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Timestamp: 2014-10-25 14:32:38
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Tube For A Surgical Microscope FreshPatents Stats3 views for this patent on FreshPatents.com2014: 3 viewsUpdated: October 13 2014 TOP 200 Companies filing patents this week
Tube for a surgical microscope Tube for a surgical microscopeA tube of a surgical microscope has a base part, intermediate part pivotable about a rotational axis on the base part, and an ocular part pivotable about a rotational axis on the intermediate part. An imaging beam path passes through the base part, intermediate part and ocular part. The tube has a tube lens system which transfers a parallel imaging beam path into an intermediate image. The parallel imaging beam path enters via an opening in a connecting piece of the base part. The tube has a first mirror movable about the rotational axis on the base part and a further mirror movable on the intermediate part about the rotational axis. The first mirror directs the imaging beam path to the further mirror. The first mirror and further mirror are mounted in the imaging beam path between a lens unit having positive refractive power and a lens unit having negative refractive power.Related Terms: Imaging Microscope Ocular Refract Browse recent Carl Zeiss Meditec Ag patents - Jena, DEUSPTO Applicaton #: #20140009825 - Class: 359384 (USPTO) - Inventors: Christian Luecke, Hartmut Gaertner, Andre Mueller, Martin Schneider, Alfons Abele, Nadine Kolster, Dirk Holzmann, Wolfgang Robra, Bernd Rudisile, Michael Czerwinski The Patent Description & Claims data below is from USPTO Patent Application 20140009825, Tube for a surgical microscope.
This application is a divisional application of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/805,663, filed Aug. 12, 2010, which claims priority of German patent application 10 2009 037 921.5, filed Aug. 19, 2009, and the entire contents of both applications are incorporated herein by reference.
The invention relates to a tube for a surgical microscope, having an imaging beam path guided via a base part, via an intermediate part pivotable about a rotational axis on the base part and via an ocular part pivotable about a rotational axis on the intermediate part. The tube further includes a tube lens system which passes a parallel imaging beam path, which enters via an opening in a connecting piece of the base part, into an intermediate image. The tube further includes a first adjustable mirror element which can be moved about the rotational axis on the base part and a further adjustable mirror element which can be moved about the rotational axis on the intermediate part. The first mirror element directs the imaging beam path, which enters via the connecting piece, to the further mirror element.
A tube of the above kind is known from DE 297 07 144 U1. There, a binocular tube for a surgical microscope is described. The tube has three housing parts through which the imaging beam path is guided and these housing parts are connected to each other by two rotational joints in a pivotably movable manner. The tube contains a first adjustable mirror element and a second adjustable mirror element. The mirror elements are mounted in the rotational axes of the rotational joints and direct the imaging beam path to the oculars of the tube. The imaging beam path enters via a tube lens having positive refractive power.
It is an object of the invention to provide a tube for a surgical microscope having very good ergonomic characteristics and a very good imaging quality.
This object is achieved by a tube of the kind mentioned above which contains a tube lens system configured as a telesystem. The tube lens system has a lens unit having positive refractive power and a lens unit having negative refractive power. The first mirror element and the second mirror element are disposed in the imaging beam path between the lens unit having positive refractive power and the lens unit having negative refractive power.
A telesystem includes a lens unit having positive refractive power and contains a lens unit whose refractive power is negative.
The invention is based on the idea that the optical path length in the tube lens system can be significantly shortened by means of a telesystem in order to provide structural space for additional optical components in a tube. Furthermore, the image field curvature of the intermediate image in the tube can be reduced or prevented by means of a telesystem.
In order to ensure the compatibility of component groups of a surgical microscope, manufacturers of surgical microscopes establish the following standard measurements for: the size of the intermediate image in the binocular tube, the focal length of the tube lens system, and the exit pupil. For a predetermined focal length of the tube lens system, when a telesystem is used as a tube lens system, the optical path length of the imaging beam path between the lens unit having positive refractive power and the intermediate image in the tube is less than for a tube having a tube lens system that only has a lens unit having positive refractive power.
A tube for a surgical microscope is designed for the connection to a base body of the surgical microscope wherein the microscope main objective is mounted and which contains a magnification system.
The position of the exit pupil of a tube having a tube lens system formed as a telesystem is primarily determined by the distance of the lens unit of positive refractive power of the telesystem from the exit pupil of the magnification system in the surgical microscope base body and the refractive power of the lens unit having negative refractive power of the telesystem.
An ergonomically favorably configured tube enables a viewing person especially to move the ocular in-view toward and far away from the surgical microscope base body. A further adjusting region of the tube requires a comparatively long optical path length from the opening on the connecting piece of the base part up to the intermediate image which can be viewed by a viewing person through an ocular having magnification.
