True logarithmic amplification of frequency clock in SS-OCT for calibration

With swept source optical coherence tomography (SS-OCT), imprecise signal calibration prevents optimal imaging of biological tissues such as coronary artery. This work demonstrates an approach using a true logarithmic amplifier to precondition the clock signal, with the effort to minimize the noises and phase errors for optimal calibration. This method was validated and tested with a high-speed SS-OCT. The experimental results manifest its superior ability on optimization of the calibration and improvement of the imaging performance. Particularly, this hardware-based approach is suitable for real-time calibration in a high-speed system where computation time is constrained. (C) 2011 Optical Society of America