6. Conclusion

The commercial development of OCT technology requires high-performance, low-cost components. Initially, OCT benefited from the maturity of technologies in the telecommunications industry. As OCT technology has evolved, component performance has steadily increased. Nevertheless, the cost of components can be a brake on the development of clinical OCT applications, and cost reduction will be necessary to sustain growth in this field. One approach to reducing costs is to use photonic integrated circuits. Their compatibility with CMOS manufacturing processes enables mass production. Thanks to their small footprint and the monolithic co-integration of several optical and optoelectronic elements, photonic integrated circuits would enable, in addition to a considerable reduction in costs, the realization of more compact and stable OCT devices.