Deformable Mirror for Adaptive Optics Retinal Imaging

描述（由申请人提供）：使用自适应光学（AO）对视网膜进行成像，以纠正晶状体和角膜的像差，将横向分辨率提高三倍。深度分辨率的共焦系统增加了十倍，当校正像差与AO。AO校正所提供的分辨率提高将改善疾病的早期检测，并使药物开发人员能够定量评估药物在体内的疗效。尽管分辨率有了很大的提高，但变形镜波前校正器的高成本阻碍了AO的广泛使用。目前市场上的传统dm每个执行器的成本超过1000美元。这是非常昂贵的，因为眼科AO系统需要100个或更多的致动器。一种紧凑，低成本的可变形镜（DM）的发展对视网膜AO成像系统的商业化至关重要。在第一阶段的研究中，Iris AO将开发一种低成本（每个执行器约10美元）、高冲程（20亩/米）、小型的执行器

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Imaging the retina using adaptive optics (AO) to correct aberrations in the lens and cornea increases lateral resolution by a factor of three. Depth resolution for confocal systems increases by a factor of ten when correcting aberrations with AO. The increased resolution afforded by AO correction will improve early disease detection and will allow drug developers to quantitatively assess drug efficacy in vivo. Despite the large increase in resolution, widespread use of AO has been impeded by the high cost of the deformable-mirror (DM) wavefront corrector. Conventional DMs on the market today cost over $1000 per actuator. This is prohibitively expensive because ophthalmic AO systems require 100 actuators or more. The development of a compact, low-cost deformable mirror (DM) is crucial to the commercialization of AO imaging systems for the retina. For Phase I research, Iris AO will develop a low-cost (approximately $10 per actuator), high-stroke (20 mu/m), small aperture (8 mm) DM for use in adaptive-optics imaging of the retina. The microelectromechanical system (MEMS) DM will have at least 100 segments in the array, each with optical-surface errors smaller than 10 nm RMS. Later stages of research will develop an AO fundus camera for use in clinical settings.