Angular multiplexed optical coherence tomography systems and methods

1. An angle multiplexed optical coherence tomography system for evaluating an eye of a patient, the system comprising:

a light source;

an optical assembly for obtaining a plurality of sample beams corresponding to respective anatomical locations of the eye of the patient, wherein individual sample beams are associated with a respective angle relative to a reference beam; and

a detection mechanism that detects individual unique interference patterns respectively provided by the plurality of sample beams, for simultaneous evaluation of the anatomical locations,

wherein the detection mechanism includes a filter that transmits interference signals at spatial frequencies about a first sample-reference beam pair and suppresses interference signals at spatial frequencies about a second sample-reference beam pair.

2. The system according to claim 1 , wherein individual sample beams provide respective unique interference spatial periods at the detection mechanism.

3. The system according to claim 2 , wherein unique interference spatial periods are adjustable in response to changes in respective sample beam angles relative to the reference beam.

4. The system according to claim 1 , further comprising one or more collimation lenses that direct combined sample-reference beam pairs toward the detection mechanism.

5. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the system provide an accuracy for range finding on the order of 10 microns.

6. An angle multiplexed optical coherence tomography method for evaluating an eye of a patient, comprising:

obtaining a plurality of sample beams corresponding to respective anatomical locations of the eye of the patient, wherein individual sample beams are associated with a respective angle relative to a reference beam;

detecting individual unique interference patterns respectively provided by the plurality of sample beams, including using a filter to transmit interference signals at spatial frequencies about a first sample-reference beam pair and suppress interference signals at spatial frequencies about a second sample-reference beam pair; and

evaluating the eye of the patient based on the detected interference patterns.

7. The method according to claim 6 , further comprising positioning a corneal topography system relative to the eye based on the evaluation, and obtaining a corneal topography measurement of the eye.

8. The method according to claim 7 , wherein the topography measurement is performed without aligning the corneal topography system using corneal topography fiducials.