JPH04109927A - Electronic endoscope apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To obtain an electronic endoscope which can prevent a patient from feeling a pain when a photographing head portion is inserted in a coelom of a patient by providing a photographing head portion having a solid state image pickup element and an enclosure for sealing a signal processing means, at least a part of which is formed by a light transmitting member, and an image monitor portion separated from the photographing head portion. CONSTITUTION:A photographing head portion 11 is constructed so that an objective lens 3, a solid state image pickup element 1, an image processing circuit element 7, a transmitting integrated circuit element 6, a light emitting element 4, and a battery 8 are stored in a capsule-like package 10. It is suitable to form the capsule-like package 10 by glass or plastics because it is hard to be dirty in a coelom and it is easy to photograph an image of an observed body. A 1.6X10<5> picture element CCD chip which is a charged coupling element is used as the solid state image pickup element 1. The objective lens 3 and an optical lens 3' are fitted to a glass plate. The former is for illumination and the latter is for photographing. The photographing head 11 is inserted in the coelom, an image signal is received by a receiver disposed outside the body, and the image is displayed on an image monitor 16 to observe the interior of the coelom.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention [Objective of the Invention] (Industrial Application Field) The present invention relates to an electronic endoscope device equipped with a solid-state image sensor module, and particularly relates to an electronic endoscope device equipped with a solid-state image sensor module, and in particular, an imaging head unit for imaging the inside of a body cavity of a patient. This invention relates to an electronic endoscope device with a novel structure that does not cause unnecessary pain to the patient when inserted into the patient's body.

(Prior Art) A conventional endoscope device has a light guide and an image guide made of a bundle of optical fibers placed inside a flexible tube inserted into a body cavity, and emits light from an external illumination source. The light is guided to the tip of the endoscope through the light guide, and is irradiated onto the object to be observed through the illumination lens system.The image of the object to be observed is guided to the outside through the objective lens and image guide, and is directly observed through the eyepiece. Or, an image is taken with an imaging device and displayed on a monitor.

Since such optical fibers are mainly made of glass, they are easily damaged. Furthermore, since each pixel corresponds to an image guide made up of one optical fiber, the diameter of the optical fiber must be reduced in order to improve resolution. This is currently technically difficult, and the resolution of endoscopes using optical fibers has almost reached its limit.

In order to solve these problems, an imaging head incorporating a small solid-state imaging device is installed at the tip of a flexible tube inserted into the body cavity, which images the object to be observed and converts it into an image signal. There is an electronic endoscope device that converts the image signal, leads the image signal to the outside via a connection cord, and displays the object to be observed on a monitor. Solid-state imaging devices are not only small and lightweight, but also have excellent features such as long life and low power consumption that are difficult to achieve with other imaging devices, so they are increasingly being applied to endoscope devices. Ta. Electronic endoscope devices using such solid-state image sensors can dramatically increase the number of pixels compared to the aforementioned endoscope devices that bundle optical fibers to observe inside body cavities. , it was possible to obtain precise images and brought about a revolutionary change in medical diagnosis.

FIG. 2 shows an electronic endoscope device using a conventional solid-state image sensor. An imaging head unit 11 attached to the tip of a flexible tube 12 captures an image of an object to be observed, and displays the image on an image monitor 16 via a signal processing device 15. An imaging head section (11) incorporating a solid-state imaging device at the tip of a flexible tube inserted into a body cavity is constructed as shown in FIG. 2-(b). That is, an illumination lens (not shown) is attached to the tip of the imaging head that is inserted into the body cavity, and the light is guided from an external light source device to the illumination lens through a light guide using an optical fiber, etc. It is designed to illuminate the body.

Further, an objective lens 3 is attached to the tip of the imaging head, and light from the object to be observed is focused through the objective lens 3 on the light receiving surface of the solid-state image sensor 1 via a prism 19. The formed optical image is converted into an electrical signal and sent to the next-stage signal processing circuit, where necessary signal processing is performed and sent to the image monitor 16 installed outside the body through a connection cord (inside the flexible tube 12). This is what is displayed above.

In conventional electronic endoscope devices that incorporate a solid-state imaging device at the tip of a flexible tube, it goes without saying that the smaller the imaging head, the easier it is to insert it into a body cavity. When used, it often causes pain to the patient, so it has been desired to make it as small as possible.

However, the above-mentioned conventional endoscope devices, i.e., endoscope devices having an endoscope tip component in which an image guide of optical fibers is bundled, and an imaging head in which a solid-state image sensor is attached to the tip of a flexible tube. In all electronic endoscopes, the operating section or image monitoring device placed outside the human body is constructed of flexible tubes, so the imaging head section must be made smaller or thinner. Even if the diameter is reduced,
Since the act of inserting the tube remains the same, there was a problem in that the patient's pain could not be fundamentally eliminated. In particular, in upper gastrointestinal endoscopes used to observe the esophagus, stomach, etc., the imaging head is inserted through the patient's mouth.
Swallowing the "tube" was a great burden for the patient.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) The present invention has been made in consideration of the above-mentioned problems, and its purpose is to provide an electronic endoscope device using a solid-state image sensor, in which the image pickup head section is attached to the patient's body. An object of the present invention is to provide an electronic endoscope device with a novel structure that does not cause a patient to feel any pain when inserted into a body cavity.

[Structure of the Invention] (Means for Solving the Problems) The present invention includes a solid-state image sensor that captures an image inside a body cavity, a signal processing means that processes an image signal from the solid-state image sensor, a solid-state image sensor, and a signal processing means that processes an image signal from the solid-state image sensor. The present invention is an electronic endoscope device having an imaging head section including a casing, at least a portion of which is made of a light-transmitting member, which hermetically encloses a signal processing means, and an image monitor section separated from the imaging head section.

