New developments in eye models with retina tissue phantoms for ophthalmic optical coherence tomography

We document our latest work in developing eye models with solid-state retinal tissue phantoms designed for demonstrating, validating and comparing ophthalmic Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) instruments. Eye models with retina tissue phantoms can serve a variety of purposes, including demonstrating OCT functionality and performance in both the clinic and exhibit hall, validating retina layer thickness measurements from different commercial OCT instruments and as an aide for the R&D engineer and field service technician in the development and repair of instruments, respectively. The ideal eye model for OCT, the optical cross-sectional imaging modality, would have a volumetric morphology and scattering and absorption properties similar to that of normal human retina. These include a multi-layered structure of equivalent thickness to nominal human retina layers, a foveal pit that can be used to orient the image, and a RPE/OS and choroid like layers to demonstrate the depth penetration of the OCT system. A solid state tissue phantom relieves the user of constant cleaning and maintenance associated with the more common water bath model eyes. Novel processes12 have been developed to create retinal layers model that closely mimic the reflectance and scattering coefficients of the real layers of the retina, as imaged by spectral bandwidth of OCT.