JP5456710B2 - Image guide and light guide integrated fiber and endoscope apparatus using the same - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention constitutes a fiber assembly in which illumination light transmission and image transmission are assembled, and sends illumination light into a narrow area through a plurality of fibers for illumination light transmission in the fiber assembly. The illumination light transmission function and the image transmission function are capable of widely illuminating the area and transmitting the image captured in a wide range of the field through the image transmission fiber in the fiber assembly. The present invention relates to an integrated image guide and light guide fiber and an endoscope apparatus using the same.

  With the development and popularization of optical fiber communication, many developed optical components, optical devices, optical transmission systems, optical technologies, etc. have been applied in various fields other than optical fiber communication. For example, in the medical field, an endoscope for sending illumination light to a desired site in a living body using an optical fiber, observing a tissue in the living body, and capturing an image of the tissue and transmitting it through the optical fiber. Has been put to practical use. Such endoscopes have been widely put into practical use for observation in industrial pipes, furnaces, pipes and the like in addition to in vivo.

The characteristics required for these endoscopes are that the illumination light combined from the incident end side of the optical fiber is emitted as brightly as possible to the exit end side, and the entire image on the exit end side of the optical fiber is obtained. It is desired to transmit efficiently to the incident end side of the optical fiber. In response to such a demand, an optical fiber as shown in FIG. 15 has been commercialized as an optical fiber that emits illumination light as brightly as possible in the widest possible range on the emission end side of the optical fiber. That is, a front cross-sectional view of an optical fiber in FIG. 6 (a), as shown in side view in FIG. (B), SiO ₂ The optical fiber in the core layer 50, the SiO ₂ was added to F in the cladding layer 51 This is the structure used.

  As a part for brightly illuminating the exit end side of the optical fiber and efficiently transmitting the entire image to the incident end side of the optical fiber, a side-view type endoscope product as shown in FIG. 16 is commercially available. (See Non-Patent Document 1). This is because an adapter serving as a side endoscope is attached to the distal end portion of the endoscope, and an image in the direction of 90 ° or 120 ° lateral to the emission end side of the optical fiber can be taken into the optical fiber depending on the angle of the mirror provided in the adapter. It is what I did.

Further, as a report example of the side view type endoscope, the one shown in FIG. 17 is disclosed. This is an example of a report from the Yamagata Prefectural Industrial Technology Center, in which a lens / prism combination component is attached to the tip of an endoscope so that it can rotate, and the surrounding image can be captured in an optical fiber. .
In addition to the above, as patent applications relating to side-view endoscopes, JP-A-5-107484, JP-A-6-67098, JP-A-2004-8638 (Patent Documents 1 to 3), As patent applications for omnidirectional field endoscopes, there are JP-A-10-318727, JP-A-7-204158, and JP-T 2007-516761 (Patent Documents 4 to 6).

Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 05-107484 Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 06-67098 JP 2004-8638 A Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-318727 Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 07-204158 Special Table 2007-516761

AHA ONLINESHOP, "Handy Scope", [online], [Search February 17, 2011], Internet <URL: http://www.hobbes.co.jp/shop/handyscope.html>

  As described above, an optical fiber for sending illumination light to a desired site in a living body using an optical fiber, observing the tissue in the living body, capturing an image of the tissue, and transmitting the image through the optical fiber, or the like There are the following problems in patent applications for endoscopes using optical fibers for observation or endoscopes using the same, such as endoscopes using optical fibers, or in industrial pipes other than in vivo, furnaces, pipes, etc. .

(1) First, an optical fiber that emits illumination light as brightly as possible to the emission end side of the optical fiber, but the conventional optical fiber has a small relative refractive index difference between the core and the clad, so that the illumination light is efficiently used. It is difficult to confine and transmit in the core well.
(2) Next, a side-view type endoscope is used as an endoscope that efficiently transmits the entire image on the exit end side of the optical fiber to the incident end side of the optical fiber. In an endoscope, only a partial image on the exit end side can be observed and transmitted to the entrance end side. Although the entire image can be observed by rotating the optical fiber in the circumferential direction, it is not easy to observe the entire image by rotating the long optical fiber with high accuracy. An omnidirectional endoscope has also been proposed, but its structure is complicated and it is difficult to efficiently observe the entire image on the exit end side of the optical fiber. Furthermore, the function of emitting illumination light as brightly as possible in the widest possible range is not added to the emission end side of the optical fiber.

