Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is an imaging method that creates high-resolution cross-sectional images of transparent and semi-transparent media. It is used both in industrial measurement technology, for example in component monitoring, and in biomedical diagnostics, e.g. B. in ophthalmology or tissue diagnostics. Companies and research institutions with a focus on industrial measurement technology and medical technology also expect a large number of other fields of application. They work together in the VDI/VDE Society for Measurement and Automation Technology (GMA) in a specialist committee on OCT and have now published guideline VDI/VDE 5565 Sheet 1 with standardized process descriptions.

Bringing together expertise from industry and research in order to jointly publish a standardized set of rules for OCT and thus open the way for further OCT application fields in the future - that is the goal of Technical Committee 1.32 "Optical Coherence Tomography" in the GMA department "Methodology of Measurement and sensor technology". This is because the comparatively new measurement method has not yet been described in general terms, and various methods and performance features have not yet been standardized. The comparability of different OCT systems is not yet given and a wider distribution is restricted. This should change with the guideline work of the technical committee.

In January 2023, guideline VDI/VDE 5565 Sheet 1 "Optical coherence tomography (OCT); Process Descriptions” in a bilingual edition (German/English) (www.vdi.de/5565). The guideline describes the OCT procedures and defines the necessary terms. The committee is already working on VDI/VDE 5565 sheet 2 on the subject of "Signal processing and data evaluation". The metrological characterization of OCT systems is on the roadmap for further guideline projects.

Originally used in ophthalmology, OCT is a measurement method based on short-coherent interferometry for the non-contact and high-resolution display of tomographic cross-sectional images. It has a penetration depth of several millimeters and a resolution in the single-digit micrometer range. In medical diagnostics, OCT can be used to examine organic tissue, such as tumor tissue, at a very early stage of the disease, either intraoperatively or in vitro.

Thanks to its universal properties, OCT is also used in industry for material and defect testing, for example in plastic products. In the case of opaque materials that the light cannot penetrate, such as metal, OCT is used to measure the surface and distance.