JP3019669B2 - Electronic endoscope cable - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a structure of a cable connected to a substrate on which a solid-state imaging device is mounted in an electronic endoscope used for medical purposes or the like.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In an electronic endoscope, a solid-state imaging device is mounted at an imaging position of an imaging lens mounted on a distal end portion of an insertion portion inserted into a body cavity or the like. The solid-state imaging device is mounted on a circuit board, and a signal line for supplying a drive signal and a control signal to the solid-state imaging device, reading signal charges from the solid-state imaging device, and the like are provided on the circuit board. , A large number of cable wires such as ground wires. These cable wires extend from the inside of the insertion section to the main body operation section together with other insertion members. However, since each of the cable wires is thin and fragile, the entire cable wire is taped, or the inside of the tube is inserted. Or the like, so as to be in a bound state by being inserted through the insertion portion.

Here, an angle portion is provided in the vicinity of the distal end of the insertion portion in order to direct the hard distal portion in a desired direction, and the angle portion is bent at an angle of 180 ° or more. . Therefore, when the cable wire is bound to the angle portion, the resistance to the bending of the angle portion becomes strong, and the angle portion becomes hard, which not only hinders the angle operation but also applies a strong pulling force to the cable wire. Therefore, there is a risk of disconnection. For this,
In the angle part, the cable wire is made to be in a non-bundled state, and when the angle part is bent, a certain amount of extra length is provided so as to be able to expand and contract to some extent.

[0004]

The angle portion is formed by sequentially pivoting the angle rings. When the angle portion is bent to the maximum, the adjacent angle rings come into contact with each other. Will do. At this time, the untied cable wire may be bitten between the angle rings. In particular,
If the angle operation is repeatedly performed, there is a possibility that the extra-long cable wire may be bent in a loop shape, and therefore, some of the cable wires protrude laterally from a dense portion. It is easily bitten between the angle rings, and the risk of disconnection becomes extremely high.

The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and an object of the present invention is to make it possible to reliably protect a cable wire without impairing the operability of an angle operation. is there.

[0006]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the present invention is provided at a distal end of an insertion portion which is formed from a distal end, a distal portion, an angle portion, and a flexible tube portion, A large number of cable wires are connected to the substrate on which the solid-state imaging device is mounted, and these cable wires are not bound at least in the angle portion, and are extended to the main body operating portion in the bound portion at other portions. In the unbundled portion of this cable wire, at least one portion where a cable wire for signal transmission is bound by a binding member is provided ,
Ground wire connected to the substrate on which the solid-state imaging device is mounted
Is located outside the binding portion of the binding member .

[0007]

In order to easily perform the angle operation with a small operation force, the cable wires are not bound in the angle portion and have a predetermined extra length. However, at least one cable wire is bundled in the angle portion using a bundle member such as a tape or a bobbin. As a result, the cable as a whole expands and contracts in accordance with the curvature of the angle portion, but the individual cable wires do not fall apart. Therefore, the possibility that the cable wire is pinched by the angle ring and disconnected is extremely reduced.

The wire cable connected to the substrate includes a signal line for transmitting a drive signal for the solid-state image pickup device, a signal charge read from the solid-state image pickup device, and a ground line, and the ground line is relatively thick. The signal line is thin and fragile, whereas the diameter is formed. At the time of an angle operation, when a pulling force is applied to the non-bundled portion of the cable wire, the ground wire is formed shorter than the signal wire so that the pulling force does not act on the signal wire as much as possible. When a pulling force acts on the ground wire, the signal wire is first protected by applying the pulling force to the ground wire. Therefore, if all the cable wires including the ground wire are bundled with the bundle member, the cable is pulled to the tip side from the bundle portion by the bundle member by the pulling force acting on the ground wire,
There is a possibility that the significance of increasing the resistance to the movement of the angle portion or having a margin difference with the signal line may be lost. For this purpose, the ground wire must be
And is attached to the outside of the bundle member.

In addition, inside the angle portion, in addition to cable wires, a light guide composed of a multiplicity of optical fiber bundles for light transmission, an air supply / water supply tube for cleaning an observation window, and a treatment tool such as forceps are inserted. When a tube for treatment instrument insertion is inserted, the filling rate of such a portion is high, and a hard member is used as the bundling member, the cable wire itself receives stress when the angle operation is performed, or the vicinity of the bundling member. When the bundling member contacts and damages the light guide, the light guide is easily broken. For this reason, it is particularly effective to use an extremely thin flexible tape-shaped member as the binding member.