In a tube having good ergonomic characteristics and which is movable about two rotational axes and has a base part, an intermediate part, and an ocular part, the mechanical distance of the opening in the base part of the tube and a movable mirror element, which is mounted on the first rotational axis, need be about as large as the distance between the first and second mirror elements in the tube, which is disposed at the second rotational axis. A further adjusting range is then covered by pivoting of the ocular part and the base part about the rotational axis of the tube.
In the tube of the invention, the mirror elements, which deflect the imaging beam path, are mounted between the lens unit of positive refractive power and a lens unit of negative refractive power of a telesystem. For this reason, it can be achieved that the ratio of the optical path length between the mirror elements in the intermediate part of the tube and the optical path length from the opening in the connecting piece of the tube to the first mirror element can be ⅔ or even more. The optical path length from the opening in the connecting part of the tube up to the position of the intermediate image is the same as for a tube having a tube lens whose focal length corresponds to the refractive power of the telesystem and which is mounted in the entry opening of the tube. The optical path length between the opening in the connecting part of the tube up to the position of the intermediate image can then amount to approximately 3½ times the optical path length from the entry opening of the tube up to the first mirror element.
In particular, the invention is based on the idea that by arranging the lens unit having positive refractive power at a distance from the entry opening of the tube, in whose base part a structural space is provided which is available especially for a beam splitter or an afocal system, for example, a magnification system in the form of a Galilei system or zoom system.
A realization of the invention is especially that very good imaging qualities in a tube are combined with excellent ergonomic qualities because of the arrangement of two mirror elements in a tube between the lens unit having positive refractive power and the lens unit having negative refractive power of a telesystem whose focal length lies in the range between 165 mm and 220 mm with each of these mirror elements being pivotable about a rotational axis running perpendicular to the optical axis of the imaging beam path.
Large structural space for a magnification system, which is arranged in the tube, or for a beam splitter arrangement for the in-coupling or out-coupling of an imaging beam path is provided in that the optical path length between the lens unit having positive refractive power and the first adjustable mirror element is held less than the optical path length between the opening in the connecting piece and the lens unit having positive refractive power.
Preferably, the tube lens system is configured for a stereoscopic object viewing. The tube lens system then has a left and right tube system which is passed through by a left and right stereoscopic imaging beam path. The base part and the intermediate part of the tube can be configured to be very narrow and space-saving in that the stereoscopic imaging beam path having constant stereo basis is guided from the opening in the connecting piece to the second mirror element.
The invention is also based on the idea that the tube can be folded together in a small space when the base part has a base part housing and the intermediate part has an intermediate part housing, in which connection the intermediate part on the base part is movable between a folded position and an unfolded position and the base part housing has a housing section whose outer contour is configured with a geometry accommodating the outer contour of the intermediate part housing in the folded position. Then, the intermediate part housing can be pivoted tightly against the base part housing.
The invention is also based on the idea of guiding, in a tube, the imaging beam path through an ocular part which is supported on the intermediate part in a pivotably movable manner and which has an ocular part housing. The ocular part can be moved against the intermediate part between a folded position and an unfolded position. The ocular part housing has a housing section whose outer contour is configured with a geometry accommodating the outer contour of the intermediate part housing when in the folded position. These measures ensure that the ocular part can be applied on the intermediate part in a very tight and space-saving manner.
A further idea of the invention is that, for the movement of the tube, large pivot angles can be obtained in the pivot axes, without a vignetting of the imaging beam path, which passes through the tube, taking place in that a housing covering is provided which is movable relative to the base part and/or the ocular part for covering the imaging beam path passing through the base part. The invention also lies in that a housing covering, which is movable relative to the ocular part, is provided for covering the imaging beam path passing through the ocular part.
For this purpose, it is advantageous to configure the housing covering with a flexible cover section and a rigid cover section. The flexible cover section and the rigid cover section are connected via a hinge. This hinge can be configured as a film hinge. The housing cover itself is advantageously made of plastic and can be manufactured, for example, as an injection molded part. Basically, it is, however, also possible to provide a lamella mechanism for the housing cover.
Pivoting the intermediate part about the rotational axis on the base part, the rigid cover section carries out a rotational movement about the rotational axis on the base part. Correspondingly, the rigid cover section rotates with a pivoting of the ocular part about the rotational axis on the intermediate part when the ocular part is moved about the rotational axis on the intermediate part. The flexible cover section is guided into a slit-shaped receptacle on the base part or on the ocular part. The slit-shaped receptacle acts as a coulisse-type guide.
The housing cover is fixed in the intermediate part. Advantageously, two identically configured housing covers, which are connected to each other, are provided for covering the imaging beam path passing through the base part and for covering the imaging beam path passing through the ocular part.
