PATENT CLAIM ANALYSIS

Application Number: 16030477
Application Type: Utility
Filing Date: 2018-07
Publication Date: 2020-01
Patent Classification: ["385", "038000"]

Abstract:
This invention relates to an advance in the delivery of laser beams to internal surgical sites using optical fibers with a novel distal tip design made using a fusion assembly procedure suitable for directing laser beams out of the side of an optical fiber. This side-fire fiber delivery tip assembly is fabricated by fusing a transparent tube onto the distal ends of a laser beam delivery fiber and an associated coaxial stub fiber that have beveled and parallel end faces that meet inside of the transparent tube. The result is a rugged fiber delivery tip assembly that is almost entirely solid, except for a very narrow gap between the beveled end surfaces of the two fibers. A loose fitting transparent capsule is placed over this fiber tip to contain a transparent perfluorocarbon lubricating oil or a perfluorocarbon heat-transfer agent that serves as a cooling agent for the fiber tip assembly.

Claim (Index 2):
The side-fire fiber optical tip assembly as in  claim 1  in which the said side-fire fiber optical tip is fabricated by joining together the following three components: (1) a laser beam delivery fiber with a distal end that is beveled at an angle to the fiber's axis to support total internal reflection of a laser beam transmitted in the fiber, (2) a short stub fiber of the same outside diameter as the delivery fiber and that is beveled at one end with the same angle as the delivery fiber, and (3) a short transparent tube having an inside diameter slightly larger than the outside diameters of the two fibers, that are assembled together by inserting the beveled ends of the delivery fiber and stub fiber fully into the transparent tube so that the two beveled surfaces are parallel and separated by a narrow gap followed by fusing these three components in place such that the small space associated with the gap between the two beveled fiber surfaces is hermetically sealed in the course of fusing the outer circumferential surfaces of the said laser beam delivery fiber and said short stub fiber to the inner surface of the said short transparent tube.

Metadata:
- Claim Count in Document: 16.0
- Percentile: 95.0
- Lexical Diversity: 1.76136
- Patent Class: 385.0
- Transitional Phrase Type: none
- Component Type: 0
- Foreign Priority: False
- Related Applications: ['15338420', '15382611', '14020289', '14578739', '14958057']

Analysis Scores:
- 35 USC 101 Eligibility (BERT): 0.8351664454452746
- 35 USC 102 Novelty (BERT): 0.5949060882248681
- Combined Prediction Score: 0.811140409723234
- Mean Citation Score: 308.0308720000001
- Max Citation Score: 507.79843
- Similarity Product: 477.8553250171221

Labels:
- Claim Label 101: 1
- Claim Label 102: 1
- Claim Label 103: 1
- Claim Label 112: 1
- Combined Label: 1
- Label 101 Adjusted: 1

Dataset: test