TW201422198A - Apparatus and method for operating a real time large diopter range sequential wavefront sensor - Google Patents

Abstract

A sequential wavefront sensor includes a light source, a beam deflecting element, a position sensing detector configured to output a plurality of output signals and a plurality of composite transimpedance amplifiers each coupled to receive an output signal. The output of each composite transimpedance amplifier is phase-locked to a light source drive signal and a beam deflecting element drive signal.

Description

Apparatus and method for operating a continuous wavefront sensor of an immediate large diopter range Cross-reference to related applications

This application claims the "Apparatus and Method for Operating a Real Time Large Diopter Range Sequential Wavefront Sensor", which is filed on November 7, 2012, entitled "Apparatus and Method for Operating a Real Time Large Diopter Range Sequential Wavefront Sensor" Priority to U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/723,531.

One or more embodiments of the present invention are generally directed to a wavefront sensor for use in a vision correction procedure. In particular, the present invention relates to electronics and algorithms for driving, controlling, and processing data for instant continuous wavefront sensors and other subassemblies associated with wavefront sensors.

Conventional wavefront sensors for human eye wavefront characterization are generally designed to take a snapshot or snapshot of a patient's eye wavefront under conditions in which indoor illumination is dimmed or turned off. These wavefront sensors generally use CCD or CMOS image sensors to capture wavefront data and require relatively complex data processing algorithms to calculate wavefront aberrations. Due to the fact that CCD or CMOS image sensors generally have a finite number of gray levels and are unable to operate at frame rates well above the 1/f noise range, such wavefront sensors are therefore unable to take full advantage of lock detect The test plan provides a higher signal-to-noise ratio. These wavefront sensors cannot use a simple algorithm to quickly derive wavefront aberrations. Therefore, when these wavefront sensors are used with, for example, surgical microscopes When an ophthalmic device is integrated, it generally does not provide an accurate/repeatable instant wavefront aberration measurement, especially if the illumination of the microscope is turned on.

There is a need in the art for an apparatus and method that not only achieves instant wavefront measurement and display, but also solves various problems including the problems mentioned above.

One or more embodiments satisfy one or more of the above identified needs in the art. In particular, an embodiment is an electronic control and drive circuit and associated algorithms and software for driving, controlling, and processing data of an instant continuous wavefront sensor to achieve various functions.

The circuit includes: an optoelectronic position sensing detector/device (PSD) such as a quadrant photodiode/detector/battery/sensor or a side effect position sensing detector; a transimpedance amplifier a analog/digital (A/D) converter; a digital amplifier with programmable gain control; a superluminescent diode (SLD or SLED) and its driver circuit; a wavefront scanning/shifting device and Driver circuit; and a front-end data processing unit (eg, processor, microcontroller, PGA, programmable device). In addition, a camera is used to provide a live video image of the eye to measure the wavefront from the eye. In addition, a back-end data processing unit is configured to convert continuous wavefront data from the front-end processing unit to display clinical ophthalmic information overlying a live image of the patient's eye or juxtaposed with a live image of the patient's eye. The circuits (front end and/or back end) may be electronically coupled to one or more of the various devices for coordinated operation of each device in one manner or another, including, for example, an eye lateral position A measuring device, an eye distance measuring device, an adaptive eye gaze target, a data storage device, a laser based surgical removal device, and a display device.

One embodiment of the present invention uses a variable gain amplifier between the transimpedance amplifier and the A/D converter in the circuit mentioned above to achieve one of a large signal strength dynamic range. Large signal strength measurements. Measuring the dynamic range of this large signal strength Need to arise from the need to measure both weak wavefront signals and strong wavefront signals for various eye or environmental conditions, such as a dense cataract eye with an aphakic eye, or a deep eye with a short eye, or from the eye Large distance, or bright exterior lighting.

Another embodiment of the present invention uses a composite amplifier and a high impedance feedback resistor as part of the transimpedance amplifier to maximize the signal to noise ratio, reduce electronic noise, and maintain amplifier stability without reducing Gain bandwidth product.

Yet another embodiment of the present invention combines a composite transimpedance amplifier with a lock detect circuit to recover small signals that would otherwise be confused with noise sources that are much larger than the signal of interest.

Yet another embodiment is a wavefront sensor comprising: a light source configured to output a light beam to illuminate a subject's eye; a light source driver circuit coupled to the light source, the light source driver circuit Configuring to output a light source driving signal at a first pulse delivery frequency; a position sensitive detector having a plurality of detector elements configured to output a plurality of detector output signals, the detection The output signal of the device indicates the signal strength of the incident light on each of the detector elements; a first beam deflecting element configured to intercept the return from the eye of the subject when the subject's eye is illuminated by the source a wavefront beam and configured to direct a portion of the wavefront from the subject's eye through an aperture toward the detector, wherein the portion of the wavefront that is guided through the aperture is detected Forming a light spot on the device, and wherein the amplitude of the deflection of one of the light points from a reference point on the detector is approximately indicated by a ratio measurement combination of the signal strengths and wherein the deflection The amplitude indicates the wavefront a portion of the beam deflecting element drive circuit 720 coupled to the first beam deflecting element, the beam deflecting element drive circuit configured to output a beam deflecting element drive signal Scanning the portion of the wavefront at a wavefront scanning frequency; and a plurality of composite transimpedance amplifiers each having an input and an output coupled to receive the plurality of detector outputs One of the signals used to provide an amplified detector output signal No. wherein the output of each transimpedance amplifier is phase locked to the source driving signal and the beam deflecting element driving signal.

