Motorized capsule for shadow-free OCT imaging and synchronous beam control

We demonstrate a tethered motorized capsule for unobstructed optical coherence tomography (OCT) imaging of the esophagus. By using a distal reflector design, we avoided the common shadow artifact induced by the motor wires. A synchronous driving technique features three types of beam-scanning modes of the capsule, i.e., circumferential beam scanning, localized beam scanning, and accurate beam positioning. We characterized these three modes and carried out ex vivo imaging experiments using the capsule. The results show that the capsule can potentially be a useful tool for diagnostic OCT imaging and OCT-guided biopsy and therapy of the esophagus.