Reimaging optical system and endoscope using the same

• US 8,139,296 B2
• Filed: 02/10/2009
• Issued: 03/20/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 02/12/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Olympus Corporation
• Original Assignee: Olympus Medical Systems Corporation (Olympus Corporation)
• Inventors: Ito, Koichiro
• Primary Examiner(s): Harrington, Alicia M
• Application Number:
  US12/368,954
• Publication Number:
  US 20090203963A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,134 Days
• Field of Search: 359/363, 359/368, 359/676, 359/755, 348/65, 348/69, 348/76
• US Class Current: 359/755
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 1/00052 positioned at proximal end of the endoscope body
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 1/04 combined with photographic or television appliances
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 23/243 Objectives for endoscopes

Abstract

The invention relates to an reimaging optical system that has a sufficiently enhanced magnification and better performance, and an endoscope using the same. The reimaging optical system 3 is adapted to re-form an image by an image guide 6 on a solid-state imaging device 4 having a diagonal length of 6.5 mm or longer, and satisfies the following condition.
0.6<(D×|β|)/V  (1).
Here D is the diameter of the image guide 6, β is the optical transverse magnification of the reimaging optical system 3, and V in mm is the minor axis direction length of an imaging area of the solid-state imaging device 4.

Claims

1. A reimaging optical system adapted to re-form an image by an image guide on a solid-state imaging device having a diagonal length of 6.5 mm or longer, characterized by satisfying the following condition:

0.6<

(D×

β

)/V 

 

(1)

where D is a diameter of said image guide, β

is an optical transverse magnification of said reimaging optical system, and V in mm is a minor axis direction length of an imaging area of said solid-state imaging device.

2. The reimaging optical system according to claim 1, characterized by comprising a front unit, a stop and a rear unit, and satisfying the following condition (2):

1<

f_F/F 

 

(2)

where f_F is a focal length of the front unit, and F is a focal length of the whole reimaging optical system.

3. The reimaging optical system according to claim 2, characterized in that said front unit comprises a first lens group including at least one positive single lens and a second lens group including a cemented lens of a positive lens and a negative lens, and satisfies the following condition:

0.9<

f_2F/F 

 

(3)

where f_2F is a focal length of the positive lens in the second lens group.

4. The reimaging optical system according to claim 1, characterized by comprising a front unit, a stop and a rear unit, and satisfying the following condition:

6<

f_B/f_F 

 

(2)

where f_F is a focal length of the front unit, and f_B is focal length of the rear unit.

5. The reimaging optical system according to claim 1, characterized in that an optical low-pass filter is located of an image side of said image guide.

6. An endoscope, characterized by comprising an objective lens located at an end of the endoscope, an image guide for guiding an object image formed by said objective lens, and a reimaging optical system adapted to re-form the object image guided by said image guide onto a solid-state imaging device having a diagonal length of 6.5 mm or longer, wherein the reimaging optical system according to claim 1 is used as said reimaging optical system.

7. The endoscope according to claim 6, characterized by further comprising an illumination means that includes a white light emitting diode without recourse to any color correction filter.

8. The endoscope according to claim 6, characterized by further comprising a display means for displaying an image based on electric signals from said solid-state imaging device.