These and other features and advantages of the present invention will become more readily apparent from the <RTIgt;

102‧‧‧Compensation lens or window

104‧‧‧First lens

112‧‧‧Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) beam scanning/shifting/deflecting mirrors

116‧‧‧second lens

118‧‧‧ Wavefront sampling aperture

120‧‧‧Subwavefront focusing lens

122‧‧‧ quadrant detector

135‧‧‧Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) (or arrays)

140‧‧‧ third lens

142‧‧‧4th lens

152‧‧‧Mirror

160‧‧‧ imaging beam splitter

161‧‧‧ dichroic or short-pass beam splitter

162‧‧‧Image sensor

164‧‧ ‧ gaze at the target

166‧‧‧ gaze/imaging beam splitter

168‧‧‧ lens or lens assembly

170‧‧‧ lens or lens assembly

172‧‧‧Superluminescent Diode (SLD)

174‧‧‧Polarized beam splitter (PBS)

176‧‧‧Bandpass filter

177‧‧‧ aperture

178‧‧‧Dynamic wavefront/defocus offset device

180‧‧‧Scan mirror

182‧‧‧ scanning mirror

184‧‧‧Superluminescent diode (SLD) beam shape steering lens

186‧‧‧ lens

188‧‧‧ Single mode fiber (such as maintaining polarized (PM) single mode fiber)

190‧‧‧Fiber coupler

192‧‧‧ reference arm

194‧‧‧Detector

199‧‧‧ Internal calibration target

202‧‧‧Compensation lens or window

204‧‧‧First lens

212‧‧‧Microelectromechanical system (MEMS) beam scanning/shifting/deflecting mirror

216‧‧‧second lens

218‧‧‧ wavefront sampling aperture

220‧‧‧Subwavefront focusing lens

222‧‧‧ quadrant detector

235‧‧‧Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) (or arrays)

240‧‧‧ third lens

242‧‧‧4th lens

252‧‧‧Mirror

260‧‧‧ imaging beam splitter

261‧‧‧ dichroic or short-pass beam splitter

262‧‧‧Image sensor

264‧‧ ‧ gaze at the target

266‧‧‧ gaze/image beam splitter

268‧‧‧ lens or lens assembly

270‧‧‧ lens or lens assembly

272‧‧‧Superluminescent Diode (SLD)

274‧‧‧Polarized beam splitter (PBS)

276‧‧‧Bandpass filter

277‧‧ ‧ aperture

278‧‧‧Dynamic wavefront/defocus offset device

280‧‧‧ scanning mirror

282‧‧‧ scanning mirror

284‧‧‧Superluminescent Diode (SLD) Beam Shape Control Lens

286‧‧ lens

288‧‧‧ Single mode fiber (such as maintaining polarized (PM) single mode fiber)

290‧‧‧Fiber coupler

292‧‧‧ reference arm

294‧‧‧Detector

299‧‧‧ Internal calibration target

302‧‧‧Superluminescent diode (SLD) beam

304‧‧‧ annular ring

312‧‧‧Superluminescent diode (SLD) beam

314‧‧‧ annular ring

432‧‧‧Horizontal shift wavefront imagery

444‧‧‧ annular ring

448‧‧‧Superluminescent diode (SLD) beam

458‧‧‧ wavefront sampling aperture

462‧‧‧ Wavefront Beam Scanner

482‧‧‧The last wavefront image

494‧‧‧ annular ring

498‧‧‧Superluminescent diode (SLD) beam

502‧‧‧ object plane

504‧‧‧ top eye

506‧‧‧ middle eyes

508‧‧‧ bottom eyes

514‧‧‧ wavefront

516‧‧‧ wavefront

518‧‧‧ wavefront

522‧‧‧ object plane

524‧‧‧ eyes

525‧‧‧ lens

526‧‧‧ eyes

527‧‧‧ lens

528‧‧‧ eyes

529‧‧‧ lens

534‧‧‧ wavefront

535‧‧ points

536‧‧‧ wavefront

537‧‧ points

538‧‧‧ wavefront

539‧‧ points

542‧‧‧ object plane

544‧‧‧ eyes

546‧‧‧ eyes

548‧‧ eyes

554‧‧‧ wavefront

555‧‧‧Virtual focus point

556‧‧‧ wavefront

557‧‧‧Virtual focus point

558‧‧‧ wavefront

559‧‧‧Virtual focus point

600‧‧‧Electronic device system

605‧‧‧Power Module

610‧‧‧Host computer and display module

615‧‧‧Continuous wavefront sensor module

620‧‧‧Data Link/Universal Serial Bus (USB) Connection

625‧‧‧Optional connection

700‧‧‧ front-end electronic processing system

705‧‧‧Live Imaging Camera Module

710‧‧‧ front-end processing system

715‧‧‧Superluminescent diode (SLD) drive and control circuit

720‧‧‧ wavefront scanner drive circuit

725‧‧‧ Position Sensing Detector Circuit

730‧‧‧Internal gaze and LED (LED) drive circuit

735‧‧‧Internal calibration target positioning circuit

750‧‧‧End-end electronics for handling centroid values and other tasks

802‧‧‧ Internal calibration and / or verification objectives

804‧‧‧ lenses (such as aspherical lenses)

806‧‧‧Diffuse reflective or scattering material (such as a diffuse reflection standard board)

812‧‧‧Diffuse cone

814‧‧‧Slightly diverging or gathering beams

832‧‧‧ Internal calibration and / or verification objectives

836‧‧‧Nude diffuse reflection standard board

838‧‧‧Diffuse beam

852‧‧‧ Internal calibration and / or verification objectives

854‧‧‧Aspherical lens

856‧‧‧Diffuse reflection standard board

864‧‧‧ reference wavefront

866‧‧‧Nude diffuse reflection standard board

868‧‧‧Reference wavefront

901‧‧‧Microprocessor

905‧‧‧ memory unit

911‧‧‧Superluminescent Diode (SLD)

