JPS5850936A - Endoscope having line sensor type photography element - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] This bulletin contains application data before electronic filing, so abstract data is not recorded.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to an endoscope having a line sensor image sensor.

2. Description of the Related Art Hitherto, an imaging apparatus has been proposed that uses a solid-state imaging device to monitor a color image. One method a1. A color separation system and rhythm are placed behind the optical system.
94, and a two-dimensional or first-order solid-state image sensor is installed behind it. The second method uses a single solid-state image sensor equipped with a red mosaic color filter at the center of the imaging optical system, without using a color-resolving prism. It is. The first method uses a large amount of space occupied by a rounding optical system using a color separation prism.
Therefore, it is virtually impossible to accommodate this optical system in the tip of an endoscope, which has a very small diameter and only a small space. Although the device of the second method has the advantage of being able to be configured in a very compact structure, it has the highest resolution because the picture element of a single solid-state image sensor is divided into three parts: edge, red, and blue. This method has the disadvantage that it is significantly inferior to method 1.

Therefore, the present invention seeks to provide an endoscope having an imaging device using a solid-state insert that does not have the above-mentioned drawbacks.

According to this invention, the endoscope includes a distal end that can be inserted into a living cavity or other body cavity of a subject, an observation window attached to the distal end, and an illumination device that illuminates the subject in a line. an optical system, a scanning optical system including a plurality of reflective surfaces having wavelength selectivity, an imaging optical system that captures the image of the subject, and a line sensor type device element disposed near the side surface of the subject. It is structured as follows.

With this configuration, the tip of the endoscope has the following features:
Since the illumination optical system, scanning optical system, imaging optical system, and line sensor device elements only need to be arranged, there is no need for space as in the first method, and a color mosaic filter can be used as in the second method. Since this is not necessary, it is possible to provide a compact and high-performance endoscope that is extremely efficient, has high sensitivity, and has a resolution of g/1 degree.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The invention will now be described in detail based on embodiments illustrated in the accompanying drawings.

In the drawing, the distal end 2 of the endoscope 1 has an observation window 3 on the side, and a rotating reflector 4 having four reflective surfaces 4m, 4b*4c, and 4d is perpendicular to the longitudinal direction of the distal end 2. It is rotatably mounted so as to have a pivot 5 in the direction of. Although the reflection lI40 rotation is not shown, it is controlled by the motor.
The rotational position of the reflecting mirror 40, that is, which reflecting surface is sending light from the illumination means (described later) to a subject (not shown) is detected. Alternatively, the position of the reflecting surface may be controlled by a signal from the synchronizing signal generating circuit 6.

A light emitting end 8 of a light guide T is arranged at the forefront of the endoscope tip 2, and a reflecting mirror 9 emits white light from a light source (not shown).
, are sent to the reflecting mirror 4 via the cylindrical lens 10. Figure □ At the position shown, reflector 40 reflection @ f4
m sends a line-shaped light to a subject (not shown) outside the tip 2 in a direction perpendicular to the plane of the paper. In the case of rays, the reflective surface 4& is a guichroic mirror that reflects magenta light. reflection 1i4
1t is formed as a dike-four-light reflector, so that only the red light component of the magenta component twin image light from the subject is extracted and transmitted through the cylindrical lens 11 onto the line sensor 12. be colluded As a result, the red light component was scanned for one television horizontal line. The electric signal from the line sensor 12 is driven and read by the synchronization signal generation circuit 6, and the red light component for one image of the subject is converted by the preamplifier 13 and the process circuit 14 into television signal and 1tK by the rotation of the reflecting mirror 4. It will be shown on Kagoeta TV ISK.

Next, the reflecting mirror 4 is rotated so that the reflecting mirror 4 faces the illumination optical system, and the reflecting surface 41 faces the solid-state insertion element 12. At this time, since the reflective surface 4d is configured as a magenta reflective mirror, the red light component of the image is extracted in this case as well.

Further, the reflecting mirror 4 is rotated to a position where the reflecting surface 4c faces the illumination optical system and the reflecting surface 4d faces the solid-state image pickup device 12. This time, since the reflecting surface 4C is a cyan-reflecting gicchroic mirror, the solid-state mounting element 12 receives blue component light corresponding to one stroke of the subject by rotating the reflecting mirror 4. Ru.

When the reflector 4b faces the illumination optical system and the reflector N4 faces the solid-state image sensor 12, the reflector 411 is a yellow reflective dichroic mirror, so the scanning rotation of the reflector 4 extracts the green light component. and bottle it.

As described above, the scanning optical system transmits images of the subject in a frame-sequential manner with one rotation of the reflecting mirror 4. 12 readings or other photo shoots.

It should be noted that the process circuit 14 can be a conventionally known circuit, and is of course capable of taking out the NT8C signal or other three primary color signals of red, green, and displaying the ISK image on the monitor television. In the drawing, the image of nine objects displayed on the monitor TV 15 is visually recognized by an electronic viewfinder using an operating section KCRT of an endoscope (not shown) and a limit optical system attached to the operating section. It is also possible to do so.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

The drawing is a schematic diagram of the configuration of an endoscope having a line sensor and imaging element according to the present invention. 2...Tip part, 3...Observation window, 8,9.10...
Illumination optical system, 4--Scanning optical system, 11--Imaging optical system, 12--Line sensor type image pickup element. Applicant: Fuji Photo Hikane Co., Ltd.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] (υ A distal end that can be inserted into a living body cavity of a subject, an observation window attached to the distal end, and an illumination optical system that provides linear illumination to the subject. , a scanning optical system comprising a plurality of reflective surfaces having wavelength selectivity, an imaging optical system for forming an image of the subject, and an in-sensor device located near the subject. An endoscope comprising: @) The endoscope according to claim 1, wherein the scanning optical system includes a reflecting mirror having four reflecting surfaces. (3) The endoscope according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of reflective surfaces are gucchroic mirrors that reflect at least cyan, magenta, and yellow light.