JPH06327629A - Cable of electronic endoscope - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent such accidents as disconnection caused when a cable wire connected with a substrate loading a solid-state image element of an electronic endoscope gets unbound at an angle portion, breaks loose, and sandwiched by angle rings. CONSTITUTION:A cable to be pulled out of a circuit substrate 23 of a solid-state image element 22 which is provided at a front-end body 1a in an inserting portion 1 of an endoscope, is constituted of a fixed portion 24a hardened with a resin or the like at the first position, then an unbound portion 24b between the fixed portion 24a and a predetermined position, while a portion between the unbound portion 24b and a position at the side of a base end is a bound portion 24c where all the cable wires are bound with a insulating tape. The unbound portion 24b has an extra length for controlling a resistance to the minimum when an angle portion 1b is bent, and is bundled halfway by a bundling member.

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 image sensor is mounted in an electronic endoscope used for medical purposes.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In an electronic endoscope, a solid-state image pickup device is attached to an image forming position of an image forming lens attached to the tip of an insertion portion inserted into a body cavity or the like. This solid-state image pickup device is mounted on a circuit board, and a signal line for supplying a drive signal, a control signal, or the like to the solid-state image pickup device or reading a signal charge from the solid-state image pickup device is provided on the circuit board. , A large number of cable wires such as a ground wire are connected. These cable wires, along with other insertion members, extend from the inside of the insertion section to the main body operation section. However, since each cable wire is thin and fragile, it can be taped in its entirety or in a tube. It is put in a bundled state by inserting it into the insertion part.

Here, an angle portion is provided in the vicinity of the distal end of the insertion portion in order to direct the hard distal end portion in a desired direction, and the angle portion is curved at an angle of 180 ° or more. . Therefore, when the cable wires are bound to this angle part, the resistance to the bending of the angle part becomes strong, the angle part becomes hard, and not only the angle operation is hindered but also the cable wire is strongly pulled. Therefore, there is a risk of disconnection. For this,
In the angle portion, the cable wires are not bound, and some extra length is provided so that the cable wire can expand and contract to some extent when the angle portion is bent.

[0004]

By the way, the angle portion is constructed by sequentially pivoting the angle rings, and when the angle portions are bent to the maximum extent, the adjacent angle rings contact each other. Will be done. At this time, the cable wire in the unbound state may be caught between the angle rings. In particular,
If the angle operation is repeated, the cable wire with extra length may be bent into a loop, which causes some cable wires to project laterally from the dense part, and this projecting part There is a very high risk of being caught between the angle rings and breaking the wire.

The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and an object of the present invention is 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 in the distal end portion of an insertion portion that is formed from the distal end side to the distal end portion, the angle portion, and the flexible tube portion. A large number of cable wires are connected to the substrate on which the solid-state image sensor is mounted, and at least in the angle part, these cable wires are not bound, and in other parts, they are extended to the unit operation part that is bound. The non-bundling portion of the cable wire is characterized in that at least one portion where the cable wires for signal transmission are bundled by a bundle member is provided.

[0007]

In order to easily perform the angle operation with a light operation force, the cable wire is not bound in the angle portion and has a predetermined extra length. However, in the angle portion, at least one portion of the cable wire is bundled by using a bundling member such as a tape or a spool. As a result, the cable as a whole expands and contracts according to the bending of the angle portion, but the individual cable wires do not come apart. Therefore, the possibility that the cable wire will be caught by the angle ring and broken will be extremely reduced.

The wire cable connected to the substrate has 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, while it is formed in a diameter. In order to prevent this tensile force from acting on the signal line as much as possible when a tensile force is applied to the unbundled portion of the cable wire during angle operation etc., make the ground wire shorter than the signal wire. When a pulling force is applied to, the signal line is protected by first applying this pulling force to the ground wire. Therefore, if all the cable wires, including the ground wire, are bundled with a bundling member, the pulling force acting on the ground wire causes the bundling member to pull the wire closer to the tip side of the bundling member, so that the resistance to the movement of the angle portion is reduced. There is a risk that the significance of increasing the length or providing a difference in extra length with the signal line may be lost. In order to prevent such a situation, the ground wire may be excluded from the bundling portion formed by the bundling member.