915‧‧‧Superluminescent Diode (SLD) driver and control circuit and digital/analog conversion

921‧‧‧Micro Electro Mechanical System (MEMS) Scanner

925‧‧‧Microelectromechanical system (MEMS) scanner driver circuit and digital/analog conversion

931‧‧‧ Position Sensing Device (PSD) Quadrant Detector

933‧‧‧Composite Transimpedance Amplifier

934‧‧‧Image spot

935‧‧‧ Analog/Digital Converter

937‧‧‧Variable Gain Digital Amplifier

938‧‧‧Image spot

1150‧‧‧ feedback loop

1295‧‧‧Transimpedance amplifier

1296‧‧‧ Mixer

1297‧‧‧ phase-locked loop

1298‧‧‧Low-pass filter

1299‧‧Amplifier

1312‧‧‧Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS)

1332‧‧‧ aperture

9001‧‧‧ plane wave

9002‧‧‧ son wavefront

9003‧‧‧Image spot

9004‧‧‧ quadrant detector

9005‧‧‧ center of mass trace

9006‧‧‧ monitor

9009‧‧‧ arrow

9011‧‧‧ Input wavefront

9012‧‧‧ son wave front

9013‧‧‧Image spot

9014‧‧‧ Quadrant Detector

9015‧‧‧ Traces

9016‧‧‧ monitor

9017‧‧‧ top position

9018‧‧‧ arrow

9021‧‧‧ Input wavefront convergence

9022‧‧‧ son wave front

9023‧‧‧Image spot

9024‧‧‧ quadrant detector

9025‧‧‧The heart of the trace

9026‧‧‧Monitor

9027‧‧‧ bottom position

9028‧‧‧ arrow

9031a‧‧‧ wave front

9031b‧‧‧ wavefront

9033a‧‧‧Vertical wavelet front

9033b‧‧‧ horizontal wavefront

9035‧‧‧The heart of the trace

9036‧‧‧ monitor

9037‧‧‧ top position

9038‧‧‧ arrow

C1‧‧ ‧ shunt capacitor

C2‧‧ ‧ shunt capacitor

C3‧‧‧ capacitor

One of the four quadrant photodiodes of D1‧‧‧

R1‧‧‧ feedback resistor

R2‧‧‧ resistor

R3‧‧‧Resistors

U1A‧‧‧Operational Amplifier

U2A‧‧‧Operational Amplifier

1 shows an example embodiment of an optical configuration of a transient continuous wavefront sensor with a large diopter range integrated with a surgical microscope; FIG. 2 shows an electronic device interfaced with the optics of the wavefront sensor of FIG. An example embodiment in which they may be connected to an electronic control circuit; FIG. 3 shows a wavefront sampling region on the corneal plane in the case where the eye moves laterally and there is no corresponding change to the wavefront sampling scheme. What will happen; Figure 4 shows how the lateral movement of the eye can be compensated for by DC shifting the wavefront beam scanner even if the eye moves laterally and thus continue to scan the same properly centered annular ring; Figure 5 illustrates What happens to the positively measured wavefront or refractive error when the eye moves axially from the designed position; Figure 6 shows a general block diagram of an example embodiment of an electronic system that controls and drives The continuous wavefront sensor and associated device shown in Figures 1 and 2; Figure 7 shows the front end electronic processing system and live imaging residing in the continuous wavefront sensor module A block diagram of an example embodiment of a rear end electronic processing system resident in the host computer and display module shown in FIG. 6; FIG. 8 shows an example internal calibration target that can be moved into the wavefront Following the beam path to generate one or more reference wavefronts for internal calibration and/or verification; Figure 9A shows the implementation of an electronic block diagram that accomplishes the task of automatic SLD indexing and digital gain control to optimize the signal-to-noise ratio Figure 9B shows a quadrant detector. First, the light image spot is guided to the center and then slightly away from the center. Figure 9C shows the plane wavefront, defocus and astigmatism, quadrant detection after the wavelet front focusing lens. The associated image spot position on the device, and a number of representative conditions for the continuous movement of the corresponding centroid position when displayed on the monitor as a 2D data point pattern; Figure 10 shows the variable gain amplifier by changing it Gain and SLD output for an example program flow block diagram in signal-to-noise ratio optimization; Figure 11 shows an example embodiment of a composite transimpedance amplifier with lock detection, the composite transimpedance The amplifier can be used to amplify signals from any of the four quadrant photodiodes used in the position sensing detector circuit of Figure 9; Figure 12 shows a conventional transimpedance amplifier and lock detect circuit An example embodiment of the combination; Figure 13A shows a situation in which the MEMS scanning mirror is oriented such that the entire wavefront is shifted downward when the SLD pulse is emitted. In this case, the aperture samples a portion at the top of the circular wavefront section; Figure 13B shows that the wavefront is shifted to the left when the SLD pulse is emitted such that the aperture samples a portion of the right side of the circular wavefront section. Figure 13C shows the condition that the wavefront is shifted upwards when the SLD pulse is emitted such that the aperture is sampled at the bottom of the circular wavefront section; Figure 13D shows that the wavefront is shifted to the right when the SLD pulse is emitted such that the aperture pair The condition of partial sampling at the left side of the circular wavefront section; FIG. 13E depicts the equivalent of a continuous scan sequence of four pulses per cycle of sampling the wavefront section with four detectors disposed in the circle; Figure 13F shows the position of eight SLD pulse emissions relative to the X and Y axes of the MEMS scanner, where four odd or even numbered pulses of the eight pulses are aligned with the X and Y axes of the MEMS scanner And the other four pulses are arranged in the middle of the circle between the X-axis and the Y-axis; FIG. 14 shows an example in which four SLD pulse emission positions are initially aligned with the X-axis and the Y-axis of the wavefront scanner ( As shown in Figure 13F) away from the X-axis and Y-axis by slightly delaying the SLD pulse 15°; FIG. 15 shows the collective effect of the wavefront sampling on the first frame on the skew angle of 0°, the skew angle of 15° on the second frame, and the skew angle of 30° on the third frame; Figure 16 shows an example of the relationship between the PSD ratio measurement estimate and the theoretical determination between the actual centroid displacement or position along the X or Y axis; Figure 17 shows how the calibration can be performed to obtain the modified relationship and produce A more accurate flowchart of an example of wavefront aberration measurements; Figure 18 shows a graphical representation of a