System on Chip for Intraoperative OCT

PROJECT SUMMARY Intraoperative ophthalmic visualization saves the vision of tens of millions of people annually. A large portion of surgical interventions requires manipulation of fine and sensitive layered tissue structures with micrometer-level thickness that cannot be directly visualized with standard microscopy. Intraoperative Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) is an established imaging technology in ophthalmic clinics. Despite strong clinical indications about the benefits of intraoperative OCT, common implementations of intraoperative OCT cannot provide the performance required for intraoperative applications. All commercial implementations are based on Spectral- Domain OCT, a technology that has limitations on the imaging depth and speed and on its ability to image moving tissue. While Swept-Source OCT does not suffer from any of these limitations, its integration in the operating room has been limited by technology readiness challenges. Recent progress on optics and algorithms for SSOCT has highlighted a new potential to translate high-performance versions of the technology to the operating rooms. High-speed and long-range lasers are now available commercially, and image analyses with artificial intelligence are more advanced and faster to develop. Progress on the optics and algorithms fronts put extra demand on the performance of the system's electronics that cannot be met using today’s architectures. To provide the required OCT imaging needs where large volumes are scanned in real-time to cover the dynamically changing operating zone, it is imperative to rethink the electronic architecture in modern ways with a completely new approach. To achieve this goal, we are developing a novel electronics board that does not follow the traditional architecture based on discrete components communicating via buses and hand-shacking protocols. The board we are developing in this project is based on a Radio-Frequency System-on-Chip (RFSoC). This architecture will enable real-time OCT volume imaging with 3x improvement in axial resolution, 4x in field of view, and more than 10x in latency or the state-of-the-art research and development efforts in this field. The board we are developing provides a versatile, unique, and highly-configurable solution for intraoperative SSOCT systems at competitive cost, space, and power requirements. The development will offer a unique integration of features needed for systems with virtually zero latency requirements.