Skin treatment device

• US 10,413,748 B2
• Filed: 01/30/2017
• Issued: 09/17/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 02/02/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Braun GmbH (The Procter & Gamble Company)
• Original Assignee: Braun GmbH (The Procter & Gamble Company)
• Inventors: Beerwerth, Frank, Neyer, Christian, Dadic, Dalibor, Heinemann, Felix
• Primary Examiner(s): Farah, Ahmed M
• Application Number:
  US15/419,254
• Publication Number:
  US 20170216619A1
• Time in Patent Office: 960 Days
• Field of Search: 606 3, 606 9- 11, 607 88- 92
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 18/203 applying laser energy to the outside of the body
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2018/00476 Hair follicles
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 2005/0626 Monitoring, verifying, controlling systems and methods
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 2005/0644 Handheld applicators
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 2005/0651 Diodes
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 2005/0652 Arrays of diodes
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 2005/0663 Coloured light
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 5/0616 Skin treatment other than tanning
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 5/0617 Hair treatment

Abstract

The present invention is concerned with a skin treatment device, in particular a temporal hair removal device, having a light emission unit having a substrate, a plurality of first LED dies mounted on the substrate on an area of at least 0.2 cm², in particular of at least 1.0 cm², where the first LED dies are each arranged for emitting light at a first peak emission wavelength in the far red or infrared wavelength range of between 700 nm and 980 nm, and at least one second LED die arranged for emitting light at a second peak emission wavelength in the visible wavelength range of between 400 nm and below 700 nm, wherein the skin treatment device is arranged to activate the first LED dies to emit a treatment light pulse, the treatment light pulse in particular having a pulse length of between 10 ms and 300 ms, and the first LED dies have a radiant flux such that a radiant fluence on the skin of a user of at least 1 J/cm² is achieved by application of the treatment light pulse, and the skin treatment device is arranged to activate the at least one second LED die to emit a visible light pulse simultaneously with the emission of the treatment light pulse.

Claims

1. A skin treatment device, in particular a temporal hair removal device, comprising:

a light emission unit comprising a substrate, a plurality of first LED dies mounted on the substrate on an area in the range of between about 0.2 cm² and about 100 cm², where the first LED dies are each arranged for emitting light at a first peak emission wavelength in the far red or infrared wavelength range of between about 700 nm and about 980 nm, and at least one second LED die arranged for emitting light at a second peak emission wavelength in the visible wavelength range of between about 400 nm and below about 700 nm;

wherein the skin treatment device is arranged to activate the first LED dies to emit a treatment light pulse and the first LED dies have a radiant flux such that a radiant fluence on the skin of a user in a range of between about 1 J/cm² and about 30 J/cm² is achieved by application of the treatment light pulse; and

the skin treatment device is arranged to activate the at least one second LED die to emit a visible light pulse simultaneously with the emission of the treatment light pulse.

2. The skin treatment device in accordance with claim 1, wherein the treatment light pulse has a pulse length in the range of between about 10 ms and about 300 ms.

3. The skin treatment device in accordance with claim 1, wherein the first LED dies are mounted on the substrate on an area in the range of between 1.0 cm² and about 10 cm².

4. The skin treatment device in accordance with claim 1, further comprising an exit opening and the skin treatment device is arranged so that the treatment light pulse and the visible light pulse exit the skin treatment device via the exit opening.

5. The skin treatment device in accordance with claim 4, wherein the control unit is arranged to activate the second LED die to emit visible light also outside of the duration of the treatment light pulse.

6. The skin treatment device in accordance with claim 1, further comprising a control unit for activating the first LED dies to emit the treatment light pulse and the at least one second LED die to emit the visible light pulse simultaneously with the treatment light pulse.

7. The skin treatment device in accordance with claim 1, wherein the first peak emission wavelength lies in a wavelength range of between about 700 nm and about 780 nm.

8. The skin treatment device in accordance with claim 1, wherein the first peak emission wavelength lies in a wavelength range of between about 800 nm and about 900 nm.

9. The skin treatment device in accordance with claim 1, wherein each of the first LED dies has a radiant flux in a range of between about 0.6 Watt and 10 Watt applicable over the pulse length.

10. The skin treatment device in accordance with claim 1, wherein the skin treatment device further comprises at least one sensor for measuring a skin property and a control unit coupled with the skin sensor for controlling the LED dies based on the skin property measured by the sensor.

11. The skin treatment device in accordance with claim 1, further comprising a control element for switching between a first skin treatment function and a second skin treatment function.

12. The skin treatment device in accordance with claim 1, comprising at least a further second LED die that is arranged for emitting light at a further peak emission wavelength in the visible range of between about 400 nm and about 700 nm, which further peak emission wavelength is different to the second peak emission wavelength.

13. The skin treatment device in accordance with claim 1, wherein the device is arranged to control at least one of the intensity or color of the visible light pulse.

14. The skin treatment device in accordance with claim 13, wherein the device controls the intensity of the color in dependence on at least one of a user'"'"'s input, a chosen skin treatment function, a radiant fluence of the treatment light pulse, a battery charge status, or a device temperature value.

15. The skin treatment device in accordance with claim 1, further comprising a switch for user-controlled activation of the emission of a visible light pulse by the at least one second LED die.

16. The skin treatment device in accordance with claim 1, wherein the at least one second LED die is also mounted on the substrate.

17. The skin treatment device in accordance with claim 1, comprising at least three second LED dies mounted on the substrate, which second LED dies are disposed at locations suitable to indicate a selected active area of the first LED dies and the skin treatment device is arranged to have two selectable active areas of different size, where the larger selectable active area comprises the smaller selectable active area.