continuous ellipse using trigonometric expressions, where U(t) = a ̇cos(t) and V(t) = b ̇sin (t), a > b > 0, resulting in an ellipse that rotates counterclockwise with points (U(t ₀ ), V(t ₀ )) in the first quadrant of the UV Cartesian coordinates; Figure 19 shows the use of triangles A corresponding graphical representation of a similar continuous ellipse, where U(t)=- a ̇cos(t), V(t)=- b ̇sin(t), a > b >0, resulting in UV A point in the third quadrant of the Cartesian coordinates (U(t ₀ ), V(t ₀ )) is rotated counterclockwise; Figure 20 shows a corresponding graphical representation of a similar continuous ellipse using a trigonometric expression, where U( t)= a ̇cos(t),V(t)=- b ̇sin(t), a > b >0, resulting in an ellipse that rotates clockwise with points (U(t ₀ ), V(t ₀ )) in the fourth quadrant of the UV Cartesian coordinates; Figure 21 shows corresponding to the pattern of expression using trigonometry similarly continuous elliptic, where U (t) = - a ˙cos (t), V (t) = b ˙sin (t), a>b> 0, with the resulting The points in the second quadrant of the UV Cartesian coordinates (U(t ₀ ), V(t ₀ )) are rotated clockwise ellipse; Figure 22 shows the continuous centroid data points expected from the divergent spherical wavefront and the resulting data points Examples of position and polarity; Figure 23 shows another example of the continuous centroid data points expected to converge the spherical wavefront and the position and polarity of the resulting data points; Figure 24 shows eight successively sampled centroid data fitting a continuous ellipse Point from the original XY coordinates to the shifted Xtr-Ytr coordinates and further rotated to the Cartesian coordinate translation and rotation of the UV coordinates; Figure 25 shows the results of the coordinate rotation transformation on the UV coordinates and eight centroid data points, where the left side corresponds a divergent spherical wavefront having a positive long axis and a short axis, and wherein the right side corresponds to a converging spherical wavefront having a negative long axis and a short axis; 6 shows a program flow diagram of an example embodiment of a decoded spherical mirror and a cylindrical diopter value and a cylindrical axial angle; FIG. 27 shows an example program flow diagram of an eye tracking algorithm; FIG. 28 shows an example program flow diagram illustrating the following concepts : Using the live eye image to determine the maximum wavefront sampling annular ring diameter, and obtaining a better diopter resolution for pseudo-lens measurement; Figure 29 shows an example program flow diagram illustrating the following concepts: using live eye images and/or wavefronts The sensor signal detects the presence of unintended objects in the wavefront relay beam path or the movement of the eye from the desired range of positions, so that the SLD can be turned off and the wrong "bright" or "dark" wavefront data can be discarded.

Reference will now be made in detail to the various embodiments of the invention. Examples of such embodiments are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. While the invention will be described in conjunction with the embodiments, it is understood that the invention On the contrary, the invention is intended to cover alternatives, modifications, and equivalents of the embodiments of the invention. Numerous specific details are set forth in the following description in order to provide a thorough understanding of the various embodiments. However, the invention may be practiced without some specific details or all of the specific details. In other instances, well-known program operations have not been described in detail so as not to unnecessarily obscure the invention. In addition, each occurrence of the phrase "example embodiment" throughout the specification does not necessarily refer to the same example embodiment.

In a typical wavefront sensor for measuring wavefront aberrations of the human eye, the wavefront from the eye pupil or corneal plane is used one or more times, generally using well-known 4-F repeater principles. Following the wavefront sensing or sampling plane (see, for example, J. Liang et al. (1994) "Objective measurement of the wave aberrations of the human eye with the use of a Hartmann-Shack wave-front sensor", J .Opt.Soc.Am.A 11, 1949-1957; JJ Widiker et al. (2006) "High-speed Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor design with commercial off-the-shelf optics", Applied Optics, 45(2), 383 -395; US7654672). This single or multiple 4-F repeater system preserves the phase information of the incident wavefront while allowing the incident wavefront to be relayed without harmful propagation effects. In addition, a 4-F repeater is implemented by configuring a telephoto imaging system using two lenses having different focal lengths, which allows amplification with associated reduction or amplification of divergence or convergence of the incident wavefront. Or reduce the incident wavefront (see, for example, JW Goodman, Introduction to Fourier Optics , ^2nd ed. McGraw-Hill, 1996).

In recent years, it has been recognized that there is a need for an instant wavefront sensor that provides live feedback for various vision correction procedures such as LRI/AK improvements, laser enhancement, and cataract/refractive surgery. For such procedures, it has been recognized that any interference with normal surgery is undesirable, particularly the illumination of the surgical microscope and the waiting period for wavefront data capture and processing. The surgeon wishes to provide immediate feedback to the surgeon when the vision correction procedure is performed normally. In addition, most surgeons also prefer that the continuous wavefront measurement results displayed in succession are synchronized with the instant video display/video of the eye and are displayed on the instant video display/video on the eye or in the immediate video display/film adjacent to the eye. The wavefront measurements of the overlying or side-by-side display are presented qualitatively or quantitatively or in combination in a qualitative/quantitative manner. Another major problem is the movement of the eye relative to the wavefront sensor during the immediate measurement of the wavefront during the vision correction procedure. Previous wavefront sensors did not provide a means of compensating for eye movement; the truth is that they need to realign the eye with the wavefront sensor Perform meaningful wavefront measurements.

