Patent ID: 7285089

Claim:
Confocal imaging equipment comprising an image guide ( 1 ) constituted by flexible optical fibres with: on the side of the proximal end of the image guide ( 1 ): a source ( 2 ) producing an illumination beam, means for angular scanning ( 3 ) of said beam, means for injecting ( 4 ) the beam deflected alternately into one of the fibres of the image guide ( 1 ), means for separating ( 5 ) the illumination beam and a backscattered signal, means for spatial filtering ( 6 ), means for detecting ( 7 ) said backscattered signal, electronic means ( 8 ) for controlling, analyzing and digital processing of the detected said backscattered signal and display; and on the side of the distal end of the image guide ( 1 ): an optical head ( 9 ) adapted for focusing the illumination beam leaving the illuminated fibre, characterized in that the means for angular scanning ( 3 ) comprise a resonating line mirror (M 1 ) and a galvanometric frame mirror (M 2 ) with a variable frequency and two afocal optical systems adapted for conjugating first the two mirrors (M 1 , M 2 ) then for conjugating the frame mirror (M 2 ) and the injection means ( 4 ) in the image guide, each optical system respecting the initial quality of the wave front (WFE) and having a spatial distribution of the focal spot intensity (PSF) equal to the diameter of a fibre core; and in that an afocal optical system comprises standard lenses and corrective lenses adapted for correcting the residual aberrations of said standard lenses.