Objective optical system for endoscopes

• US 5,087,989 A
• Filed: 04/18/1990
• Issued: 02/11/1992
• Est. Priority Date: 04/19/1989
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Nakamichi Corporation (Nimble Holdings Co. Ltd.), Olympus Optical Company Ltd. (Olympus Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Olympus Optical Company Ltd. (Olympus Corporation)
• Inventors: Igarashi, Tsutomu
• Primary Examiner(s): Arnold, Bruce Y.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Phan, James
• Application Number:
  US07/510,661
• Time in Patent Office: 664 Days
• Field of Search: 350/481, 350/479, 350/432, 350/463, 350/96.18, 350/96.15, 350/96.26, 350/448-450, 350/501, 350/504, 350/505
• US Class Current: 359/692
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 13/04 Reversed telephoto objectives
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 13/18 with lenses having one or more non-spherical faces, e.g. for reducing geometrical aberration G02B13/002 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 13/22 Telecentric objectives or lens systems
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 23/243 Objectives for endoscopes
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 9/34 having four components only
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 9/60 having five components only

Abstract

An objective optical system for endoscopes consisting, in the order from the object side, of a front lens unit having negative refractive power, an aperture stop and a rear lens unit having positive refractive power and comprising at least one aspherical surface in each of the lens units. This objective optical system for endoscopes has distortion of a small absolute value, a distortion curve of natural shape, favorably corrected aberrations, and is composed of lens elements easily manufacturable.

Claims

1. An objective optical system for endoscopes comprising, in order from the object side, a front lens unit having a negative refractive power, an aperture stop and a rear lens unit having a positive refractive power, and satisfying the following conditions (1) through (7):

##EQU27## wherein the reference symbol ω

represents a half field angle of the objective optical system, the reference symbols S₁ (θ

₁) and S₂ (θ

₁) represent offense against the sine condition of the front lens unit and rear lens unit, respectively, normalized by f sin θ

, and determined by tracing a principal ray having an angle of θ

, relative to the optical axis on the object side of the objective optical system from an image toward an object, the reference symbol β

_E represents a paraxial pupil magnification of the objective optical system as a whole, the reference symbol f designates focal length of the objective optical system as a whole, the reference symbol f₁ denotes focal length of the front lens unit, the reference symbol f₂ represents focal lengths of the rear lens unit, the reference symbol ##EQU28## and k₀.8ω

is selected so as to satisfy the following formula;

##EQU29##

2. An objective optical system for endoscopes comprising, in the order from the object side, a front lens unit having a negative refractive power, an aperture stop and a rear lens unit having a positive refractive power, using at least one aspherical surface in each of said front lens unit and said rear lines unit, satisfying a relation of H(θ

₁)=k tan (θ

₁ /k) when image height is represented by H (θ

₁), an angle of incidence of the principal ray on the entrance pupil is designated by θ

₁ and a constant having a value within the range defined below, is denoted by k, and satisfying the following conditions (5) through (7);

space="preserve" listing-type="equation">1.15≦

k≦

3

space="preserve" listing-type="equation">|β

.sub.E |>

2.5 (5)

space="preserve" listing-type="equation">|f.sub.1 /f|<

3.5 (6)

space="preserve" listing-type="equation">|f.sub.2 /f|<

2.5 (7)

wherein the reference symbol β

_E represents a paraxial pupil magnification of the objective optical system as a whole, the reference symbol f designates focal length of the objective optical system as a whole, the reference symbol f₁ denotes focal length of the front lens unit and the reference symbol f₂ represents focal length of the rear lens unit.

3. An objective optical system for endoscopes according to claim 2, wherein the aspherical surface of said front lens unit has a shape that strengthens the aspherical surface of said positive refractive power as the portions of said aspherical surface become farther from the optical axis and said rear lens unit has a shape that weakens positive refractive power at marginal portions thereof.

4. An objective optical system for endoscopes according to claim 2, wherein said aspherical surface used in said front lens unit has a shape that weakens negative refractive power as portions of said aspherical surface become farther from an optical axis and said aspherical surface used in said rear lens unit has a shape that strengthens negative refractive power at the marginal portions thereof.

5. An objective optical system for endoscopes according to claim 2, wherein the aspherical surface used in said rear lens unit satisfies the following conditions (8) and (9):

space="preserve" listing-type="equation">|h.sub.am /r.sub.s |>

0.7 (8)

space="preserve" listing-type="equation">|h.sub.ac /I|>

0.6 (9)

wherein the reference symbol h_am represents height of a marginal ray on said aspherical surface, the reference symbol r_s designates a radius of said aperture stop, the reference symbol h_ac denotes height on said aspherical surface of a principal ray to attain to the maximum image height and the reference symbol I represents the maximum image height.

6. A objective optical system for endoscopes according to claim 5, wherein said rear lens unit satisfies the following condition (10):

space="preserve" listing-type="equation">|r.sub.a /f|<

2.8 (10)

wherein the reference symbol r_a represents radius of curvature, as measured on the optical axis, of the aspherical surface disposed in the rear lens unit.

7. An objective optical system for endoscopes according to claim 6 satisfying the following formula (11):

space="preserve" listing-type="equation">|f.sub.a /f|<

4 (11)

wherein the reference symbol f_a represents the focal length of the aspherical lens component arranged in the front lens unit.

8. An objective optical system for endoscopes according to claim 5, wherein said front lens satisfies the following condition (11):

space="preserve" listing-type="equation">|f.sub.a /f|<

4 (11)

wherein the reference symbol f_a represents focal length of the aspherical lens component disposed in the front lens unit.

9. An objective optical system for endoscopes according to claim 5, wherein the aspherical surface used in said rear lens unit has a shape defined by the formal shown below and satisfies the following condition:

##EQU30## wherein the reference symbol x represents the optical axis taken as an abscissa, the symbol y designates a direction perpendicular to the optical axis taken as an ordinate, the reference symbol C represents an inverse number of the radius of curvature on the aspherical surface as measured in the vicinity of the optical axis, the reference symbol p designates a conical coefficient and the reference symbols B, E, F, G, . . . denote aspherical surface coefficients.

10. An objective optical system comprising, in order from the object side, a front lens unit having a negative refractive power, an aperture stop and a rear lens unit having a positive refractive power, each of said front lens unit and said rear lens unit including a cemented doublet, and being designed so as to satisfy the following conditions (1), (13) and (14):

##EQU31## wherein the reference symbol ω

represents a half field angle of the objective optical system, the reference symbol S(θ

₁) designates offence of sine condition of said objective optical system as a whole normalized by f sin θ and

determined by tracing a principal ray having an angle of θ

relative to an optical axis on the object side of the objective optical system from an image toward the object, the reference symbol represents focal length of said objective optical system as a whole, the reference symbols ν

p₁ and ν

n₁ represent the Abbe'"'"'s numbers of a positive lens element and a negative lens element, respectively, disposed in said front lens unit, and the reference symbols ν

p₂ and ν

n₂ designate the Abbe'"'"'s numbers of a positive lens element and a negative lens element, respectively, disposed in said rear lens unit.