and interferes with third reference reflected light in the coupler to obtain third interference light; and analogizing in sequence to obtain the n paths of interference light containing the spectral information of the same object to be detected in different directions.

6. The optical coherence tomography system of claim 5, wherein a first sample mirror group of the n sample mirror groups comprises: a second collimating lens and a focusing lens.

7. The optical coherence tomography system of claim 5, wherein the second, third, … …, and nth sample mirror sets each comprise: a second collimating lens, a focusing lens, and one or more plane mirrors.

8. The optical coherence tomography system of claim 5,

the optical path of said coupler to said first reference mirror is the same as the optical path of said coupler to said first set of sample mirrors; the optical path from the coupler to the second reference mirror is the same as the optical path from the coupler to the second set of sample mirrors; … …, respectively; the optical path from the coupler to the nth reference mirror is the same as the optical path from the coupler to the nth set of sample mirrors.

9. The optical coherence tomography system of claim 1, wherein the rail is a tunnel-shaped rail.

10. The optical coherence tomography system of claim 9, wherein the guide rail is provided with a to-be-tested object conveyer for driving the to-be-tested sample to pass through the first position to the nth position in the guide rail in sequence; and after the signal acquisition equipment acquires the nth interference light of the sample to be detected, driving the next object to be detected to sequentially pass through the first position to the nth position of the guide rail.

Technical Field

The application belongs to the technical field of optical structures, and particularly relates to an optical coherence tomography system.

Background

Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) is an imaging technique that has been rapidly developed in the last decade, and mainly includes time-domain Optical Coherence Tomography and frequency-domain Optical Coherence Tomography. Time-domain optical coherence tomography is the first generation of OCT, and the mode of detecting the spectrum is to obtain the depth information of the sample by moving the mirror of the reference arm and detecting the light intensity at the same time. The frequency domain optical coherence tomography uses a high-speed spectrometer to indirectly detect the interference spectrum of the reflected light of the sample and the reference light, and obtains the depth information of the sample through Fourier transformation. The frequency domain optical coherence tomography is superior to the time domain optical coherence tomography in the aspects of acquisition speed and signal-to-noise ratio, is the mainstream in the current optical coherence tomography, and has the advantages of high speed, high resolution, non-invasive, non-contact measurement and the like.

However, the current optical coherence tomography system can only detect the object to be detected from one direction, but cannot detect the object to be detected from different directions at the same time, and has certain limitations.

Disclosure of Invention

The embodiment of the application provides an optical coherence tomography system, which can solve the problem that the existing optical coherence tomography system can not detect objects to be detected from different directions at the same time.

A first aspect of embodiments of the present application provides an optical coherence tomography system, including: the device comprises a light source, a coupler, a reference arm, a sample arm, a guide rail for placing an object to be detected, signal acquisition equipment and signal processing equipment; the reference arm comprises a first collimating lens and n reference mirrors; the sample arm comprises n sample mirror groups; the articles to be detected in the guide rail sequentially move to the nth position of the guide rail along the first position of the guide rail; the n sample reflector groups are respectively positioned in different directions of the guide rail; wherein n is an integer greater than or equal to 2;

the light source is used for emitting broadband light;

the coupler is used for splitting the broadband light to obtain reference light and sample light;

after the reference light is collimated by the first collimating lens, the reference light is respectively reflected by the n reference reflecting mirrors to obtain n reference reflected lights, and the n reference reflected lights are sequentially incident into the coupler;

after being respectively collimated and focused by the n sample reflectors, the sample light sequentially irradiates to an article to be detected from a first position to an nth position of the guide rail to obtain n sample reflected lights, wherein the n sample reflected lights are irradiated into the coupler through the n sample reflector groups and are respectively interfered with n reference reflected lights in the coupler to obtain n paths of interference lights containing spectral information of the same article to be detected in different directions;

the signal acquisition equipment is used for detecting the interference light to obtain an interference signal and transmitting the interference signal to the signal processing equipment;

and the signal processing equipment is used for processing the interference signals to obtain structural images of the sample to be detected in different directions.

In the embodiment of the application, the structure of the reference arm and the sample arm of the traditional optical coherence tomography system is improved, so that the improved optical coherence tomography system can detect the object to be detected from n directions simultaneously, the problem that the current optical coherence tomography system cannot detect the object to be detected from different directions simultaneously is solved, and the detection efficiency of the object is improved.