In the patent application (US20120026466), which is assigned to the same assignee of the present patent application, a continuous wave of the large diopter range which is particularly suitable for solving the problems encountered during the vision correction procedure is disclosed. Front sensor. Although the details of many optical design/configuration possibilities have been disclosed in the patent application filed by the same application, the electronic device control and data processing of the continuous wavefront sensor for operating the large diopter range has not been disclosed. detail. The additional measurement capabilities of the different sub-assemblies have not been discussed in detail. In the present invention, various features of electronic device control and drive aspects and associated algorithms for achieving various functions are disclosed.

In accordance with one or more embodiments of the present invention, a lock detect electronics system associated with a correlation algorithm for achieving high precision wavefront measurements is disclosed. The electronic device system obtains its electronic signal from the photoelectron position sensing device/detector; it amplifies the analog signal with a composite transimpedance amplifier, converts the analog signal into a digital signal via an A/D converter, and amplifies the digital signal via a digital amplifier, And processing the data via the data processing unit. The electronic device system is coupled to some or all of the electronic active devices of the wavefront sensor module to achieve different functionality. Examples of such active devices include: a light source (such as a superluminescent diode (SLD) for generating a wavefront of an object to be measured); an SLD beam focusing and/or steering module; a wavefront scanning/shifting device (such as MEMS scanning mirrors); eye pupil lateral position and distance sensing / measuring devices; eye gaze targets; various variable focus active lenses; one or more data processing and storage devices; end users allow input devices ; and display devices.

1 shows an example embodiment of an optical configuration of a transient continuous wavefront sensor with a large diopter range integrated with a surgical microscope, and FIG. 2 shows an electronic device connection version with the wavefront sensor configuration of FIG. Among them, they may connect the active device to the electronic device system.

In the embodiment of Figures 1 and 2, the first lens 104/204 of the 8-F wavefront repeater is disposed at the first optical input port of the wavefront sensor module. The first lens 104/204 is a hand The microscope is shared with the wavefront sensor module. The benefit of configuring the first lens 104/204 of the 8-F wavefront repeater to be as close as possible to the patient's eye is that the focal length of the first lens can be designed according to the requirements of the 8-F wavefront repeater. To be the shortest, and therefore, the total optical path length of the wavefront sensor can be made to be the shortest. This combination of folding with the wavefront relay beam path can make the wavefront sensor module compact. In addition, a larger refractive measurement range of the wavefront distance from the eye can be achieved when compared to a lens having the same diameter but disposed further downstream of the beam path. Furthermore, since there is always a need for a wavefront sensor with an optical window at this location, the lens can serve a dual purpose: both the window and the first lens are used in the wavefront repeater system, and microscope. However, it should be noted that the first lens 104/204 may also be disposed after the dichroic or short pass beam splitter 161/261.

The dichroic or short-pass beam splitter 161/261 as shown in Figures 1 and 2 is used to efficiently transmit the near-infrared wavefront relay beam (at least covering the spectral range of the superluminescent diode or SLD172/272) Reflect/deflect to the rest of the wavefront sensor module while allowing most (eg, ~85%) visible light to pass. The dichroic or short pass beam splitter 161/261 can be designed to also allow for partial reflection/deflection of visible and/or near-infrared light outside the SLD spectral range such that it can be imaged by the image sensor 162/262 Captures a clear, live image of the patient's eye.

The compensating lens 102/202 above the dichroic or short pass beam splitter 161/261 is used to perform several functions. First, in order to ensure that the surgical view formed by the surgical microscope and presented to the surgeon is not affected by the use of the first lens 104/204 of the 8-F wavefront repeater, the compensating lens 102/202 can be designed To compensate for the effect of the first lens 104/204 on the microscope view. Second, the compensating lens 102/202 can be used as an upper optical window, which may be required to seal the wavefront sensor module. The third function of the compensating lens 102/202 is to direct the illumination beam from the surgical microscope away from the optical axis such that when the illumination beam illuminates the lens 104/204, the specular reflection from the lens 104/204 is not directed back to the surgical microscope. The stereoscopic viewing path thus interferes with the surgeon's view of the surgical scene. Finally, the compensation is transparent. The mirrors 102/202 can also be coated to allow only visible light spectra of light to pass through and reflect and/or absorb near infrared and ultraviolet spectra of light. In this way, the near-infrared spectral portion of the light corresponding to the SLD spectrum from the microscope illumination source will not be conducted on the patient's eye, so that it does not become accessible into the wavefront sensor module such that the position sensing device/ Any near-infrared background light returned by any eye that is saturated or produces background noise. In the meantime, the coating also inhibits or absorbs any ultraviolet light from the illumination source of the microscope. However, it should be noted that if the first lens is disposed after the dichroic or short pass beam splitter 161/261, then a window that would not require a compensating lens and having a certain wavelength filtering function would be sufficient.