  The problem to be solved by the present invention is that the illumination light can be emitted brightly over a wide range on the exit end side, and the captured image can be efficiently transmitted, and the light guide integrated fiber and inner fiber An endoscope apparatus is provided.

An image guide and light guide integrated fiber according to the present invention is composed of a long fiber, and at least one image guide for transmitting an image in the fiber exit end face direction to illuminate the exit end face direction. has at least three illumination light guide, the light guide is composed of SiO ₂ glass outer peripheral portion with the addition of core and F or B in the center of the SiO ₂ glass, the outer peripheral portion is partially It is characterized in that it has a structure in which only the inner surface of a hole provided in the longitudinal direction of the fiber is in contact and the other part is covered with a gap between the hole.

  In the integrated fiber, at least three light guides may be arranged to emit illumination light in at least three directions from the fiber emission end.

  The light guide is preferably arranged next to the image guide. Here, “disposed next to the image guide” means a state in which at least one image guide exists in the vicinity of the light guide, and excludes a state in which only the light guide exists in the vicinity of the light guide. .

Furthermore, the image guide and light guide integrated fiber of the present invention, SiO ₂ glass in which the image guide and SiO ₂ glass with a high refractive index portions with added SiON or GeO _2, with or without the addition of F of the outer periphery It is a fiber group in which fibers made of a low refractive index portion made of high density are gathered.

  In the integrated fiber of the present invention, it is preferable that at least three image guides are arranged so as to detect images of at least three regions in the fiber exit end face direction.

  The integral fiber of the present invention is characterized in that one of the core and the hole of the ride guide has a circular cross section and the other has a rectangular cross section.

  Furthermore, the integrated fiber of the present invention is characterized in that the image guide and the light guide, which are individually produced, are assembled in a covering material.

  In the integrated fiber of the present invention, a conical depression having a conical angle of 85 to 95 ° is provided on the tip surface on one end side of the fiber, or 1 / One end of a 4-pitch converging rod lens is attached, and a conical depression having a conical angle of 85 to 95 ° is provided on the other end surface of the rod lens.

  A film of any one of Al, Ag, and Au is preferably formed on the surface of the conical depression.

  The present invention is also an endoscope apparatus including the above-described endoscope made of an integrated fiber, wherein illumination light is transmitted to one end side of the fiber, and the light is transmitted to the light in the fiber. Means for entering into the guide, characterized in that light transmission / reflection means for reflecting an image taken into the image guide from the other side of the fiber and transmitted to the one end side of the fiber is provided. .

  As the light transmitting / reflecting means, a plate having a function of reflecting and transmitting light inclined to one end side of the fiber is provided, and the light guide in the fiber is passed through a transmission hole provided in the plate. It is possible to configure so that an image that is incident on the inside of the fiber and is taken into the image guide from the other end side of the fiber and transmitted to the one end side of the fiber is reflected by the light reflecting film of the plate.

  In the endoscope apparatus described above, it is preferable that an image transmitted to the one end side of the fiber and reflected by the light transmitting / reflecting means is taken into the imaging means. The imaging means can be composed of a CCD image sensor.

The present invention has the following effects.
The greatest feature of the present invention has at least three illumination light guide for irradiating the fiber emission end face direction, said light guide center is its outer periphery with SiO ₂ glass core added F or B The outer peripheral portion made of SiO ₂ glass, the outer peripheral portion is only partly in contact with the inner surface of the hole provided in the longitudinal direction of the fiber, and the other part is covered with the gap between the hole. It is a structure. With such a feature, the illumination light can be efficiently confined and transmitted in the fiber, and the illumination light can be emitted extremely brightly in a wide range (approximately 180 ° direction) on the emission end side of the fiber.
In addition, even if the fiber is bent, there is little change in the illumination light confined in the fiber, so there is almost no change in the illumination light on the exit end side, so it can be bent significantly compared to the conventional case, and the fiber exit The image in the cross-sectional direction can be taken in finely.

