Simple spectral calibration method and its application using an index array for swept source optical coherence tomography

In this study, we report an effective k-domain linearization method with a pre-calibrated indexed look-up table. The method minimizes k-domain nonlinear characteristics of a swept source optical coherence tomography (SS-OCT) system by using two arrays, a sample position shift index and an intensity compensation array. Two arrays are generated from an interference pattern acquired by connecting a Fabry-Perot interferometer (FPI) and an optical spectrum analyzer (OSA) to the system. At real time imaging, the sample position is modified by location movement and intensity compensation with two arrays for linearity of wavenumber. As a result of evaluating point spread functions (PSFs), the signal to noise ratio (SNR) is increased by 9.7 dB. When applied to infrared (IR) sensing card imaging, the SNR is increased by 1.29 dB and the contrast noise ratio (CNR) value is increased by 1.44. The time required for the linearization and intensity compensation is 30 ms for a multi thread method using a central processing unit (CPU) compared to 0.8 ms for compute unified device architecture (CUDA) processing using a graphics processing unit (GPU). We verified that our linearization method is appropriate for applying real time imaging of SS-OCT.