In Figures 1 and 2, the wavefront from the eye is relayed to the downstream wavefront sampled image plane 8-F where the wavefront sample aperture 118/218 is placed. The wavefront repeater is completed using two cascaded 4-F relay stages or an 8-F wavefront repeater, the two cascaded 4-F relay stages in addition to the first lens 104/204 Or the 8-F wavefront repeater also includes a second lens 116/216, a third lens 140/240, and a fourth lens 142/242. The wavefront relay beam path is folded by the following to make the wavefront sensor module compact: polarized beam splitter (PBS) 174/274, mirror 152/252, and MEMS beam scanning/shifting/deflection mirror 112/212. Along the wavefront relay beam path, the bandpass filter 176/276 can be placed anywhere between the dichroic or shortpass beam splitter 161/261 and the quadrant detector 122/222 to filter out in the SLD spectrum. Any light outside to reduce background noise. Additionally, the aperture 177/277 can be disposed at a first Fourier transform plane between the PBS 174/274 and the mirrors 152/252 to function to limit the cone angle of the light from the eye and thus the wavefront from the eye The refractive measurement range is limited to the desired range and prevents light from being directed out of the mirrored area of the MEMS scanner 112/212 disposed at the second Fourier transform plane.

The MEMS scanning mirror 112/212 is disposed at a second Fourier transform plane of the 8-F wavefront repeater to angularly scan the object beam such that the relayed wavefront at the last wavefront image plane is relative to the wave The front sample aperture 118/218 is laterally displaced. The wavefront sample aperture 118/218 can be a fixed size or active iris. Wavefront after aperture 118/218 The focusing lens 120/220 focuses the continuously sampled sub-wavefront to a position sensing device/detector (PSD) 122/222 (such as a quadrant detector/sensor or a lateral effect position sensing detector) on. It should be noted that the electronics system can be coupled to at least SLD 172/272, wavefront shift MEMS scanning mirrors 112/212 and PSD 122/222 to pulse the SLD, scan the MEMS mirror and simultaneously collect signals from the PSD to enable achievable Lock detection.

At this point, it should be noted that although in Fig. 1 and Fig. 2, the first lens of the wavefront repeater is disposed at the input pupil position of the wavefront sensor module or the casing, this need not be the case. The first lens 104/204 can be disposed after the dichroic or short pass beam splitter 161/261 and the glazing can be disposed at the input 埠 position. Thus, the remainder of the wavefront repeater can be redesigned and the optical function of the compensating lens or window 102/202 can be modified to ensure that a good microscope image is presented to the surgeon.

In addition to the folded wavefront relay beam path, three or more beam paths are also shown in Figures 1 and 2, one beam path is used to image the eye, and one beam path is used to direct the gaze target to the eye, and a beam of light The path is used to emit a superluminescent diode (SLD) beam to the eye for generating a wavefront relay beam from the eye's carrying eye wavefront information.

Imaging beam splitter 160/260 directs at least some of the imaging light returned from the eye and reflected by dichroic or short pass beam splitter 161/261 to image sensor 162 via lens or lens assembly 168/268. /262, such as a 2D pixel array CCD/CMOS sensor. Image sensor 162/262 can be a black and white or color CMOS/CCD image sensor connected to an electronic device system. Image sensor 162/262 provides coplanar or still images of the subject's eye and can be focused to image the front or back of the eye. In addition, the gaze/imaging beam splitter 166/266 directs the image of the gaze target 164/264 formed by the lens or lens assembly 170/270 and the first lens 104/204 along the reverse path to the patient's eye. The lens 168/268 in front of the image sensor 162/262 can be designed to cooperate with the first lens 104/204 to provide a live for the front or back of the patient's eye on the display (not shown in Figures 1 and 2) The image is to be optically magnified and used to manually or automatically when needed The focus is adjusted to ensure that the image sensor plane is conjugate with, for example, the pupil plane of the eye so that a clear eye pupil image is obtained. In autofocus conditions, the lens 168/268 needs to be connected to the electronics system.

The lens 170/270 in front of the gaze target 164/264 can be designed to provide a comfortable gaze target with the correct size and brightness for the patient's eyes. Lens 170/270 can also be used to adjust the focus to ensure that the gaze target is conjugate to the retina of the eye, or to gaze at different distances, orientations, or even blur the eyes. In doing so, the lens 170/270 needs to be active and connected to the electronics system. The gaze source 164/264 can be driven by the electronics system to blink or blank at a desired rate to distinguish between the gaze source 164/264 and, for example, the illumination light of the surgical microscope. The color of the gaze light source 164/264 can also be changed. The gaze target can be a microdisplay whose display pattern or spot can vary depending on the needs of the surgeon/clinician. In addition, the gaze target based on the microdisplay can also be used to guide the patient to gaze in different directions, so that a 2D array of eye aberration maps can be measured and generated, and a 2D array of eye aberration maps can be used to evaluate the visual acuity of the peripheral vision of the patient. .

The gaze target 164/264 can be a red or green or yellow (or any color) light emitting diode (LED) whose output optical power can be dynamically controlled by the electronics system based on different background lighting conditions. For example, when a relatively strong illumination beam from a surgical microscope is turned on, the brightness of the gaze source 164/264 can be increased to enable the patient to easily spot the gaze target and gaze at the gaze target. An iris diaphragm or aperture (not shown in FIG. 1 or FIG. 2) may also be disposed in front of the lens 168/268 in front of the image sensor and connected to the electronics system to control the field of view of the live image of the front or rear of the eye. depth. By dynamically changing the aperture size, it is possible to control the degree of blur of the eye image when the eye moves axially away from the designed distance, and the degree of blurring of the eye image depending on the pupil or aperture size and the axial position of the eye can be controlled. The relationship is used as a signal to determine the axial distance of the eye. As an alternative, the eye distance may also be measured by well known means, such as triangulation based on corneal scattering/reflecting image spot position of one or more near infrared illumination sources. Can also be used as follows The eye distance measurement based on low coherence interferometry will be revealed.

