KR20170022575A

KR20170022575A - Endoscopy apparatus

Info

Publication number: KR20170022575A
Application number: KR1020150117718A
Authority: KR
Inventors: 임재관; 채우리
Original assignee: 고려대학교 산학협력단
Priority date: 2015-08-21
Filing date: 2015-08-21
Publication date: 2017-03-02

Abstract

The present invention relates to an endoscope apparatus, comprising: an endoscope conduit in which at least one channel is formed; A camera unit exposed at a distal end of the endoscope conduit; A plurality of optical fibers respectively exposed at the distal end of the endoscope conduit while being randomly disposed in an empty space inside the endoscope conduit; And a conduit cap coupled to an end of the endoscope conduit, the conduit cap being made of a transparent material so that the light emitted from the plurality of optical fibers can be irradiated forward. Accordingly, the front end of the endoscope conduit is formed of a transparent conduit cap and the front of the conduit cap is provided in the form of a lens if necessary, so that a plurality of optical fibers for transmitting light inside the endoscope conduit are randomly arranged So that it is possible to easily design the camera configuration, signal lines, channels, and the like for image acquisition.

Description

[0001] ENDOSCOPY APPARATUS [0002]

The present invention relates to an endoscope apparatus, and more particularly, to an endoscope apparatus capable of randomly arranging a plurality of optical fibers for transmitting light inside an endoscope conduit, To an endoscope apparatus that facilitates designing.

Endoscopy is a medical device for examining the inside of the body for general medical purposes. Endoscopy can be categorized into bronchoscopy, lumpectomy, laparoscopy, colonoscopy, etc., depending on the site to be examined. All are inserted into the human body and used for imaging, and lesions such as surgery, colon or stomach internal inflammation or cancer Which is widely used for testing.

The endoscope is made of a soft material in the case of an endoscope which constitutes the endoscope in that it is inserted into the human body and is provided so as to be inserted into the inside of the stomach according to the esophagus when inserted into the human body, for example, through the esophagus.

In general, a variety of configurations for endoscopic imaging or other functions are disposed in the interior of the endoscope along the endoscope conduit. 1 is a cross-sectional view of a conventional endoscope conduit.

Referring to FIG. 1, inside the endoscope conduit 100, a plurality of image optical fiber bundles 110 for transmitting images photographed by the camera module, and light to illuminate the camera module An optical fiber bundle 110 for transmitting light, a signal line 130 for transmitting various signals, and a channel 140 for performing various functions.

The diameter of the endoscopic conduit 100 may be wider than the diameter of the endoscopic conduit 100 inserted into the human body. This limits the design of the endoscopic conduit 100.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Accordingly, the present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a camera structure for capturing an image, a signal line, And to provide an endoscope apparatus that facilitates the design of channels and the like.

The above object is achieved by an endoscope apparatus according to the present invention, comprising: an endoscope conduit in which at least one channel is formed; A camera unit exposed at a distal end of the endoscope conduit; A plurality of optical fibers respectively exposed at the distal end of the endoscope conduit while being randomly disposed in an empty space inside the endoscope conduit; And a conduit cap coupled to an end of the endoscope conduit, the conduit cap being made of a transparent material so that the light emitted from the plurality of optical fibers can be irradiated forward.

Here, the plate surface of the conduit cap facing the light emitted from the optical fiber may have a lens shape.

In addition, the camera portion is provided to protrude from the distal end of the endoscope conduit; An insertion portion into which the camera portion is inserted when the conduit cap is coupled to the endoscope conduit is formed in the conduit cap; The camera part may be inserted into the insertion part and exposed to the front of the conduit cap.

According to the present invention, according to the present invention, since the front end of the endoscope conduit is formed of a transparent conduit cap and the front of the conduit cap is provided in the form of a lens if necessary, The optical fiber of the present invention can be randomly arranged in an empty space, and an endoscope apparatus that facilitates the design of a camera configuration, a signal line, and a channel for image acquisition is provided.