Next, the feature of the present invention is that the light guide is arranged next to the image guide, so that the area desired to be captured by the image guide can be illuminated very brightly, and the image in that area can be captured with high accuracy and high image quality. Can be transmitted.
Moreover, the image guide core relative refractive index difference compared to SiO ₂ in (about 2μm in diameter 0.8 [mu] m) [relative refractive index difference delta = <(core refractive index of - the index of the cladding) / core refractive index of the > 100%] or a high refractive index portion of SiON that can be as high as 6% at maximum, or GeO that can have a relative refractive index difference as high as 4% as high as SiO ₂ by adding GeO ₂ to SiO ₂ glass. using SiO ₂ glass doped with _2, cladding (layer from the thickness 0.1μm about 0.5 [mu] m) were used SiO ₂ glass which does not have or added by adding F, so-called ultra-high relative refractive index difference of the fiber (diameter Since it is a fiber group in which 1 μm to 3 μm) are gathered at a high density (approximately 1,000 to 30,000), an image in the fiber exit end face direction can be widely captured with high definition. In other words, the larger the relative refractive index difference is, the wider the opening angle on the image fiber exit end side becomes, and a wider image in the fiber exit end face direction can be captured.

  Further, since the image guide is arranged so as to detect images of at least three regions in the fiber exit end face direction, the image in the fiber exit end face direction can be captured and transmitted more widely.

Further, by providing one of the core and holes of the ride guide in a circular cross section, the other in a rectangular cross section, and providing an outer peripheral portion made of SiO ₂ glass with F or B added to the outer periphery of the core, Since most of the portion corresponding to the cladding around the outer peripheral portion is a gap, the equivalent relative refractive index difference of the light guide can be increased. As a result, a large aperture angle can be realized, resulting in a multimode fiber structure with a very high relative refractive index difference. Further, since the core shape at the center can be made large, the illumination light can be confined very efficiently in the core and transmitted to the fiber exit end, and can be irradiated with a wide spread on the exit end side.

  In addition, if a structure in which individually created image guides and light guides are assembled and covered with a coating material such as plastic or metal is realized, a part of the structure (size, pixel) of multiple image guides in the fiber The number of images, the size of the pixel, etc.) can be configured differently from each other, so that the image captured by each image guide can be changed.

Furthermore, if a conical depression with a conical angle of approximately 90 ° (85 to 95 °) is provided on one end face of the fiber, an image in the fiber circumferential direction near the fiber exit end other than the fiber exit end face direction is also captured. Can be transmitted.
In addition, one end of a 1/4 pitch focusing rod lens is attached to one end face of the fiber, and a conical recess having a cone angle of approximately 90 ° (85 to 95 °) is provided on the opposite end face of the rod lens. Then, an image of a wider area by the rod lens can be collected and combined in an image guide in the fiber and transmitted.
In this case, if any film of Al, Ag, and Au is formed on the surface of the conical depression, the reflectance on the surface is increased, and the image is more efficiently taken into the image guide and transmitted. Can do.

  An endoscope apparatus according to the present invention is an endoscope apparatus including an endoscope made of the above-described integrated fiber, and transmits illumination light to one end side of the fiber, and transmits the light to the fiber. A light transmitting / reflecting means for reflecting the image taken into the image guide from the other side of the fiber and transmitted to the one end side of the fiber. Since it is a feature, it is possible to capture a wide range of observation images such as in vivo, industrial piping, furnace, and pipe with high accuracy and high image quality.

As the light transmitting / reflecting means, a plate having a function of reflecting and transmitting light inclined to one end side of the fiber is provided, and the light for illumination is passed through a transmission hole provided in the plate, inside the light guide in the fiber. It is possible to configure so that an image taken into the image guide from the other end side of the fiber and transmitted to the one end side of the fiber is reflected by the light reflecting film of the plate.
As the light transmitting / reflecting means, a plate having a function of reflecting and transmitting light inclined to one end side of the fiber is provided, and the light for illumination is passed through a transmission hole provided in the plate, inside the light guide in the fiber. It is preferable that the image is taken into the image guide from the other end side of the fiber and transmitted to the one end side of the fiber and reflected by the light reflecting film of the plate.