The lens unit having a negative refractive power is arranged in the ocular part. The ocular part includes a section hinged to the intermediate part and a further section having a receptacle for an ocular. This further section is accommodated on a rotational joint so as to be pivotable about the optical axis of the imaging beam path. A Porro prism for image reversal is disposed in the further section. A drive is provided for pivoting the further section. This enables an adjustment of the pupil distance of the ocular of the tube. The lens system having negative refractive power is arranged between the second mirror element and the Porro system for image reversal.
It is advantageous to position an afocal magnification system between the lens system having positive refractive power and the opening in the connecting piece. The afocal magnification system can be configured as a Galilei changer. When the first lens of the afocal magnification system refracts the parallel imaging beam path toward the optical axis, the afocal magnification system operates to oppose a darkening of the edge regions of the intermediate image in the tube or a vignetting of the intermediate image. Furthermore, an adjustable magnification system in the tube facilitates a variation of the magnification of the surgical microscope with this magnification being adjustable by means of a magnification system in the surgical microscope base body.
To counter the above-mentioned darkening of the edge region of the intermediate image in the tube or a vignetting of the intermediate image in the tube, it is also possible to provide a glass block ahead of the lens element having positive refractive power. In that this glass block is configured as a beam splitter, an interface is made possible for a data in-coupling or data out-coupling in the imaging beam path in the tube.
Especially high ergonomic requirements can be satisfied in that the base part has a rotational joint having a rotational axis parallel to the optical axis of the imaging beam path.
FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a tube having an integrated magnification changer on the base body of a surgical microscope;
FIG. 2 is a three-dimensional section of an assembly of the tube;
FIG. 3 shows a housing covering for covering the imaging beam path in the tube;
FIGS. 4 to 8 show sections of the tube in different pivot positions;
FIG. 9 shows the ocular in-view of the tube with a device for adjusting the pupil distance;
FIG. 10 shows a tube having an integrated beam splitter and interfaces for connecting to documentation units; and,
FIG. 11 shows the imaging beam path of the tube with integrated beam splitter.
The tube 1 in FIG. 1 has a base part 3, an intermediate part 5, as well as an ocular part 7. The base part 3 includes a base housing 9. The base housing 9 is connected with a connecting piece 11 to the base body 13 of the surgical microscope 15. The intermediate part 5 has an intermediate part housing 16. The intermediate part 5 is pivotally movably mounted on the base part 3 via a rotational joint 17. The intermediate part 5 can thereby be moved about the rotational axis 21 in correspondence to the double arrow 19. The ocular part 7 includes an ocular part housing 22. The ocular part 7 is accommodated via a rotational joint 23 on the intermediate part 5. The rotational joint 23 has a rotational axis 25. The ocular part 7 can be pivoted on the rotational axis 25 and corresponds to the double arrow 27.
The base body 13 of the surgical microscope 15 is attached to the arm 29 of a surgical microscope stand (not shown). The surgical microscope 15 can be shifted with the tube 1 about the pivot axis 33 and the tilt axis 31 on the surgical microscope stand.
The surgical microscope 15 permits a viewing person to view an object region 35 via left and right stereoscopic imaging beam paths having optical axes (37, 39) through the left and right oculars (41, 43) with magnification. The left and right stereoscopic imaging beam paths pass through a common microscope main objective 40.
The base part 3 includes a rotational joint 45. In the rotational joint 45, the tube 1 can be moved relative to the base body 13 of the surgical microscope 15 about a rotational axis 47 in correspondence to the double arrow 51. The rotational axis 47 is parallel to the optical axes (37, 39) of the imaging beam path entering into the tube.
An adjustable afocal magnification system is disposed in the base body 13 of the surgical microscope 15. In the base part 3 of the tube 1, a further afocal magnification system is disposed for the left and right imaging beam paths. This magnification system is accommodated in a magnification changer which can be actuated by means of a rotary knob 53. The magnification changer in the tube permits a multifaceted adjustment of the magnification of the viewing images in the surgical microscope 15.
The left and right oculars (41, 43) are arranged in ocular receptacles (139l, 139r), respectively. The ocular receptacles (139l, 139r) can be pivoted about the axes (63, 65) for a pupil distance adjusting device 61 in correspondence to the double arrows (62, 64).
The tube 1 contains a tube lens system for each of the left and right imaging beam paths. The tube lens system is configured as a telesystem.
FIG. 2 shows component assemblies of the tube 1 in a three-dimensional section with the right imaging beam path having the optical axis 39. The right imaging beam path passes through the right tube lens system 67r which has a lens unit 68r of positive refractive power and a lens unit 69r of negative refractive power.
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Patent InfoApplication # US 20140009825 A1Publish Date 01/09/2014 Document # 13952304 File Date 07/26/2013 USPTO Class 359384 Other USPTO Classes International Class / Drawings 11 ImagingMicroscopeOcularRefract