JPH09201331A - Image pick-up element assembly body for electronic endoscope - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a convertible image pick-up element assembly body which can be applied even in the case where an imaging condition of a subject body to be observed is vertically inverted. SOLUTION: A CCD 20 having input/output terminals H, I and a first circuit board 22 to which a signal line is connected are connected to each other by a second circuit board 23 which is flexible, and the second circuit board 23 is provided with terminals (h), (i) to be connected to the terminals H, I of the CCD 20. For these terminals (h), (i), their respective terminal numbers are set to be the maximum required, and their terminal widths are enlarged to a specified width. The CCD can thus be connected to the second circuit board 23 even when it is axially (vertically, in an image plane) inverted, thereby it can be applied to endoscopes of both types in which imaging conditions are vertically inverted.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image pickup device assembly of an electronic endoscope, and more particularly to a structure of an image pickup device and a circuit board assembly which enables connection with the image pickup device turned upside down.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art FIG. 6 shows a structure of a front end portion of an electronic endoscope which is a direct-view type and uses a prism for an image pickup optical system. In the figure, a CC which is a solid-state image sensor is provided on the tip surface of the tip portion 1 via an objective lens system 3 including an observation window 2 and a prism 4.
A CCD package 5 accommodating a D (Charge Coupled Device) is attached, and this CCD package 5 also serves as a circuit board. An irradiation window (not shown) is arranged near the observation window 2, and the light guide 6 is connected to the irradiation window. A circuit member 7 such as a capacitor and a transistor is arranged in the CCD package 5, and a signal line 8 for transmitting a video signal and a CCD driving signal is connected to the rear end portion. A forceps port 9 for introducing a treatment instrument and the like and a treatment instrument insertion channel 10 are provided on the lower side of the drawing.

FIG. 7 shows a structure of a tip portion of an electronic endoscope which is a side-view type and does not use a prism in an image pickup optical system. In the figure, a CCD package 15, which also functions as a circuit board, is attached to the side surface of the tip portion 12 via an objective lens system 14 including an observation window 13.
5 is provided with a circuit member 16 and a signal line 17 is arranged on the bottom surface side. A light guide 19 is connected to the irradiation window 18 arranged near the observation window 13.

According to the direct-view type shown in FIG. 6, the inside of the object to be observed can be observed in the insertion direction of the endoscope (axial direction of the endoscope). According to the side-view type shown in FIG. This makes it possible to observe the inside of the observed body in a direction perpendicular to the insertion direction of the endoscope, and these types of electronic endoscopes are used depending on the purpose of observation or treatment.

[0005]

In the above-mentioned direct-view type or side-view type electronic endoscope, the packages 5 and 15 are the same even if they are the same CCD because of different image forming states on the CCD. It is manufactured separately for each type.

For example, the image formation state of the CCD (package 5) of FIG. 6 is as shown in FIG. 8, and the image formation state of the CCD (package 15) of FIG. 7 is FIG.
It becomes as shown in. That is, in FIG. 8, the image (F) captured by the observation window 2 is made an inverted image by the objective lens system 3 and is made a reflected image by the prism 4, whereas in FIG. 9, it is captured by the observation window 13. Since the obtained image (F) is inverted by the objective lens system 14, the image is turned upside down (1
It becomes a state rotated by 80 degrees). Therefore, when the image signal obtained by the CCD is taken out, it is necessary to make the matching in relation to the upper and lower sides of the CCD. For this reason, the CCD packages 5 and 15 as the circuit boards are manufactured separately according to different types. Is being done.

However, even if the image forming state is different as described above, if there is a convertible structure in which the image signal can be taken out from the CCD in a predetermined direction by one circuit board, the manufacturing is simplified and the cost is reduced. It can be reduced.