  If an image transmitted to the one end side of the fiber and reflected by the light transmitting / reflecting means is taken into the imaging means, the image can be displayed on the spot. The imaging means can be composed of a CCD image sensor.

The image guide and light guide integrated fiber which concern on Example 1 of this invention are shown, (a) is a cross-sectional view, (b) is an external view. The image guide and light guide integrated fiber which concern on Example 2 of this invention are shown, (a) is a cross-sectional view, (b) is an external view. The image guide and light guide integrated fiber which concern on Example 3 of this invention are shown, (a) is a cross-sectional view, (b) is an external view. The image guide and light guide integrated fiber which concern on Example 4 of this invention are shown, (a) is a cross-sectional view, (b) is an external view. The image guide and light guide integrated fiber which concern on Example 5 of this invention are shown, (a) is a cross-sectional view, (b) is an external view. The image guide and light guide integrated fiber which concern on Example 6 of this invention are shown, (a) is a cross-sectional view, (b) is an external view. The image guide and light guide integrated fiber which concern on Example 7 of this invention are shown, (a) is a cross-sectional view, (b) is an external view. The image guide and light guide integrated fiber which concern on Example 8 of this invention are shown, (a) is a cross-sectional view, (b) is an external view. The image guide and light guide integrated fiber which concern on Example 9 of this invention are shown, (a) is a cross-sectional view, (b) is an external view. The image guide and light guide integrated fiber which concern on Example 10 of this invention are shown, (a) is a cross-sectional view, (b) is an external view. The image guide and light guide integrated fiber which concern on Example 11 of this invention are shown, (a) is a cross-sectional view, (b) is an external view. FIG. 10 is a schematic configuration diagram of an endoscope apparatus according to Embodiment 12 of the present invention. The light transmission / reflection plate is shown, (a) is a front view, and (b) is a side view. FIG. 14 is a schematic configuration diagram of an endoscope apparatus according to Embodiment 13 of the present invention. The conventional optical fiber is shown, (a) is a cross-sectional view, (b) is an external view. The figure which shows the example of the endoscope which is the conventional side view type | mold endoscope product. The figure which shows the example of the conventional side view type | mold endoscope.

  Several embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows a schematic configuration of an image guide and light guide integrated fiber according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention. FIG. 4A is a front sectional view, and FIG.
This fiber 1 has three circular image guides 31, 32, and 33 for transmitting an image in the fiber exit end face direction inside a long SiO ₂ glass fiber 2 having a substantially circular cross section. Are provided at intervals of 120 ° from the center 9, and three illumination light guides 41, 42, 43 for irradiating the exit end face direction of the fiber 1 are also provided at an outer periphery of the fiber 1 at intervals of 120 ° from the center 9. Structure. The three image guides 31 to 33 and the three light guides 41 to 43 are alternately arranged at equal intervals.

  The diameter of the fiber 1 is preferably larger in order to capture an image with a wide field of view and transmit illumination light to the wide field of view, and is preferably in the range of 200 μm to 500 μm. The diameters of the image guides 31 to 33 and the light guides 41 to 43 are preferably about 50 μm to 100 μm.

Each of the light guides 41 to 43 is provided with a hollow hole 8 extending in the longitudinal direction inside the SiO ₂ glass fiber 2, and a rectangular core 5 having a central portion made of SiO ₂ glass in the hole 8. This is a fiber structure for multimode transmission configured by inserting a light guide body 4 formed by forming a SiO ₂ glass layer 6 to which F or B is added. The light guide body 4 is provided such that the SiO ₂ glass film 6 is in contact with the inner surface of the hole 8 at at least three points, and the hole 8 and the SiO ₂ glass layer 6 to which F or B is added in the other part. A gap 7 is formed between them.

In this way, by making the outermost part of the SiO ₂ glass layer 6 to which F or B is added covered with the gap 7, the equivalent relative refractive index difference of the light guide can be increased, As a result, a large opening angle can be realized, so that the illumination light can be efficiently confined and transmitted in the fiber 1 (ride guides 31 to 33), and the illumination light can be transmitted to the emission end side of the fiber 1 in a wide range (approximately 180 degrees). (In the direction of °) can be emitted extremely brightly. Moreover, even if the fiber 1 is bent, there is little change in the illumination light confined in the fiber 1, so that there is almost no change in the illumination light on the exit end side, so that it can be bent with a smaller radius of curvature than in the prior art. The image in the direction of the emission end face of the fiber 1 can be taken in finely.