One or more turns of LEDs (or arrays) (135/235) can be configured to surround the input ports of the wavefront enclosure for multiple functions. One function is to simply provide floodlight illumination in the wavelength spectrum such that the light returned by the eye within this spectrum can reach the image sensor (162/262). In this way, if there is no illumination from the surgical microscope or if the illumination from the surgical microscope has been filtered to allow only visible light to reach the eye, the image of the eye as captured by the image sensor (162/262) can be maintained. The contrast is within the desired range. As an example, the image sensor is a monochrome UI-1542LE-M, which is an extremely compact board level camera with 1.3 megapixel resolution (1280 x 1024 pixels). The NIR bandpass filter can be placed along the imaging path such that only floodlight illumination light will reach the image sensor to maintain a relatively constant contrast of the live eye image.

The second function of the LED (135/235) is to produce a specularly reflected image spot that is returned from the cornea and/or the eye crystal (natural or artificial) optical interface so that it can be captured by the image sensor (162/262) LED (135/235) Purkinje image. The lateral position of the patient's eye can be determined by processing the image of the Purkin image. Alternatively, the top and/or bottom surface profile or topography of the cornea and/or eye lens (natural or artificial) can be calculated in the same manner as the corneal topographer and/or keratometer/corneal mirror operates. This information obtained can be used to determine changes in corneal shape or even to determine changes in some other eye biometric/anatomical parameters. The measured change can then be used to set the target or expected refraction during the refractive surgery or just after the refractive surgery, such that when the incision or wound produced in the cornea of the eye is completely healed, the last of the eye Refraction will be as desired.

The third function of the LED (135/235) may be to selectively turn on some of the LEDs (135/235) and project them onto the white of the eye to create a spot of light that can be imaged by the image sensor (162). /262) Capture to achieve eye distance measurement using the optical triangulation principle. The change in centroid position of the imaged spot can be processed to calculate the eye distance.

In addition to providing live eye iris/iris or corneal images and imaging of floodlight effects, image sensor signals can be used for other purposes. For example, a live image can be used to detect the size of the eye pupil, the distance from the first lens (104/204), and the lateral position. When the size of the pupil is found to be small, the wavefront sampling area can be correspondingly reduced. In other words, the pupil size information can be used in a closed loop manner for automatic and/or dynamic adjustment and/or scaling of the wavefront sensing region of each pupil size.

One embodiment of the present invention corrects for wavefront measurement errors due to changes in eye position over a range of positions. Correction can be applied to both the lateral positional change of the eye and the change in the axial position of the eye. In an embodiment, when it is found that the eye or pupil is not well centered, ie, the eye or pupil is not sufficiently well aligned with respect to the optical axis of the wavefront sensor, the eye or pupil is determined relative to The amount of lateral movement of the wavefront sensor module, and the amount is used to correct the measured wavefront error introduced by lateral movement of the eye or pupil position, or to adjust the drive signal of the wavefront sample scanner so that Sampling the same area on the cornea.

Live eye images or other means can be used to determine the lateral position of the eye or pupil. For example, the limbus can provide a reference to the location of the eye; the boundary between the pupil and the iris can also provide a reference to the location of the eye. In addition, the specular illumination from the corneal front surface captured by the live eye camera or detected by the additional position sensing detector can also be used to provide information about the lateral position of the eye. In addition, the specularly reflected SLD light from the anterior surface of the cornea can also be captured by the live eye camera as a bright spot or detected by an additional position sensing detector to determine the lateral position of the eye. The SLD beam can also be scanned in two dimensions to search for the strongest specular surface reflection and to determine the lateral position of the eye.

Figure 3 shows what would happen to the wavefront sampling area on the corneal plane in the case where the eye moves laterally and there is no corresponding change to the wavefront sampling scheme. Assume that the SLD beam is coaxial with the optical axis of the wavefront sensor and spatially fixed relative to the optical axis of the wavefront sensor, And the wavefront sensor samples on the corneal plane around an annular ring that is radially or rotationally symmetric about the optical axis of the wavefront sensor. When the eye is well aligned, the SLD beam 302 will enter the eye, pass through the center of the cornea and the center of the pupil, and descend on the retina near the socket. The returned wavefront will therefore be sampled in a radially or rotationally symmetrical annular ring centered at the center of the corneal top or eye pupil (as shown by the annular ring 304 of the cross-sectional corneal plan view on the right side). It is now envisaged that the eye moves laterally downward with respect to the SLD beam and the wavefront sensor. The SLD beam 312 will now eccentrically enter the eye but still conduct a drop on the retina near the socket, but the exact position may vary slightly depending on the aberration of the eye. Since the wavefront sampling region is fixed relative to the SLD beam, the sampled annular ring will be displaced upwardly relative to the corneal top or the center of the eye pupil in the corneal plane, such as by the annular ring 314 of the right side of the cross-sectional corneal plan view. Show. This non-radial or non-rotationally symmetric wavefront sample will therefore cause a wavefront measurement error. In one embodiment of the invention, the wavefront measurement error is corrected using software and data processing by information about the lateral position of the eye or pupil.

In one embodiment of the invention, the SLD beam can be scanned to follow or track the eye or pupil by information about the lateral position of the eye or pupil such that the SLD beam will always be freely designed for the same corneal position (such as slightly Entering the cornea off the top of the cornea to, for example, prevent the specularly reflected SLD beam returned by the cornea from entering the PSD of the wavefront sensor. The live eye image can also be used to determine the presence of the eye and to turn the SLD/wavefront detection system on or off accordingly. In order to ensure that the SLD beam always enters the eye at the desired corneal position and is not partially or completely blocked by the iris due to lateral movement of the eye (within a certain range of eye movement), a scanning mirror 180/ for scanning the SLD beam can be used. 280 (shown in Figures 1 and 2) is positioned at a focal plane after the first wavefront relay lens 104/204. In this case, the angular scan of the scanning mirror 180/280 will result in a lateral scan of the SLD beam with respect to the corneal plane. A live image captured by the image sensor of the eye or other eye lateral position detecting member can be used to calculate the lateral position of the center of the eye and provide a feedback signal to drive the scanning mirror 180/280 to enable the SLD beam to follow the eye or track the eye.