Drawings

In order to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present application, the drawings needed to be used in the embodiments or the prior art descriptions will be briefly described below, and it is obvious that the drawings in the following description are only some embodiments of the present application, and it is obvious for those skilled in the art to obtain other drawings based on these drawings without inventive exercise.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a prior art optical coherence tomography system provided by an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a first configuration of an optical coherence tomography system provided by an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 3 is a second structural schematic diagram of an optical coherence tomography system provided by an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 4 is a schematic structural diagram of a transmissive mirror provided in an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 5 is a schematic diagram of a third structure of an optical coherence tomography system provided in an embodiment of the present application.

Detailed Description

In order to make the objects, technical solutions and advantages of the present application more apparent, the present application is described in further detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings and embodiments. It should be understood that the specific embodiments described herein are merely illustrative of the present application and are not intended to limit the present application. All other embodiments, which can be derived by a person skilled in the art from the embodiments of the present application without making any creative effort, shall fall within the protection scope of the present application.

As shown in fig. 1, a schematic diagram of a current frequency-domain OCT imaging system provided in the embodiment of the present application may include a light source 110, a coupler 120, a sample arm 130, a reference arm 140, a signal acquisition device (e.g., a spectrometer) 160, a signal processing device (e.g., a computer) 170, and a sample stage 180.

The coupler 120 is used to split the primary light emitted by the light source 110 into reference light and sample light. The sample light is incident to the sample 200 to be measured placed on the sample stage 180 through the sample arm 130, and is reflected by the sample 200 to be measured, so that sample reflected light is obtained. The reference light is collimated into parallel light by the reference collimating lens 141. The parallel light is transmitted to the reference flat mirror 142 and reflected by the reference flat mirror 142 to form reference reflected light. The reference reflected light returns to the coupler 120 along the optical path of the reference light and interferes with the sample reflected light in the coupler 120 to obtain interference light. The signal collecting device 160 is configured to detect the interference light to obtain an interference signal, and transmit the interference signal to the signal processing device 170 for processing, so as to obtain a structural image of the sample 200 to be measured.

Therefore, the frequency domain OCT imaging system can only obtain one path of interference light, so that the object to be detected can be detected only from one direction, the object to be detected cannot be detected from different directions at the same time, and certain limitation is realized.

Based on this, the embodiment of the application provides an optical coherence tomography system, can solve the problem that the current optical coherence tomography system can not realize detecting the object to be detected from different directions simultaneously.

Fig. 2 shows a schematic structural diagram of an improved optical coherence tomography system provided by an embodiment of the present application, which may include: a light source 21, a coupler 22, a reference arm 23, a sample arm 24, a guide rail 25 for placing an object to be measured, a signal acquisition device 26 and a signal processing device 27; the reference arm 23 comprises a collimating lens 231 and n reference mirrors 232; the sample arm 24 comprises n sets of sample mirrors. The articles to be detected in the guide rail sequentially move to the nth position of the guide rail along the first position of the guide rail; the n sample reflector groups are respectively positioned in different directions of the guide rail; wherein n is an integer greater than or equal to 2.

The light source 21 is used for emitting broadband light; and the light source may be a low coherence light source.

The coupler 22 is configured to split the broadband light into reference light and sample light.

After the reference light is collimated by the first collimating lens 231, the reference light is respectively reflected by the n reference reflecting mirrors 232 to obtain n reference reflected lights, and the n reference reflected lights are sequentially incident into the coupler 22;

the sample light is collimated and focused by the n sample mirror groups (as an example, only 4 sample mirror groups are shown in the figure, and respectively a sample mirror group 241, a sample mirror group 242, a sample mirror group 243, and a sample mirror group 244), and then sequentially emitted to an object to be measured from a first position to an nth position of the guide rail, so as to obtain n sample reflected lights, where the n sample reflected lights are emitted into the coupler through the n sample mirror groups and interfere with n reference reflected lights in the coupler, so as to obtain n paths of interference lights containing spectral information of the same object to be measured in different directions;

specifically, in some embodiments of the application, as shown in fig. 3, after the reference light is collimated 231 by the first collimating lens, the reference light is reflected by a first reference reflecting mirror 2321 to obtain a first reference reflected light, the reference light transmitted by the first reference reflecting mirror 2321 is reflected by a second reference reflecting mirror 2322 to obtain a second reference reflected light, the reference light transmitted by the second reference reflecting mirror 2322 is reflected by a third reference reflecting mirror 2323 to obtain a third reference reflected light, … …, and the reference light transmitted by the (n-1) th reference reflecting mirror is reflected by the nth reference reflecting mirror to obtain an nth reference reflected light.