Each of the image guides 31 to 33 is composed of a pixel group in which a large number of pixel portions are gathered at a high density (about 1,000 to 30,000). As shown in an enlarged view of one of the pixel portions, each pixel portion (diameter of about 1 μm to 3 μm) has a high refractive index core 10 and a thin cladding 11 on the outer periphery thereof (layer thickness of 0.1 μm). To about 0.5 μm). The core 10, at most or about 6% higher take SiON the relative refractive index difference compared to SiO _2, the relative refractive index difference as compared with SiO ₂ by the addition of GeO ₂ in SiO ₂ glass with a maximum using SiO ₂ glass doped with about 4% higher take GeO _2, SiO ₂ is used glass is not added or added F is the cladding 11 of a thin layer of its outer periphery. As a result, the image in the direction of the emission end face of the fiber 1 can be captured widely with high definition. That is, the opening angle on the exit end side of the image guides 31 to 33 becomes wider as the relative refractive index difference is larger, and an image in the exit end face direction of the fiber 1 can be captured widely. The light guides 41 to 43 have an image guide and light guide integrated fiber structure, which is arranged next to the image guides 31 to 33. The image guides 31 to 33 irradiate a region to be captured extremely brightly. Since it is configured, it is possible to capture and transmit an image of that area with high accuracy and high image quality.

The image guide and light guide integrated fiber were manufactured as follows. First, a porous glass base material made of SiO ₂ glass having six pores into which image guide and light guide preforms can be inserted is manufactured by a sol-gel method and sintered at a high temperature to make a glass plate made of transparent SiO ₂ glass. Got a renovation. On the other hand, image guide preforms and light guide preforms were produced by different methods. The image guide preform is manufactured by using the MCVD method (Modified Chemical Vapor Deposition method), the VAD method (Vapor Phase Axial Deposition method), etc. to manufacture the first fiber preform for the image guide. A fiber preform is drawn into a fiber by a fiber drawing device to obtain a first fiber. Next, the first fiber is cut into short bundles and inserted into a SiO ₂ glass tube to obtain a second fiber preform. Thereafter, the second fiber preform is drawn on the fiber by a fiber drawing device to obtain a second fiber. Thereafter, the second fiber is cut into short bundles and inserted into a SiO ₂ glass tube to obtain a third fiber preform. Thereafter, the third fiber preform is drawn into a fiber by a fiber drawing device to obtain a third fiber. After that, the third fiber is cut into short bundles and inserted into the SiO ₂ glass tube to obtain a fourth fiber preform. Three of the fourth fiber preforms were manufactured to obtain an image guide preform.

Next, the light guide preform was manufactured as follows. First, a rectangular glass made of SiO ₂ glass was realized by the VAD method and cutting. Three light guide preforms were manufactured by forming SiO ₂ glass with F added to the outer periphery of the glass by the CVD method. Then, the image guide preform and the light guide preform are inserted into the holes in the glass preform made of transparent SiO ₂ glass, which has been manufactured in advance, to obtain a fiber preform integrated with the image guide and the light guide. It was. The image guide and light guide integrated fiber preform was drawn on the fiber by a fiber drawing device to obtain an image guide and light guide integrated fiber.

FIG. 2 shows a schematic configuration of an image guide and light guide integrated fiber according to Embodiment 2 of the present invention. FIG. 4A is a front sectional view, and FIG. The optical fiber 12 also has three image guides 31, 32, 33 for transmitting an image in the direction of the fiber exit end face inside the long SiO ₂ glass fiber 2 having a substantially circular cross section. The three illumination light guides 131, 132, and 133 for irradiating the exit end face direction of the fiber 10 are provided at intervals of 120 ° from the center 9 of the fiber 12. As in the first embodiment, the image guides 31 to 33 and the light guides 131 to 133 are alternately arranged.

