Electronic endoscope

• US 6,476,851 B1
• Filed: 12/29/1997
• Issued: 11/05/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 12/27/1996
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Olympus Optical Company Ltd. (Olympus Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Olympus Optical Company Ltd. (Olympus Corporation)
• Inventors: Nakamura, Shinichi
• Primary Examiner(s): DIEP, NHON THANH
• Application Number:
  US08/999,329
• Time in Patent Office: 1,772 Days
• Field of Search: H04/N.907, 348/65, 348/68, 348/73, 348/251, 348/315, 348/340, 348/342, 359/654, 359/661, 359/773, 359/557, 600/109, 600/111, 358/460, 250/208.1
• US Class Current: 348/65
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 1/00096 Optical elements
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 1/00101 the distal tip features being detachable
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 1/05 characterised by the image sensor, e.g. camera, being in the distal end portion
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 1/051 Details of CCD assembly
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 23/243 Objectives for endoscopes
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 23/2484 Arrangements in relation to a camera or imaging device processing or control of video signals generated by an endoscope H04N23/60, H04N23/70
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 9/12 having three components only
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 9/34 having four components only
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/555 for picking-up images in sites, inaccessible due to their dimensions or hazardous conditions, e.g. endoscopes or borescopes
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/81 for suppressing or minimising disturbance in the image signal generation

Abstract

An electronic endoscope includes an objective lens system in which chief rays directed toward the maximum image height are inclined outwardly with respect to the optical axis and a solid-state image sensor which has a light-receiving surface on which many pixels are arrayed and which provides a light beam inclined outwardly with respect to the optical axis and incident on the light-receiving surface with a higher power, in separating from the center of the light-receiving surface, than a light beam incident perpendicularly on the light-receiving surface. In doing so, distortion is favorably corrected and shading can be prevented.

Claims

1. An electronic endoscope, comprising:

an objective lens system which causes chief rays that are directed toward a maximum image height to be inclined outwardly with respect to an optical axis of said objective lens system; and

a solid-state image sensor having a light-receiving surface on which a plurality of pixels are arrayed,

wherein said solid-state image sensor is configured so that each of said plurality of pixels generates a largest power when alight beam is incident thereon with a predetermined outward inclination in reference to the optical axis, and said outward inclination of a light beam that causes the pixel to generate the largest power increases as a position of the pixel on said light-receiving surface separates from a center of said light-receiving surface at least in one direction.

4. An electronic endoscope according to claim 1, wherein said objective lens system has an angle of view of at least 100°

.

5. An electronic endoscope according to claim 1, wherein a maximum diameter of lens components constituting said objective lens system is smaller than a short side of said solid-state image sensor.

6. An electronic endoscope according to claim 1, wherein a vignetting factor of said objective lens system relative to a light beam directed toward the maximum image height is less than 1.

7. An electronic endoscope according to claim 1, wherein said objective lens system includes three or less lenses.

8. An electronic endoscope according to claim 1, wherein at least one reflecting prism is placed in an optical path from a front end of said objective lens system to said light-receiving surface of said solid-state image sensor, and said solid-state image sensor is placed horizontally along a longitudinal direction of an insertable section of said endoscope.

9. An electronic endoscope according to claim 8, wherein at least one of an entrance surface, an exit surface, and a reflecting surface of said reflecting prism is provided with an optical power.

10. An electronic endoscope according to claim 8, wherein an optical element having an optical power is cemented to one of an entrance surface and an exit surface of said reflecting prism.

11. An electronic endoscope according to claim 1, wherein a distal end of said endoscope is shaped into a crest-like form in which an entrance window of said objective lens system is located at a headmost point, and said electronic endoscope further comprises an illumination system that has at least two exit windows arranged around the entrance window of said objective lens system and light guide fiber bundles arranged on a light-source side of said at least two exit windows along said objective lens system as being curved to be convex toward said objective lens system.

12. An electronic endoscope according to claim 1, wherein said objective lens system includes a decentered lens and said solid-state image sensor is constructed to generate, at a center of said light receiving surface, a higher power in response to a light beam incident obliquely on said light-receiving surface than in response to a light beam incident perpendicularly on said light receiving surface.

13. An electronic endoscope according to any one of claims 1-3, wherein said solid-state image sensor is provided with members for condensing light on light-incidence sides of said pixels, respectively, and an amount of light condensed by said members increases progressively in going from a center of said solid-state image sensor to a periphery thereof.

14. An electronic endoscope according to any one of claims 1-3, wherein said solid-state image sensor is provided with microlenses on light-incidence sides of said pixels, respectively, and an optical axis of each of said microlenses is increasingly shifted from a center of each of said pixels in going from a middle of an object image projected on said solid-state image sensor to a periphery thereof.

15. An electronic endoscope according to any one of claims 1-3, wherein said solid-state image sensor is provided with microlenses on light-incidence sides of said pixels, respectively, and a diameter of each of said microlenses is enlarged progressively in going from a middle of an object image projected on said solid-state image sensor to a periphery thereof.

16. An electronic endoscope according to claim 12, wherein said solid-state image sensor is provided with microlenses on light-incidence sides of said pixels, respectively, and an optical axis of each of said microlenses is shifted, increasingly in going to one side of said solid-state image sensor and decreasingly in going to a remaining side thereof, from a center of each of said pixels at a middle of an object image projected on said solid-state image sensor.

17. An electronic endoscope according to claim 1, wherein said objective lens system includes three or less lenses, or three or less lens units, and satisfies the following condition:

18. An electronic endoscope according to claim 17, wherein said objective lens system satisfies the following condition:

19. An electronic endoscope according to claim 1, wherein said objective lens system includes, in order from an object side, a first lens unit, a second lens unit, and a third lens unit, said third lens unit being comprised of a cemented lens whose interface is convex toward an image side.

20. An electronic endoscope according to claim 1, wherein said objective lens system includes a lens or plane-parallel plate cemented to a CCD glass cover and satisfies the following condition:

2. An electronic endoscope, comprising:

a plurality of objective lens systems, each of which causes chief rays directed toward a maximum image height to be inclined outwardly with respect to an optical axis thereof; and

a solid-state image sensor having a single light-receiving surface on which a plurality of pixels are arrayed and which receives images formed by said plurality of objective lens systems,

wherein said solid-state image sensor is configured so that each of said plurality of pixels generates a largest power when l light beam coming from one of said plurality of objective lens systems is incident thereon with a predetermined outward inclination in reference to the optical axis of the predetermined one of said plurality of objective lens systems, and the outward inclination of a light beam that causes the pixel to generate the largest power increases as a position of the pixel on said single light-receiving surface separates from a center of the image formed by the predetermined one of said plurality of objective lens systems.

3. An electronic endoscope, comprising:

an objective lens system;

a plurality of illumination optical systems possessing light-distribution characteristics such that illuminance on a periphery of a visual field of said objective lens system is lower than illuminance at a center thereof; and

a solid-state image sensor in which, when light of uniform intensity is incident on a light-receiving surface thereof, each of pixels located on a periphery of said light-receiving surface produces a higher power than each of pixels located at a middle thereof.

21. An electronic endoscope, comprising:

an objective lens system defining an optical axis;

an image sensor comprising a plurality of sensing elements, said image sensor being arranged to intersect said optical axis and adapted to receive light rays from said objective lens system,

wherein a first sensing element Of said plurality of sensing elements has a position closer to said optical axis than a second sensing element of said plurality of sensing elements, and

wherein said second sensing element is more sensitive to said light rays than said first sensing element.