Interferometric synthetic aperture microscopy: Microscopic laser radar

ISAM provides spatially invariant resolution, extending the depth-of-field and reducing defocusing artifacts in clinical 3-D imaging. Volumetric data with spatially invariant resolution has the potential to improve system effectiveness for the many applications of OCT imaging. ISAM and SAR reconstruction algorithms are based on the same principle, namely that an aperture with high resolution can be computed from several lowresolution apertures. Further development of ISAM may benefit from the long history of SAR, in both reconstruction and hardware. The use of well-developed SAR algorithms such as ground moving target indication, autofocus, automatic target identification, and others can be applied to future ISAM imaging systems, providing automatic detection algorithms or guidance for diagnosis and intervention.