By the way, the present applicant proposes an image pickup element assembly which does not use the above-mentioned CCD packages 5 and 15 in order to reduce the diameter and shorten the end portion of the endoscope (in the axial direction of the endoscope). doing. That is, this will be described in detail later, but C
A flexible circuit board is directly attached to the upper surface of the CD, and a circuit board made of synthetic resin or the like for connecting signal lines is connected to the flexible board. Also, on the upper surface of the CCD,
Place the cover glass at an interval necessary for terminal connection,
By making the space above the image pickup surface of the CCD airtight, the package is no longer required.

[0009] Therefore, if the above-mentioned convertible structure can be adopted in the assembling body of such a proposal, a highly useful one can be obtained.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object thereof is to provide an image in a predetermined direction by a convertible structure even in two types in which the image forming state of the image pickup element is inverted upside down. Can take out the signal,
An object of the present invention is to provide an image pickup element assembly for an electronic endoscope that can facilitate manufacturing and reduce cost.

[0011]

In order to achieve the above object, the invention according to the first aspect of the invention is directed to an image pickup device in which a plurality of input / output terminals are arranged at the front and rear ends, and the front and rear end portions of the image pickup device. And a circuit board integrally formed with front and rear terminals that are connected to each other on the input / output terminal. In this circuit board, a position at which the front and rear directions of the circuit board and the image pickup device coincide with each other and 180 In order to be able to connect to the terminals at both ends of the image sensor at both inverted (rotated) positions,
The feature is that both the front and rear terminals are set to the required maximum values. Note that the front and the rear are aligned with the front-back direction of the endoscope whose front end side is the front, and the front-rear direction may be reversed. According to a second aspect of the present invention, both ends of the image pickup device are provided at both the position where the circuit board and the image pickup device are aligned in the front-rear direction with respect to the terminal of the circuit substrate and the position which is 180 degrees inverted from this position. The feature is that the terminal width is changed so that connection is possible. According to a third aspect of the present invention, the circuit board is a flexible board having a first circuit board for connecting a signal line for transmitting an input / output signal to and from the image sensor, and an opening for disposing the image sensor. It is characterized in that the image pickup device and the first circuit board are connected to each other by a second circuit board.

[0012] According to the action of the first claim, wherein, necessary when the number of terminals of both terminals of the front and rear ends of the circuit board is divided into the front end and rear end of the input and output terminals of the image sensor (column) It is set to the maximum value (number). That is, the number of both terminals is adjusted to the number of terminals required for connection. Therefore, even if the number of terminals at the front and rear ends of the image pickup device is different, if the terminal arrangement at the front and rear ends of the image pickup device is point-symmetrical, the image pickup device and the circuit board should be connected in the same direction. , Both the front and rear sides are inverted by 180 degrees, and the terminals of the circuit board can be connected to the terminals of all the image pickup devices. In addition,
Some of the terminals on the circuit board that are connected to the terminals at one end of the image sensor with the smaller number of terminals may not be connected.
This can be excised.

According to the configuration of the second aspect, not only is the number of terminals of the circuit board set to the maximum value, but the width of the terminals is widened, so that the terminal arrangement at the front and rear ends is a completely point-oriented arrangement. The circuit board can be made to correspond to the image pickup device which is not formed. That is, if the terminal arrangement at the front and rear ends of the image pickup element is point-targeted, it can be handled by adjusting the number of terminals on the circuit board as described above, but this terminal arrangement may not be point-targeted. is there. Therefore, in this case, the width of the terminals of the circuit board may be widened by the amount of deviation from the pointed terminal position.

According to the structure of the third aspect, the first circuit board is connected to the image pickup device via the second circuit board,
A signal line is connected to the first circuit board. According to this, there is an advantage that the second circuit board, which is a flexible board, can be bent in the vertical direction, for example, and the lateral width of the assembly can be reduced.

[0015]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIGS. 1 to 5 show an image pickup device assembly mounted at the tip of an electronic endoscope according to an embodiment of the present invention. Is used for. FIG. 1 shows a connection state of the image pickup device and the circuit board whose front and rear directions are aligned with each other, and FIG.
The connection state in which the state is reversed by 180 degrees is shown. FIG. 3 shows an image pickup element assembly using the assembly of FIG. 1, and FIG. 4 shows an image pickup element assembly using the assembly of FIG.