According to the principle of reversible optical path, the first reference reflected light, the second reference reflected light, the third reference reflected light, … … and the nth reference reflected light can be incident into the coupler through the collimating lens 231 and the n reference mirrors; thus obtaining n reference reflected lights.

Optionally, in some embodiments of the present application, the n reference mirrors may include: n-1 transmissive mirrors and a plane mirror; and n-1 transmissive mirrors are sequentially arranged near the collimating lens, and the plane mirror is the last mirror participating in the reflection of the reference light. The plane mirror may be a full-surface mirror and does not transmit light.

As shown in fig. 4, which is a schematic structural diagram of the transmissive mirror of the present application, an exit surface of the transmissive mirror is coated with an antireflection film 41, so that the reference light can be reflected or transmitted when it is emitted to the transmissive mirror.

In the embodiment of the present application, when scanning an object to be tested to obtain a structural image, a sample to be tested may be first placed in the guide rail 25, and the object to be tested in the guide rail sequentially moves to an nth position along the first position 251, the second position 252, and the third position 253; the n sample reflector groups are respectively positioned in different directions of the guide rail; when the object to be measured 28 is placed at a first position 251 of the guide rail corresponding to the first sample reflector group (for example, when the object to be measured is placed in the guide rail 25 and passes through the first position 251 of the guide rail), the sample light is collimated and focused by the first sample reflector group, then is emitted to the object to be measured placed at the first position, and is reflected by the sample to be measured to obtain a first sample reflected light; the first sample reflected light enters the coupler through the first sample mirror group 241 and interferes with the first reference reflected light in the coupler to obtain first interference light.

When the object to be measured is not placed at the first position 251 and the object to be measured is placed at a second position 252, corresponding to a second sample reflector group, in the guide rail 25, the sample light enters the second sample reflector group 242 through the first sample reflector group 241, is collimated and focused by the second sample reflector group 242, and then enters the object to be measured placed at the second position, and is reflected by the sample to be measured to obtain a second sample reflected light; the second sample reflected light enters the coupler 22 through the first sample mirror group 241 and the second sample mirror group 242, and interferes with the second reference reflected light in the coupler 22 to obtain second interference light.

When the object to be measured is not placed at the first position 251 and the second position 252 and the object to be measured is placed at the third position 253 corresponding to the third sample reflector group in the guide rail 25, the sample light enters the third sample reflector group 243 through the first sample reflector group 241 and the second sample reflector group 242, is collimated and focused by the third sample reflector group 2043, then enters the object to be measured placed at the third position 253, and is reflected by the sample to be measured to obtain third sample reflected light; the third sample reflected light enters the coupler 22 and interferes with the third reference reflected light in the coupler 22 to obtain third interference light.

By analogy, n paths of interference light containing spectral information of the same object to be detected in different directions can be obtained.

Namely, when the signal acquisition device detects the interference light, n interference signals can be obtained, and after the interference signals are sent to the signal processing device, the signal processing device can process the interference signals, so that structural images of the sample to be detected in different directions (different angles) can be obtained at one time, and the detection efficiency of the object is improved.

Based on the above description, the embodiments of the present application improve the structures of the reference arm and the sample arm of the conventional optical coherence tomography system, so that the improved optical coherence tomography system can detect the object to be detected from n directions simultaneously, and the problem that the existing optical coherence tomography system cannot detect the object to be detected from different directions simultaneously is solved.

