New family of plastic endoscope designs

Richard F. Horton; Thomas O. Bales

doi:10.1117/12.209032

12 May 1995 New family of plastic endoscope designs

Richard F. Horton, Thomas O. Bales

Proceedings Volume 2383, Micro-Optics/Micromechanics and Laser Scanning and Shaping; (1995) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.209032
Event: Photonics West '95, 1995, San Jose, CA, United States

Abstract

We have explored a new family of 6 mm imaging endoscope designs for laparoscopes. These designs use a `solid' relay lens made up of plastic lens components bonded together in a repetitive fashion to form a long, monolithic relay element without air spaces. The lack of air spaces allows for the elimination of coatings and spacing elements. This simplifies construction and should considerably lessen cost. A four element objective lens is presented for the system which uses a plano-convex sapphire element as a combination window and lens element. The other three lens elements are plastic, and produce an image which is `buried' in the monolithic relay. Two designs are discussed, a relatively inexpensive, `single use' design, which incorporates easy-to-fabricate, low-temperature plastic lens elements, and a more expensive, `autoclavable' design, using high-temperature plastic lens elements. Both designs exhibit good optical resolution, and high optical throughput and contrast.

Citation Download Citation

Richard F. Horton and Thomas O. Bales "New family of plastic endoscope designs", Proc. SPIE 2383, Micro-Optics/Micromechanics and Laser Scanning and Shaping, (12 May 1995); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.209032

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