In FIGS. 1 and 2, a CCD (Charge Coupled Device) 20 which is a solid-state image sensor is provided on the upper surface.
An image pickup surface S is formed, and an image of the object to be observed is captured by this image pickup surface S, converted into an image signal, and output to a monitor or the like. Here, the upper and lower sides of the imaging surface S shown in the figure correspond to the upper and lower sides of an image output to a monitor or the like.

Input / output terminals (group) H (front side: No. 1-8 in the figure) and I (rear side) are provided at front and rear end portions of the upper surface of the CCD 20 (the upper side in the drawing is the front and the lower side is the rear). Side: No. 9 to 1 in the figure
6) is provided (note that these terminals H and I are shown by solid lines in a transparent state). The numbers of terminals H and I are both 8 as is clear from the figure. Note that the terminals H of Nos. 5 and 6 in the figure are terminals that need not be connected in this example, and the terminals I of Nos. 9 and 10 in the figure are connected to the same terminal (h or i).

In this example, as shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, in order to connect and arrange the signal line (21) for transmitting an image signal to a monitor or the like, a first circuit board 22 (described later) made of hard synthetic resin is used. ) Is used for this first circuit board 22 and CC
The D20 is connected to the second circuit board 23.
That is, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the second circuit board 23 has an opening 24 at the center and is arranged so as to surround the outer periphery of the CCD 20. The second circuit board 23 is made of a thin flexible board, and has terminals H of the CCD 20,
In order to connect to I, there is a strip-shaped terminal (not necessarily a projecting terminal) h protruding toward the opening 24 on the front side, and a strip-shaped terminal protruding toward the opening 24 on the rear side. i, and the number of terminals of both of them is 7.

In FIG. 1, the terminal h is a terminal H and a terminal i.
Is connected to the terminal I, respectively, so that the second circuit board 23 and the CCD 20 are connected with their front and rear directions aligned. That is, at the front end of the CCD 20,
The second circuit board 2 because terminals H of Nos. 5 and 6 are not connected
One terminal h of No. 3 is redundant, and terminals H of No. 5 and 6 are
The upper terminal h is cut off. On the other hand, at the rear end of the CCD 20, the number of terminals I is 8 and the number of terminals i is 7.
The terminals I of Nos. 9 and 10 are connected to one terminal i.

In FIG. 2, the terminals h are the terminals I and i.
Are connected to the terminals H, respectively, so that the second circuit board 23 and the CCD 20 are connected in a state of being rotated 180 degrees from the state of FIG. That is, the CCD 20
At the front end of, the number of the terminals i on the second circuit board 23 side is 7, so one is cut off in the same manner as above. On the other hand, at the rear end of the CCD 20, No. 9, 1
Since the terminal I of 0 is connected to one terminal h,
The terminals h are connected to the eight terminals I.

By the way, in this example, the arrangement interval of the terminals (rows) H at the front end of the CCD 20 is slightly deviated from the arrangement interval of the terminals I at the rear end when the CCD 20 is inverted by 180 degrees. The arrangement of the terminals H and I is not a perfect point object. Also, in FIG. 1, No. 1 of CCD 20
The terminal h on the front side of the second circuit board 23, which is connected to the terminal H of FIG. 2, must be connected to the two rear end terminals I of Nos. 9 and 10 of the CCD 20 in FIG. Therefore, in the present invention, the widths of the terminals h and i are widened to a required width, and in all other cases, all terminals except the terminals h and i to be connected to the terminal H of No. 3 and the terminal I of Nos. 12 and 14 are connected. The width of the terminals h and i is widened to the required width.

A first circuit board side connection terminal J is provided at the rear end of the second circuit board 23, and the terminal J is formed so as to be exposed in the opening 25. Then, in order to connect between the terminal J and the terminals h and i, the second
The conductor pattern 26 is formed on the surface of the circuit board 23.