Optionally, in some embodiments of the present application, the first sample mirror group may include: a two collimating lens and a focusing lens. The second, third, … … and nth sample mirror groups may all include: a second collimating lens, a focusing lens, and one or more plane mirrors. The first, second, third, … …, and nth sample mirror groups may be arranged such that the optical path from the coupler to the first reference mirror is the same as the optical path from the coupler to the first sample mirror group; the optical path from the coupler to the second reference mirror is the same as the optical path from the coupler to the second set of sample mirrors; … …, respectively; the optical path from the coupler to the nth reference mirror is the same as the optical path from the coupler to the nth sample mirror group, or the optical paths are spaced by integral multiples; enabling the first reference reflected light to interfere with the first sample reflected light to obtain first interference light; the second reference reflected light can interfere with the second sample reflected light to obtain second interference light; the third reference reflected light can interfere with the third sample reflected light to obtain third interference light; … …, respectively; the nth reference reflected light can interfere with the nth sample reflected light to obtain nth interference light.

For example, as shown in fig. 5, in practical applications, when the first sample mirror group includes: a second collimating lens and a focusing lens; the second, third, … … and nth sample mirror groups each include: when the object to be detected is arranged at a first position corresponding to a first sample reflector group in the guide rail, the sample light is collimated by a second collimating lens a in the first sample reflector group and then focused to a first position corresponding to the first sample reflector group in the guide rail through a focusing lens b; when the object to be detected is not placed at the first position and the object to be detected is placed at a second position, corresponding to a second sample reflector group, in the guide rail, the sample light enters the second sample reflector group through a second collimating lens a and a focusing lens b of the first sample reflector group, is collimated and focused through a second collimating lens c, a plane reflector d, a plane reflector e and a focusing lens f of the second sample reflector group and then is emitted to the object to be detected placed at the second position; when the object to be detected is not placed at the first position and the second position, and the object to be detected is placed at a third position corresponding to a third sample reflector group in the guide rail, the sample light enters the third sample reflector group through the second collimating lens a and the focusing lens b of the first sample reflector group, the second collimating lens c, the plane reflector d, the plane reflector e and the focusing lens f of the second sample reflector group, is collimated and focused by the second collimating lens g, the plane reflector h, the plane reflector i and the focusing lens j of the third sample reflector group, and then is emitted to the object to be detected placed at the third position.

It should be noted that the collimating lens and the focusing lens may be used alternatively. For example, the collimator lens may be used as the focusing lens by interchanging positions of the incident surface and the exit surface of the collimator lens. In another embodiment of the present application, each of the n sample mirror groups may be combined with a lens other than the lens combination shown in fig. 5, which is not limited in the present application.

For example, the first sample mirror group may further include a greater number of collimating lenses, focusing lenses, and plane mirrors; the first sample mirror group may include a greater or lesser number of collimating lenses, focusing lenses, and plane mirrors.

In addition, in some embodiments of the present application, the guide rail may be a pipe-shaped guide rail, and the n sample mirror groups are respectively located in different directions of the pipe-shaped guide rail. For example, the duct-shaped guide rail may be a guide rail having a circular cross section, or a guide rail having a quadrangular cross section. Only n sample reflector groups are required to be respectively positioned in different directions of the guide rail, and then interference light containing spectral information of the sample to be detected in different directions is acquired.

In some embodiments of the present application, the guide rail may further be provided with a to-be-detected article conveying device, where the to-be-detected article conveying device is configured to drive the to-be-detected sample to sequentially pass through a first position to an nth position in the guide rail; and after the signal acquisition equipment acquires the nth interference light of the sample to be detected, driving the next object to be detected to sequentially pass through the first position to the nth position of the guide rail.

For example, the object to be tested conveying device is used for driving the sample to be tested to sequentially pass through a first position, a second position, a third position, … … and an nth position in the guide rail; and after the signal acquisition equipment acquires the nth interference light of the sample to be detected, the next article to be detected is driven to sequentially pass through the first position, the second position, … … and the nth position of the guide rail, so that the line production for detecting the sample to be detected is realized.

The above-mentioned embodiments are only used for illustrating the technical solutions of the present application, and not for limiting the same; although the present application has been described in detail with reference to the foregoing embodiments, it should be understood by those of ordinary skill in the art that: the technical solutions described in the foregoing embodiments may still be modified, or some technical features may be equivalently replaced; such modifications and substitutions do not substantially depart from the spirit and scope of the embodiments of the present application and are intended to be included within the scope of the present application.