(Function) The present invention provides an imaging head with a solid-state imaging device and a signal processing means for processing an image signal captured by the imaging device, and transmits the image signal, for example, by radio waves, or stores image information in an image memory device. etc., the imaging head section including the solid-state imaging device and the image monitor section can be configured separately. This means that in contrast to conventional endoscope devices in which the imaging section and the image monitor section are connected to each other by a tube, the endoscope device of the present invention has a "tube" or "capsule-like structure without strings". Because it forms a "lump", the pain and burden on the patient when inserting the endoscopic device into the body is significantly reduced.

(Example) Embodiments of the present invention will be described below based on the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of an imaging head section according to the present invention. The imaging head section includes an objective lens 3, a solid-state imaging device 1, and an image processing circuit element 7 in a capsule-shaped envelope 10.
, a transmitting integrated circuit element 6, a light emitting element 4, and a battery 8 are housed. The capsule-shaped envelope 10 can be made of glass, plastic, metal, etc., but glass and plastic are suitable because they are less susceptible to contamination in the body cavity and are easier to capture images of the object to be observed. A 160,000-pixel CCD chip, which is a charged-coupled device, was used as the solid-state image sensor. A vacuum is provided on the electrode of this CCD chip. On the other hand, a metal wiring pattern was formed on a glass substrate 2 having a thickness of 0.5 mm, and then a CCD chip was mounted face down.

The bumps provided on the CCD chip can be made of gold, copper, solder, nickel, silver, etc., but gold ball bumps were used here because of the simple bump formation method. The wiring metal on the glass substrate may be gold, silver, copper, nickel, tungsten, titanium, chromium, molybdenum, aluminum, tin, lead, solder, indium, or the like alone or in a multilayered form. The wiring formation method is P E P (
Photo Engraving Process) method 1 or printing method can be used. Here, thick film gold wiring was formed using a printing method, and indium/lead alloy solder was applied on the connection pads using the same printing method.

A light emitting element was also formed with gold bumps in the same manner, and was mounted face down on the glass substrate. A translucent resin may be filled in the gap between the semiconductor element and the glass substrate, if necessary. An objective lens 3 and an optical lens 3' are attached to the surface of the glass substrate on which the semiconductor element is not mounted. The former is for illumination, and the latter is for imaging.

Next, the glass substrate and the wiring board 5 on which the image processing circuit element, the transmitting integrated circuit element, and the battery are mounted are connected by an anisotropic conductive film 23.

The image processing circuit elements consisting of chip capacitors, transistors, and chip resistors and batteries were mounted as shown in Figure 1.
A pair chip LSI was used as the transmitting integrated circuit element, which was die-bonded onto the wiring board using Ag paste, and then connected by wire bonding. Further, the wiring board on which the transmitting integrated circuit element is mounted is used as a cage antenna (10) on which wiring is formed in a spiral shape.

As shown in the examples above, the imaging head portion of the electronic endoscope device according to the present invention could be housed in a capsule-shaped envelope having a major axis of 18.0 meters and a minor axis of 9.0 meters. It has become possible to insert this imaging head into a body cavity, receive image signals with a receiving device placed outside the body, display them on an image monitor, and observe the inside of the body cavity.

As described above, according to the present invention, the image signal is wirelessly transmitted via the printed antenna using the transmission circuit provided in the image pickup head, so the image pickup head and the image monitor are connected by a tube or wire. Since there is no need to cross the body, the pain and burden on the patient when inserting the imaging head into the body cavity is drastically reduced.

In this embodiment, a case has been described in which an image signal captured by a solid-state image sensor is transmitted by radio waves, but an image memory element may be installed instead of the transmitting integrated circuit element 6.

In this case, the image signal captured by the solid-state imaging device is stored in the image memory device, and the image information is read from the image memory after the imaging head is taken out of the body, thereby making it possible to perform the desired observation.

[Effects of the Invention] As described in detail above, according to the present invention, the imaging head section including the solid-state imaging device and the image monitor section installed outside the body have a separate structure. When inserted into the body, the burden on the patient can be reduced. Furthermore, since the imaging head section can be configured independently of the image monitor section, it can be used by a large number of patients at the same time, making group examination possible.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view of an imaging head of an electronic endoscope according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram of an electronic endoscope according to the prior art. 1... Solid-state image sensor, 2... Optical glass, 3...
Objective lens, 3... Optical lens, 4... Light emitting element,
5... Wiring board, 6... Transmission integrated circuit element (image memory element: signal processing means), 7... Chip component, 8
...Battery, 9...Printed antenna, 10...Envelope, 11...Imaging head section, 12...Flexible tube,
13... Operation unit, 14... Connection cord, 15...
Signal processing circuit section, 16... Monitor section, 17... Air inlet, 18... Ag paste, 19... Prism, 2
0... Protective glass, 21... Semiconductor package, 2
2... Wiring board, 23... Anisotropic conductive film.

Claims (3)

[Claims] (1) A solid-state image sensor that captures images inside a body cavity, a signal processing means that processes image signals from the solid-state image sensor, and a member that is at least partially light-transmissive and that hermetically encapsulates the solid-state image sensor and the signal processing means. What is claimed is: 1. An electronic endoscope apparatus comprising: an imaging head section including a casing consisting of a casing; and an image monitor section separated from the imaging head section. (2) The electronic endoscope apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the signal processing means comprises a solid-state imaging module including a solid-state imaging device and a circuit for wirelessly transmitting image signals. (3) The electronic endoscope apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the signal processing means comprises a solid-state imaging module equipped with a solid-state imaging device and an image memory element that stores image signals.