Laminar dispersion in a serpentine microchannel with a Y-shape inlet was investigated using optical coherence tomography (OCT) and optical Doppler tomography (ODT). Dimensionless analysis was performed to understand the complex convective diffusion phenomena. It was shown that OCT/ODT is not only a visualization method but also a methodology to characterize important physics: streamwise velocity, secondary streamline, sedimentation time scale, shear dispersion. To demonstrate the capability of OCT/ODT, transient mixing was observed and three-dimensional imaging was performed. © 2005 Optical Society of America.

We present a three-dimensional (3-D) endoscopic optical coherence tomography (OCT) system using a dual axis scanning mirror. The MEMS device employed in this study utilized a 1.2 mm mirror and exhibited x and y-axis resonant frequencies greater than 1 kHz. The developed probe was packaged and integrated with an OCT system which has a scan rate of 3∼8 frames/s. Preliminary in vivo and in vitro 3-D OCT images of biological tissue, such as human finger, vocal cord, rabbit trachea, were visualized to verify the achieved performance of the device.