The difference between the second embodiment and the first embodiment is that each light guide 131 to 133 has a hollow hole 17 having a quadrangular cross section inside the SiO ₂ glass fiber 2, and a central portion in the hole 17. as but the light guide body 13 obtained by forming a SiO ₂ glass layer 15 with the addition of F or B on the outer circumference a circular core 14 made of SiO ₂ glass, SiO ₂ glass layer 15 is in contact with the inner surface of the pores 17 The multi-mode transmission fiber structure in which the gap 17 between the hole 17 and the SiO ₂ glass 15 to which F or B is added is formed by the gap 16 is formed.

FIG. 3 shows a schematic configuration of an image guide and light guide integrated fiber according to Embodiment 3 of the present invention. FIG. 4A is a front sectional view, and FIG. This fiber 18 has a substantially circular cross section and four image guides 31, 32, 33, 34 for transmitting images in the fiber exit cross section direction to the outer periphery of the long SiO ₂ glass fiber 2. Five illumination light guides 41, 42, 43, 44, 45 for irradiating the exit cross-sectional direction of the fiber 16 are provided at intervals of 90 ° from the center of the fiber, and 90 from the center to the center and the outer periphery of the fiber 16. It is a structure provided at intervals. That is, by increasing the number of image guides by one and by increasing the number of light guides by two, it is possible to capture bright and high-definition images with a wide field of view on the exit end side of the fiber 18. The structure of the light guide of this embodiment is the same as that of the light guide of the first embodiment.

  FIG. 4 shows a schematic configuration of an image guide and light guide integrated fiber according to Embodiment 4 of the present invention. FIG. 4A is a front sectional view, and FIG. The fiber 19 has the same configuration as that of the third embodiment. The difference from the third embodiment is that the light guides having the structure used in the second embodiment are used for the light guides 131, 132, 133, 134, and 135.

  FIG. 5 shows a schematic configuration of an image guide and light guide integrated fiber according to Embodiment 5 of the present invention. FIG. 4A is a front sectional view, and FIG. This fiber 20 has a structure in which one image guide 31 to 35 is provided at the center and four on the circumference at equal intervals, and four light guides 131 to 134 are provided on the circumference at equal intervals. The light guides 131 to 134 have the same structure as the light guide used in the third embodiment.

FIG. 6 shows a schematic configuration of a light guide integrated image fiber according to a sixth embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 4A is a front sectional view, and FIG. This fiber 21 has a configuration in which an image guide 22 having a large cross-sectional area and a large number of pixel portions is arranged at the center of a long SiO ₂ glass fiber 2 having a substantially circular cross section, and light guides 41 to 48 are provided on the outer periphery thereof. It is. With such a configuration, it is possible to illuminate an image with a wider field of view on the emission end side of the fiber 21 more brightly and capture the illuminated image with higher definition.

  FIG. 7 shows a schematic configuration of an image guide and light guide integrated fiber according to Embodiment 7 of the present invention. FIG. 4A is a front sectional view, and FIG. The seventh embodiment has a structure in which the image guide and the light guide are assembled using individually prepared ones, and the outer periphery thereof is solidified with a plastic coating material and integrated. In other words, the image guides 241, 242, and 243 created individually and the light guides 251, 252, and 253 created individually are arranged as shown in FIG. Nylon resin, epoxy resin, etc.) and are solidified so as to be integrated.

Here, the individually created light guides 251 to 253 are provided with a hollow hole 17 having a square cross section inside a circular base material made of SiO ₂ glass 26 as shown in FIG. Some 17, a light guide body which center portion is formed by forming a SiO ₂ glass layer 15 with the addition of F or B on the outer circumference a circular core 14 made of SiO ₂ glass, the SiO ₂ glass layer 15 is the air- A multi-mode transmission fiber structure was formed in which the gap 17 between the hole 17 and the SiO ₂ glass 15 to which F or B was added was formed with a gap 16 so as to be in contact with the inner surface of the hole 17. In such a configuration, the structure (size, number of pixels, pixel size, etc.) of one or a plurality of image guides in the integrated fiber 23 is different from other image guides. The images to be captured can be changed with each image guide. Further, the light guides 251 to 253 can be slightly different in structure. The fiber 23 covered with the plastic material 27 may be covered by being placed in a deformable metal tube. Further, the plastic covering material 27 of the fiber 23 may be filled with a plastic resin (for example, a silicone resin or an epoxy resin).