[0010]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. First, FIG. 4 shows the overall configuration of the electronic endoscope. In the figure, 1 indicates an insertion section, 2 indicates a main body operation section, and 3 indicates a universal cord. The insertion portion 1 is a flexible tube portion 1a that can be freely bent along an insertion path from a portion connected to the main body operation portion 2, and a distal end of the flexible tube portion 1a The angle portion 1b is connected to a front end main body 1c at the front end of the angle portion 1b. As shown in FIG. 5, the distal end portion main body 1c has an illumination window 10 for illuminating the inside of a body cavity or the like (in the drawing, two illumination windows 10 are provided), and for observing the inside of the body cavity. An observation window 11 is provided, and a treatment tool outlet 12 for leading a treatment tool such as forceps is provided.
Further, a supply nozzle 13 of a cleaning fluid for cleaning the observation window 11 is open toward the observation window 11.

The electronic endoscope has the above-described configuration. FIG. 1 shows a cross section of the vicinity of the distal end of the insertion portion 1. In this figure, a light guide for transmitting illumination light to the illumination window 10, a treatment tool insertion channel connected to the treatment tool outlet 12, an air supply / water supply channel, and the like are omitted. Reference numeral 20 denotes an objective lens, which is mounted on the observation window 11 of the distal end main body 1c. A prism 21 is provided on the image forming side of the objective lens 20, and the optical path is bent by 90 ° by the prism 21. A solid-state image sensor 22 is arranged at an image forming position of the objective lens 20. The solid-state imaging device 22 is mounted on a circuit board 23 fixedly provided on the distal end main body 1c. As is well known, a wiring pattern is formed on the circuit board 23, and an electronic device such as an emitter follower is provided. Some are equipped with components.

A portion on the base end side of the circuit board 23 is a cable lead-out portion.
A cable 24 including a large number of cable wires including a signal line and a ground line for supplying a signal necessary for driving the solid-state imaging device 22 and reading out signal charges accumulated in the solid-state imaging device 22 is provided. Have been withdrawn.
The cable 24 is pulled out of the circuit board 23, guided through the insertion section 1 into the main body operation section 2, and further connected to a processor (not shown) via the universal cord 3. This cable 24, as shown in FIG.
Until the cable wires are pulled out from the connection portion to the circuit board 23 and gathered at one place, the fixing portion 24a fixed with resin or the like is used. Non-binding part 2 in non-binding state
4b, and a portion closer to the base end than the non-binding portion 24b is a binding portion 24c which is bound by taping all cable wires using an insulating tape.

A connecting cylinder 30 is fitted to the distal end main body 1c of the insertion section 1, and a leading edge ring 31a of the angle rings 31 of the angle portion 1b is connected to the connecting cylinder 30. . An angle ring 31 is pivotally attached to the top or bottom or left or right part of the leading-edge angle ring 31a, and a predetermined number of angle rings 31 are sequentially pivotally attached to the top and bottom and left and right in this order to form a flexible tube. Angle ring 31b for connection to part 1a
Leads to. Thus, the hard portion of the insertion portion 1 includes the distal end portion main body 1 c, the connecting cylinder 30, and the leading-edge angle ring 3.
1a, the fixed portion 2 of the cable 24
4a is located in this hard part. The non-binding portion 24b is formed over substantially the entire length of the angle portion 1b where the angle ring 31 is provided, and the binding portion 24c is formed within the flexible tube portion 1a.

Although the cable wire is not restrained at the non-binding portion 24b, the portions before and after the cable wire are the fixing portion 24a and the binding portion 24c, and the angle portion 1b
Is not so long, the situation where the non-binding portion 24b is completely separated does not occur. The length of the non-binding portion 24b is longer than the entire length of the angle portion 1b. Due to the extra length, when the angle portion 1b performs a bending operation as shown by a virtual line in FIG. The non-bundling portion 24a of the cable 24 freely moves and expands and contracts at a portion within the portion 1b. As a result, the cable 24 does not become a resistance during the angle operation, and can be operated with a light force. Here, as will be described later, of the cable wires constituting the cable 24, the ground wire 26 is shorter than the signal wire, though it has an extra length.

By the way, as shown in FIG. 3, when the angle portion 1b is maximally curved, the adjacent angle rings 31, 31 come into contact with each other. If the cable wire is in the state shown by the imaginary line in the figure, the cable wire will be bitten between the two angle rings 31 and will be cut off. In order to prevent this, the cable 24 is bundled with a non-bundling part 24b with a bundling member 25. This bundling member 25 is provided at one position near the direction changing part of the angle part 1b shown by R in FIG. It is provided. Here, a signal line is bundled by the bundle member 25, and the ground wire 26 having a larger diameter and a stronger strength than the signal line is excluded from a bundle portion of the bundle member 25.

