On-chip spectrometer for low-cost optical coherence tomography

Tornado Spectral Systems has developed a new spectrometer called OCTANE, the Optical Coherence Tomography Advanced Nanophotonic Engine, consisting of chip-based spectrometers for spectral domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) systems. These devices include planar lightwave circuits with integrated waveguides fabricated on a planar silicon substrate. Our commercial prototypes include a NIR system centered at a wavelength of 860 nm, a spectral bandwidth of 70 nm, and 2048 output channels to record TE and TM polarizations independently at an 80 kHz line scan rate. Intended to support low-cost, high-volume applications, these spectrometers are well-suited to SD-OCT for both biological and industrial non-destructive testing applications.