The CCD 20 and the second circuit board 23 having such a structure are connected by, for example, a TAB (Tape Automated Bonding) method. In this TAB method, a second circuit board 23 is continuously formed on a tape-shaped member (flexible substrate), and each second circuit board 2 of this tape-shaped member is formed.
The CCD 20 is connected to 3 in sequence. In the case of this example, the terminals H and I on the CCD 20 and the terminals h and i on the second circuit board 23 side are connected to each other via bumps formed on them.

In FIGS. 3 and 4, the first circuit board 22 made of a hard synthetic resin material is attached to the second circuit board 2 described above.
The terminal j to which the terminal J of 3 is connected is provided, and the terminal K for connecting the signal line 21 is formed. The terminal j and the terminal K are formed on the lower side through the through hole 27. It is wired by the formed conductor pattern.

According to the above configuration, the second circuit board 23 is connected to the first circuit board 22 arranged on the rear side of the endoscope by connecting the terminals J and j. In FIG. 3, since the front and rear directions of the CCD 20 and the second circuit board 23 are the same as shown in FIG. 1, the front end of the CCD 20 is directed toward the rear side of the endoscope, and the image pickup surface S of the CCD 20.
The upper side of the endoscope is arranged toward the rear side of the endoscope.

On the other hand, in FIG. 4, the CCD 20 and the second
The front-back direction of the circuit board 23 is 180 as shown in FIG.
Since it is inverted, the front end of the CCD 20 is directed toward the front side of the endoscope, and the upper side of the imaging surface S of the CCD 20 is positioned toward the front side of the endoscope.

Further, as shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, C
The cover glass 28 is arranged on the upper surface of the CD 20 with a space required for terminal connection to make the upper space of the image pickup surface S of the CCD 20 airtight, thereby eliminating the need for a package. Then, these members are assembled to the objective optical system member as shown in FIG.

In FIG. 5, an objective optical system member 30 is connected to the upper surface of the cover glass 28 via a prism 29. Further, as shown in the drawing, the signal line 21 is connected to the terminal K of the first circuit board 22 by soldering or the like, and the circuit member 31 for driving the CCD 20 or the like is also arranged on the back surface of the first circuit board 22. It And finally, the second circuit board 2
The left and right portions of 3 are bent upward (or of course, downward) by the left and right width of the CCD 20, and in this state, they are arranged at the tip portion of the endoscope.

The embodiment example is configured as described above,
The image pickup element assembly of FIG. 3 can be applied to, for example, a direct-view endoscope, and the assembly body of FIG. 4 can be applied to a side-view endoscope. That is, in the direct-viewing endoscope, as shown in FIG. 3, the image F of the object to be observed is turned into an inverted image by the objective optical system member, and further is turned into a reflected image by the prism. The upper side of the image F comes to the rear of the image. However, since the upper side of the image pickup surface S of the CCD 20 is also arranged rearward of the endoscope as described above, the upper and lower sides of the image F formed on the image pickup surface S and the upper and lower sides of the image pickup surface S coincide with each other. And a normal image is obtained.

Further, in the side-view endoscope, as shown in FIG. 4, the image F of the object to be observed is made an inverted image by the objective optical system member, and the upper side of the image F is located in front of the endoscope. Will come. However, in this case, compared to FIG.
The upper and lower sides of the image pickup surface S of the CCD 20 are arranged in front of the endoscope, and therefore, the upper and lower sides of the image F formed on the image pickup surface S and the upper and lower sides of the image pickup surface S coincide with each other. In this case as well, a normal image in which the top and bottom are the same can be obtained.
The image formation state of the image F is left-right inverted between FIG. 3 and FIG. 4, but this can be matched by changing the reading direction.