The present embodiment is constructed as described above. Since the portion of the cable 24 located in the angle portion 1b is not bound and has an extra length, the angle portion 1b is bent. When operated, the non-binding portion 24b
Can move freely or expand and contract. Therefore, the cable 24 does not become a resistance to the angle operation, and the angle operation can be performed with a light force. Moreover, in the non-bundled portion 24b, the ground wire 26 is shorter than the signal line, so that even if an external force acts on the cable wire of the non-bundled portion 24b and is pulled, the pulling force is high. There is no danger that the fragile signal line will be broken by acting on the ground wire 26 due to excessive force.

Moreover, since the non-binding portion 24b is not completely free but is bound by a binding member 25 on the way, the non-binding portion 24b is prevented from moving independently at the portion of the binding member 25. Thus, the signal line does not protrude in any direction. Therefore, even if the angle portion 1b is repeatedly bent, the one signal line does not bend or protrude separately from the other, and all the signal lines can be maintained in a dense state in a narrow range. As a result, even when the angle portion 1b is bent to the maximum and the angle rings 31 and 31 come into contact with each other, there is no possibility that the cable wire is bitten in the meantime and the wire is disconnected.
In particular, when the angle portion 1b is curved, the direction changing portion is a portion having the largest curvature, and if the signal line is not regulated in this portion, the direction changing portion becomes completely separated,
Entangled and meander. Therefore, in this part,
By bundling with a bundling member 25 such as a short width tape or a thread winding, it is possible to reliably prevent the signal lines from being separated. Further, since the regulation by the bundling member 25 is in an extremely short range, the resistance to the bending operation of the angle portion 1b does not increase. In addition, the bundling member 25 is an extremely thin flexible tape-shaped member, for example, a fluororesin (P
TFE) tape or the like is preferably used, and the signal line is flexibly bent without resistance even when the angle portion is bent.
Unreasonable force does not act, and the possibility of the disconnection is extremely reduced.

Incidentally, since the ground wire 26 is shorter than the signal wire, when the angle portion 1b is operated to bend due to the dimensional difference, a tensile force may be applied to the ground wire 26. However, since the ground wire 26 is excluded from the binding portion of the binding member 25, when the pulling force is released, the original state is reliably restored, and there is no possibility that the ground wire 26 is dragged to one side of the binding member 25. Therefore,
By making the ground line 26 shorter than the signal line, the function of protecting the signal line is not impaired.

In the above-described embodiment, the bundling member is provided at one place, but a plurality of bundling members may be provided. In addition, if the ground wire is securely fixed to the binding member and held so as not to be dislocated unnecessarily, the ground wire may be configured to be bound by the binding member.

[0020]

As described above, according to the present invention, a cable wire for signal transmission is bundled with a bundle member at a non-bundled portion of the cable wire , and the ground wire is excluded from the bundle member. since it is configured to, but expands and contracts in response to the bending of the angle portion as a whole without the individual cable wires come apart, a risk that the cable wire is disconnected is sandwiched angle ring rather than also signal transmission No
All cables, including ground wires larger in diameter than cable wires
High strength as if the wires were bundled with
When a pulling force acts on the ground wire
When the ear is pulled forward from the binding part of the binding member
This has the effect that no inconvenience occurs .

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view of a distal end portion of an insertion portion of an electronic endoscope to which a cable according to an embodiment of the present invention is attached.

FIG. 2 is an external view of the cable of FIG.

FIG. 3 is an operation explanatory view of an angle part.

FIG. 4 is an overall configuration diagram of the electronic endoscope.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of a configuration of a distal end portion of an insertion section of the electronic endoscope.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Insertion part 1a Flexible tube part 1b Angle part 1c Tip main body 20 Objective lens 22 Solid-state image sensor 23 Circuit board 24 Cable 24a Fixing part 24b Non-binding part 24c Binding part 25 Bundle member 26 Earth wire 31 Angle ring

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (58) Fields surveyed (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) A61B 1/00-1/32

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] A plurality of cable wires connected to a substrate on which a solid-state imaging device is mounted, which is provided at a distal end of an insertion portion formed from a distal end portion, an angle portion, and a flexible tube portion. In the angled portion, these cable wires are set in a non-bundled state, and in other portions, the cable wires are extended to the bound main body operation section. At least one bundled part of cable wires
Location and connected to the substrate on which the solid-state imaging device is mounted
Position the ground wire outside of the binding part of this binding member.
A cable for an electronic endoscope, wherein the cable is configured to be connected. 2. A cable for an electronic endoscope according to claim 1, wherein said bundling member is a flexible tape-shaped member.