  FIG. 8 shows a schematic configuration of an image according to an eighth embodiment of the present invention in which a guide and a light guide integrated fiber are integrated. FIG. 4A is a front sectional view, and FIG. The fiber 28 has a structure in which four light guides 251, 252, 253, and 254 are arranged so as to surround the image guide 29, and the whole is covered with a plastic coating material 27 as in the seventh embodiment. In the eighth embodiment, the plastic covering material 27 may be filled with a plastic resin (for example, a silicone resin or an epoxy resin). Further, the fiber 28 coated with the plastic coating material 27 may be covered with a deformable metal tube.

  FIG. 9 shows a schematic configuration of an image guide and light guide integrated fiber according to Embodiment 9 of the present invention. FIG. 4A is a front sectional view, and FIG. This fiber 30 is an image guide and light guide integrated fiber characterized in that a conical recess 52 having a conical angle of approximately 90 ° is provided on the output side end face of the fiber 19 shown in FIG. Since this fiber 30 is provided with a conical recess 52 having a cone angle of approximately 90 ° on the tip surface on one end side of the fiber, an image in the fiber circumferential direction near the fiber exit end other than the fiber exit end face direction. Can also be captured and transmitted. In the above configuration, in order to more efficiently capture and transmit an image into the image guide, an Al, Ag, or Au film is formed on the surface of the conical recess 52 to increase the reflectance on the surface. May be.

  FIG. 10 shows a schematic configuration of an image guide and light guide integrated fiber according to Embodiment 10 of the present invention. FIG. 4A is a front sectional view, and FIG. In this fiber 53, one end of a 1/4 pitch focusing rod lens 54 is attached to the output side end face of the fiber 20 shown in FIG. 5, and the other end face of the rod lens 54 has a conical shape with a cone angle of approximately 90 °. This is a structure in which a recess 35 is formed. With this rod lens 54, an image of a wider area can be collected and combined in an image guide in the fiber and transmitted.

  FIG. 11 shows a configuration of an image guide and light guide integrated fiber according to Embodiment 11 of the present invention. This figure also shows a schematic diagram of an optical fiber. FIG. 4A is a front sectional view, and FIG. The fiber 56 is formed by forming an Al, Ag, or Au film 57 on the surface of the conical recess 35 of the 1/4 pitch focusing rod lens 54 of the fiber 53 shown in FIG. The rate is increased, and the image can be collected and combined with the image guide and transmitted with higher accuracy.

  FIG. 12 shows the configuration of an endoscope apparatus according to Embodiment 12 of the present invention. This endoscope apparatus is realized by using the fiber 30 shown in the ninth embodiment. That is, illumination light from five illumination light sources 371 (only three are shown in FIG. 12) is incident from the incident end 311 side of the fiber 30 through the light transmitting / reflecting plate 62, and the light guides 131 to 131 in the fiber 30. 135, and is emitted as indicated by an arrow 391 by a conical recess 52 having a cone angle of approximately 90 ° on the exit end 312 side of the fiber 30 to irradiate the exit end side brightly. The image of the brightly illuminated region is confined in the image guides 31 to 34 in the fiber 30 as indicated by an arrow 401 and sent to the incident end 311 side of the fiber 30. Then, it is reflected by the light transmitting / reflecting plate 62 and enters the imaging device 63 as indicated by an arrow 411 and is displayed as an image. The imaging device 63 is composed of a CCD image sensor or a CMOS image sensor.

  FIG. 13 shows a configuration of the light transmission / reflection plate 62. In the figure, reference numerals 431 to 435 are holes for transmitting illumination light, and reference numerals 441 to 444 are reflection surfaces for reflecting images. The light transmitting / reflecting plate 62 is arranged so that the angle φ = 45 ° with respect to the optical axis.

  FIG. 14 shows the configuration of an endoscope apparatus according to Embodiment 13 of the present invention. This endoscope apparatus is realized by using the fiber 33 of the tenth embodiment. Other than that, the configuration is the same as that of the twelfth embodiment.