1 is a view showing an example of a section of an endoscope conduit of a conventional endoscope apparatus,
2 is a diagram showing a configuration of an endoscope apparatus according to the present invention.

Hereinafter, embodiments according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

2 is a diagram showing a configuration of an endoscope apparatus according to the present invention. 2, an endoscope apparatus according to the present invention includes an endoscope conduit 10, a camera section 11, a plurality of optical fibers 12, and a conduit cap 20.

The endoscopic conduit 10 is made of a flexible material, and at least one channel 14, an optical fiber bundle for imaging, and a plurality of optical fibers 12 are formed in the endoscope conduit 10.

The camera section 11 is exposed at the distal end of the endoscope conduit 10 to photograph a forward image and the camera section 11 is a camera module positioned at the distal end of the endoscope conduit 10, An optical fiber bundle for an image, and a signal line.

The plurality of optical fibers 12 are respectively discharged to the distal end of the endoscope conduit 10 while being randomly arranged in an empty space inside the endoscope conduit 10, as shown in Fig. 1, in the conventional endoscope apparatus, in the design of the endoscope apparatus, the channel 14, the image optical fiber 12, the imaging optical fiber 12, and the imaging optical fiber 12 are different from the bundle for transmission of illumination light for photographing, Can be randomly placed in an empty space after the design of the signal lines.

The conduit cap 20 engages the distal end of the endoscope conduit 10, as shown in Fig. The conduit tabs are made of a transparent material so that light emitted from a plurality of randomly arranged optical fibers 12 can be irradiated forward.

Here, in the embodiment of the present invention, the plate surface of the conduit cap 20 facing the light irradiated from the optical fiber 12, that is, the front surface 21 of the conduit cap 20 is provided in the form of a lens, 12 can be converged without spreading forward.

According to the above configuration, even if a plurality of optical fibers 12 for illumination are randomly arranged in an empty space in the endoscope conduit 10, the optical fiber 12 can serve as illumination for photographing the camera section 11 This makes it possible to significantly reduce the design limitations of the endoscope apparatus, particularly, the inside of the endoscope conduit 10.

Further, by arranging the thin optical fiber 12 between the respective constitutions of the endoscope conduit 10, it is possible to reduce the diameter of the endoscope conduit 10.

Meanwhile, the camera unit 11 of the endoscope apparatus according to the present invention may be provided so as to protrude from the distal end of the endoscope conduit 10, as shown in FIG. When the conduit cap 20 is coupled to the endoscope conduit 10, the insertion portion 22 into which the camera portion 11 is inserted may be formed in the conduit cap 20.

The camera unit 11 is inserted into the insertion portion 22 and exposed to the front of the conduit cap 20 so that the camera unit 11 can be held by the conduit cap 20, It is not affected by the photographing.

It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description of the present invention are exemplary and explanatory and are intended to be exemplary and explanatory only and are not to be construed as limiting the scope of the inventive concept. And it is obvious that it is included in the technical idea of the present invention.

10: endoscope conduit 11: camera section
12: optical fiber 14: channel
20: conduit cap 21: front of conduit cap
22:

Claims

In the endoscope apparatus,
An endoscope conduit in which at least one channel is formed;
A camera unit exposed at a distal end of the endoscope conduit;
A plurality of optical fibers respectively exposed at the distal end of the endoscope conduit while being randomly disposed in an empty space inside the endoscope conduit;
And a conduit cap coupled to an end of the endoscope conduit, the conduit cap being made of a transparent material so that light emitted from the plurality of optical fibers can be irradiated forward.

The method according to claim 1,
Wherein the plate surface of the conduit cap facing the light emitted from the optical fiber is provided to have a lens shape.

The method according to claim 1,
The camera portion being provided to protrude from the distal end of the endoscope conduit;
An insertion portion into which the camera portion is inserted when the conduit cap is coupled to the endoscope conduit is formed in the conduit cap;
Wherein the camera part is inserted into the insertion part and exposed to the front of the conduit cap.