In addition to the cable wires, a light guide formed of a large number of optical fiber bundles for optical transmission, an air / water supply tube for cleaning the observation window, and a treatment tool such as forceps are inserted in the angle portion. If a tube for inserting the treatment tool is inserted, and the filling rate of such a part is high and a hard bundling member is used, the cable wire itself may be stressed or angled near the bundling member when the angle operation is performed. If the bundling members contact and damage the light guides, the light guides are easily broken. For this reason, it is particularly effective to use an extremely thin flexible tape-shaped member as the bundling 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 is an insertion section, 2 is a main body operation section, and 3 is a universal cord. The insertion portion 1 is a flexible tube portion 1a, which is configured to be freely bendable along an insertion path from a portion continuously provided to the main body operation portion 2, and at the tip of the flexible tube portion 1a. The angle portion 1b is provided, and the tip portion main body 1c is continuously provided at the tip of the angle portion 1b. As shown in FIG. 5, an illumination window 10 for illuminating the inside of a body cavity or the like (in the drawing, two illumination windows 10 are provided) is provided in the tip body 1c, and for observing the inside of the body cavity. An observation window 11 is provided, and a treatment tool lead-out port 12 for leading out a treatment tool such as forceps is provided.
Further, a cleaning fluid supply nozzle 13 for cleaning the observation window 11 is opened toward the observation window 11.

The electronic endoscope has a structure as described above. Next, 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 instrument insertion channel connected to the treatment instrument outlet 12, a gas supply / water supply channel, etc. are omitted. Reference numeral 20 designates an objective lens, which is attached to the observation window 11 of the tip portion 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 the image forming position of the objective lens 20. The solid-state image pickup device 22 is mounted on a circuit board 23 fixedly provided on the tip end main body 1c. On the circuit board 23, a wiring pattern is formed, as is well known, and an electronic device such as an emitter follower is formed. Some are equipped with parts.

A portion of the circuit board 23 on the base end side 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 a signal charge accumulated in the solid-state imaging device 22 is provided. Has been pulled out.
The cable 24 is pulled out from the circuit board 23, guided through the insertion portion 1 into the main body operation portion 2, and further connected to the processor (not shown) via the universal cord 3. This cable 24, as shown in FIG.
Until the cable wire is pulled out from the connection portion to the circuit board 23 and gathered at one place, the fixed portion 24a hardened with resin or the like is used, and the cable wire is connected between the fixed portion 24a and a predetermined position. Non-binding portion 2 in a non-binding state
4b, and a portion closer to the base end side than the non-bundling portion 24b is a binding portion 24c which is bound by taping all the cable wires using an insulating tape.

A connecting cylinder 30 is fitted to the tip end main body 1c of the insertion portion 1, and the most advanced angle ring 31a of the angle rings 31 of the angle portion 1b is connected to the connecting cylinder 30. . The angle ring 31 is pivotally attached to the top or bottom or the left or right part of the most advanced angle ring 31a, and a predetermined number of the angle rings 31 are pivotally attached to the top, bottom, left, or right in this order. Angle ring 31b for connecting to the portion 1a
Leading to. Thus, the hard portion of the insertion portion 1 includes the tip portion main body 1c, the connecting cylinder 30, and the most advanced angle ring 3.
1a, which is the fixed portion 2 of the cable 24
4a is located in this hard part. In addition, the unbonded portion 24b is formed over almost the entire length in the angle portion 1b where the angle ring 31 is provided, and becomes the bound portion 24c when reaching the flexible tube portion 1a.

Although the cable wire is not restrained in the non-bundling portion 24b, the front and rear portions thereof are a fixing portion 24a and a binding portion 24c, and the angle portion 1b.
Since the dimension in the axial direction is not so long, the situation where the portions of the non-binding portion 24b are completely separated does not occur. The length of the non-bundling portion 24b is longer than the entire length of the angle portion 1b. Due to this extra length, when the angle portion 1b is bent as shown in phantom in FIG. The unbundled portion 24a of the cable 24 freely moves or 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 the operation can be performed with a light force. Here, as will be described later, among the cable wires constituting the cable 24, the ground wire 26 has a surplus length, but is shorter than the signal wire.