In the above example, the same number of terminals are formed at the front and rear ends of the CCD 20, but, for example, No. 1 shown in FIG.
In some cases, like the terminals H of Nos. 7 and 18, the number of terminals at the front end is larger than the number of terminals at the rear end. In this case, as shown in FIG. 1, the number of terminals h and the number of terminals i in the second circuit board 23 may be increased by two and set to the maximum value of the number of terminals required for connection.

Since the terminal J on the second circuit board 23 is formed so as to be exposed in the opening 25, the first circuit board 22 can be connected from the front surface or the back surface of the second circuit board 23. It is possible to increase the degree of freedom in design.

[0033]

As described above, according to the first aspect of the invention, the number of terminals at the front and rear of the circuit board is set to the required maximum value, so that the number of terminals at the front and rear ends of the image pickup device is the same. Even for the non-image pickup element, the terminals of the circuit board can be connected at both the position where the front-rear direction coincides with the position and the position where the direction is reversed. Therefore, it can be applied to both types in which the image formation state is inverted upside down, and it becomes possible to facilitate the manufacturing and reduce the cost.

According to the second aspect of the invention, by changing the width of the terminals of the circuit board, the image formation state is inverted upside down even when the terminal arrangement at the front and rear ends of the image pickup device is not point-symmetrical. A convertible connection is possible for both types.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, the circuit board is composed of the first circuit board for connecting the signal lines and the second circuit board made of the flexible board. Since it can be bent in any direction, there is an advantage that the image pickup device can be connected to the circuit board without using a package and the lateral width of the assembly can be reduced.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view showing an assembled body of an image pickup device and a second circuit board according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention in a state where their front-back directions are aligned.

FIG. 2 is a plan view showing an assembly of the image pickup device and the second circuit board in a state in which the state of FIG. 1 is reversed by 180 degrees.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing a configuration of an image pickup element assembly and an image forming state applied to an endoscope of a type using a prism for an objective optical system.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing a configuration of an image pickup element assembly and an image forming state applied to an endoscope of a type that does not use a prism in an objective optical system.

5A and 5B are diagrams showing a state in which the assembled body of FIGS. 3 and 4 is assembled to an objective optical system member, in which FIG. 5A is a plan view, FIG. 5B is a side view, and FIG. Is a front view.

FIG. 6 is a side sectional view showing a structure of a conventional direct-viewing type electronic endoscope tip portion using a prism for an objective optical system.

FIG. 7 is a side cross-sectional view showing the configuration of a conventional side-view type electronic endoscope tip portion that does not use a prism in an objective optical system.

FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram showing an image formation state of the observed object image in FIG. 6 on a CCD.

9 is an explanatory diagram showing a state of image formation on the CCD of the observed object image in FIG. 7. FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

 20 ... CCD, 21 ... Signal line, 22 ... 1st circuit board, 23 ... 2nd circuit board, 24, 25 ... Opening, 26 ... Conductor pattern, H, I, J, K, h, i, j ... Terminal.

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A circuit in which an image pickup device in which a plurality of input / output terminals are arranged at front and rear ends, and front and rear terminals which are connected to be overlapped on input / output terminals at the front and rear ends of the image pickup device are integrally formed. In this circuit board, it is possible to connect to terminals at both ends of the image sensor at both a position where the front and rear directions of the circuit board and the image sensor coincide with each other and a position which is 180 degrees inverted from this position. Therefore, the number of front and rear terminals are both set to the required maximum values, and the image pickup element assembly of the electronic endoscope. 2. The terminals of the circuit board can be connected to both ends of the image sensor at both a position where the front and rear directions of the circuit board and the image sensor coincide with each other and a position which is 180 degrees inverted from this position. Thus, the terminal width is changed so that the image pickup element assembly of the electronic endoscope according to claim 1. 3. The circuit board is a flexible board having a first circuit board for connecting a signal line for transmitting an input / output signal to and from the image sensor, and an opening for disposing the image sensor. The image pickup element assembly of the electronic endoscope according to claim 1, further comprising: a second circuit board connecting the first circuit board and the second circuit board.