The present invention is not limited to the above embodiments. For example, the outer periphery of the fibers in FIGS. 1 to 6 and FIGS. 9 to 14 may be covered with a plastic resin, a metal material, or the like. 12 and 14, the incident end face of the fiber may be polished obliquely (about 2 ° to 8 °). By doing in this way, it can suppress that unnecessary reflection from an end surface returns to the illumination light source 371 side and the imaging device 63 side. The fibers of FIGS. 1 to 6 may be used in a bundle. A half mirror may be used instead of the light transmission / reflection plate.
The cone angle of the conical depression is not limited to 90 °, and may be 85 to 95 °.

1, 12, 18, 19, 20, 21, 23, 28, 30, 53, 56 ... Image guide / light guide integrated fiber 2 ... Fiber body 7, 16 ... Air gaps 41 to 45, 131 to 135, 251 to 254 ... Light guide 14 ... Circular core 27 ... Plastic coating materials 22, 29, 31 to 35, 241 to 243 ... Image guides 52, 55 ... Dimple 54 ... Rod lens 371 ... Light source 62 for illumination ... Light transmission / reflection plate 63 ... Imaging Device (imaging means)

Claims (14)

At least one image guide made of a long fiber, for transmitting an image in the direction of the fiber exit end face,
Having at least three illumination light guides for illuminating the exit end face direction;
Check the light guide, which is composed of SiO ₂ glass outer peripheral portion with the addition of core and F or B in the center of the SiO ₂ glass, the outer peripheral portion is provided in the longitudinal direction of the fiber only in part An image guide and light guide integrated fiber characterized by having a structure that is in contact with the inner surface of a hole and the other part is covered with a gap between the holes.   2. The image guide and light guide integrated fiber according to claim 1, wherein at least three light guides are arranged so as to emit illumination light in at least three directions from the fiber emission end.   3. The image guide and light guide integrated fiber according to claim 1, wherein the light guide is disposed next to the image guide. 4. The image guide according to claim 1, wherein the image guide has a high refractive index portion made of SiO ₂ glass to which SiON or GeO ₂ is added, and a low refractive index made of SiO ₂ glass to which F on the outer periphery is added or not added. An image guide and light guide integrated fiber, characterized in that it is a fiber group in which fibers made up of parts are gathered at high density.   5. The image guide and light guide integrated fiber according to claim 1, wherein the at least three image guides are arranged so as to detect images of at least three regions in the fiber exit end face direction. 6.   6. The image guide and light guide integrated fiber according to claim 1, wherein one of a core and a hole of the ride guide has a circular cross section and the other has a rectangular cross section.   7. The image guide and light guide integrated fiber according to claim 1, wherein the image guide and the light guide, which are individually produced, are gathered in a covering material.   The image guide and light guide integrated fiber according to any one of claims 1 to 7, wherein a conical depression having a conical angle of 85 to 95 ° is provided on a distal end surface on one end side of the fiber.   7. The conical shape according to claim 1, wherein one end of a 1/4 pitch focusing rod lens is attached to one end face of the fiber, and the other end face of the rod lens has a cone angle of 85 to 95 [deg.]. An image guide and a light guide integrated fiber characterized by being provided with a recess.   10. The image guide and light guide integrated fiber according to claim 8, wherein a film of any one of Al, Ag, and Au is formed on a surface of the conical depression.   An endoscope apparatus comprising the endoscope comprising the integral fiber according to any one of claims 1 to 10, wherein light for illumination is transmitted to one end side of the fiber, and the light is transmitted through the fiber. Means for entering the light guide, characterized in that light transmission / reflection means is provided for reflecting an image taken into the image guide from the other side of the fiber and transmitted to the one end side of the fiber. Endoscope device.   12. The light transmission / reflection means according to claim 11, wherein a plate having a function of reflecting and transmitting light inclined to one end side of the fiber is provided, and the light for illumination passes through a transmission hole provided in the plate. The light is incident on the inner light guide, and the image taken into the image guide from the other end side of the fiber and transmitted to the one end side of the fiber is reflected by the light reflecting film of the plate. Endoscopic device characterized.   13. The endoscope apparatus according to claim 11 or 12, wherein an image transmitted to the one end side of the fiber and reflected by the light transmitting / reflecting means is taken into the imaging means.   The endoscope apparatus according to claim 13, wherein the imaging unit is constituted by a CCD image sensor.