By the way, as shown in FIG. 3, when the angle portion 1b is curved to the maximum extent, the adjacent angle rings 31, 31 come into contact with each other. When the cable wire is in the state shown by the phantom line in the figure, the cable wire is bitten between the angle rings 31 and 31 and cut. In order to prevent this, the unbundling portion 24b of the cable 24 is bundled by a bundling member 25. This bundling member 25 is provided at one position in the vicinity of the direction changing portion of the angle portion 1b shown by R in FIG. I am trying to provide it. Here, it is the signal lines that are bundled by the bundling member 25, and the ground wire 26 that is thicker in diameter and stronger than the signal line is excluded from the bundling portion by the bundling member 25.

The present embodiment is constructed as described above, and since the portion of the cable 24 located inside the angle portion 1b is in the unbound state and has an extra length, the angle portion 1b is curved. When operated, this non-binding portion 24b
Can freely move and expand and contract. Therefore, the cable 24 does not resist the angle operation, and the angle operation can be performed with a light force. Moreover, in the non-bundling portion 24b, the ground wire 26 is shorter than the signal line. Therefore, even if the cable wire of the non-bundling portion 24b is pulled by an external force, the pulling force is high. There is no risk that the ground wire 26 will be acted upon and an unreasonable force will act on the fragile signal wire to break it.

Moreover, since the non-bundling portion 24b is not completely free and is bundled by the bundling member 25 on the way, the unbundling portion 24b is prevented from moving in a disjointed manner. Therefore, the signal line does not protrude in any direction. Therefore, even if the angle portion 1b is repeatedly bent, one signal line is not bent or protruded separately from the other, and all the signal lines can be kept in a dense state in a narrow range. As a result, even if the angle portion 1b is curved to the maximum extent and the angle rings 31 and 31 come into contact with each other, there is no possibility that the cable wire will be bitten in the meantime and broken.
In particular, when the angle portion 1b is curved, the direction changing portion is the portion with the largest curvature, and if the signal line is not regulated at this portion, it will be completely separated,
Entanglement and meander. Therefore, in this part,
By bundling with a bundling member 25 such as a tape having a short width or a spool, it is possible to reliably prevent the signal lines from becoming disjointed. 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. Moreover, the bundling member 25 is an extremely thin flexible tape-shaped member such as fluororesin (P
TFE) tape or the like is preferably used, and even when the angle portion is bent, the signal line bends flexibly without resistance.
Unreasonable force does not act, and the possibility of disconnection becomes extremely small.

By the way, since the ground wire 26 is shorter than the signal wire, when the angle portion 1b is bent due to the dimensional difference, a pulling force may act on the ground wire 26. However, since the ground wire 26 is excluded from the bundling portion by the bundling member 25, when the pulling force is released, the earth wire 26 is surely returned to the original state, and there is no possibility that it is pulled to one side of the bundling 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 embodiment, the bundling member is provided at one place, but it may be provided at a plurality of places. Further, if the ground wire is securely fixed to the bundling member and held so as not to be misaligned, the ground wire may be bound by the bundling member.

[0020]

【The invention's effect】
As described above, the present invention is
Since the cable wire for signal transmission is bundled with the bundling member in the unbundled portion of the cable wire, it expands and contracts according to the bending of the angle part as a whole, but the individual cable wires do not come apart and the cable There is an effect that the wire is not caught by the angle ring and is not broken.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view of a distal end portion of an insertion portion of an electronic endoscope equipped with a cable showing an embodiment of the present invention.

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

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

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

FIG. 5 is a structural explanatory view of a distal end portion of an insertion portion of the electronic endoscope.

[Explanation of symbols]

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

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A plurality of cable wires are connected to a substrate provided with a solid-state imaging device, which is provided at a distal end portion of an insertion portion that is formed from the distal end side to a distal end portion, an angle portion, and a flexible tube portion, and at least In the angle part, these cable wires are not bound, and in other parts, they are extended to the body operation part, which is in a bound state. A cable for an electronic endoscope, characterized in that at least one part where the cable wire is bundled by a bundling member is provided. 2. The cable for an electronic endoscope according to claim 1, wherein the ground wire connected to the substrate on which the solid-state imaging device is mounted is located outside the bundling portion formed by the bundling member. 3. The cable for an electronic endoscope according to claim 1, wherein the bundling member is a flexible tape-shaped member.