In another embodiment of the invention, the wavefront beam scanner 112/212 is driven by a suitable DC offset to follow the eye laterally or to track the eye such that wavefront sampling is always performed on the same area of the eye pupil. For example, sampling can be performed on an annular ring that is radially or rotationally symmetric about the center of the eye pupil. To understand how this is possible, recall that the wavefront beam scanner is located at the second Fourier transfer plane of the 8-F wavefront repeater configuration. When the eye moves laterally, at the 4-F wavefront image plane, the image of the wavefront will also move laterally with proportional optical magnification or reduction depending on the focal length ratio of the first lens and the second lens. If the wavefront beam scanner does not perform any scanning and there is no DC offset, then when the wavefront of this lateral movement at the intermediate wavefront image plane is further relayed to the final wavefront sampled image plane, it will also The sampling aperture moves laterally. Therefore, when the wavefront beam scanner performs an angular rotation scan. The area of the annular ring that is effectively scanned over the corneal plane will be off center, as shown by the lower portion of Figure 3.

Figure 4 shows how the lateral movement of the eye can be compensated for by the DC offset of the wavefront beam scanner even if the eye is moved laterally and thus continue to scan the same properly centered annular ring. As can be seen in Figure 4, when there is lateral movement of the eye, the SLD beam 448 will eccentrically enter the eye and the wavefront of the object to be relayed by the 8-F repeater at the corneal plane is also off-axis. The intermediate wavefront image 402 thus moves laterally and if there is no DC offset of the wavefront beam scanner, the intermediate wavefront image is also used as a lateral direction without scanning the wavefront beam at the second Fourier transformed image plane. The moving wavefront image 432 is relayed to the last wavefront sampling plane. In this case, if the wavefront beam scanner is scanned in a circular angular rotation relative to the zero DC skew angle, the sampled wavefront will be a non-radial or non-rotationally symmetrical annular ring about the center of the eye. As shown by the annular ring 444. However, if the wavefront beam scanner 462 (shown on the right side of Figure 4) has a certain DC offset that is properly determined based on the lateral displacement of the eye, then the final image is taken when the image plane is relayed to the last wavefront. The wavefront image 482 can be moved laterally to recenter the wavefront sample aperture 458. Under this condition, the SLD beam 498 will still eccentrically enter the eye, and the cornea is flat. The wavefront as the object to be relayed by the 8-F repeater is off-axis when passing through the first lens, the second lens, and the third lens, but after passing the wavefront scanner, the relay borrows Corrected by the wavefront scanner and the wavefront is now on the axis. Thus, a further angular rotational scan of the wavefront beam scanner relative to this DC skew angle will result in sampling of the annular ring 494 with respect to the center of the eye, either radially or rotationally symmetric.

One embodiment of the present invention thus controls the DC offset of the wavefront scanner in response to lateral movement of the eye, which can be determined by a live eye camera or other means. Due to the fact that wavefront imaging is performed along some of the path of the imaging path along the wavefront relay path not on the axis but off-axis, there may be other optical aberrations introduced, including, for example, coma aberration (coma) and pri tilt (prismatic tilt). It is possible to note by calibration the additional aberrations introduced by the off-axis wavefront relay and to treat these additional aberrations as if there were inherent aberrations in the optical imaging or relay system and therefore can be reduced using calibration and data processing. Go to these extra aberrations.

In another embodiment of the invention, the axial displacement of the eye relative to the designed axial position is determined when it is found that the eye is not axially positioned at a designed distance from the object plane of the wavefront sensor. The amount is used and this information is used to correct the measured wavefront error introduced by the axial movement of the eye. Figure 5 illustrates what would happen if the wavefront or refractive error being measured is measured while the eye is moving axially from the designed position.

In the left row of Figure 5, three emmetropic eyes are shown, with the top eye 504 moving further away from the wavefront sensor, the middle eye 506 being at the axial position of the wavefront sensor design, and the bottom eye 508 facing the wave The front sensor moves. As can be seen, since the wavefront emerging from the frontal eye is planar, the object plane 502 is designed (the wavefront will be relayed from the object plane 502 to the final wavefront sampling plane) for the three conditions. The wavefronts 514, 516 and 518 will all be planar. Therefore, when the eye is an emmetropic eye, if the eye moves slightly in the axial direction from the designed position, the wavefront measurement result will not be affected.

However, if the eye is myopic, as shown by the middle row of Figure 5, the eye will be The lens (525, 527, 529) is shown to be thicker and also draws the eyes (524, 526, 528) longer, then the wavefront emerging from the eye will converge to the point (535, 537, 539). The diopter value at the corneal plane is determined by the distance from the corneal plane of the eye to the point of convergence. In this case, if the eye moves slightly further away from the wavefront sensor, as shown by the top example of the middle row, the wavefront at the object plane 522 of the wavefront sensor and the wave at the corneal plane of the eye Not the same before. In fact, the radius of convergence of the curvature of the wavefront at the plane of the object of the wavefront sensor is less than the radius of convergence of the curvature of the wavefront at the plane of the cornea. Therefore, when measuring the wavefront 534 at the object plane of the wavefront sensor by the wavefront sensor, the measured result will be different from the wavefront 536 at the corneal plane, because the wavefront The radius of curvature of 534 is less than the radius of curvature of wavefront 536. On the other hand, if the eye moves toward the wavefront sensor, as shown by the bottom example of the middle row, the wavefront 538 at the object plane 522 of the wavefront sensor again with the wave at the corneal plane of the eye. The first 536 is not the same. In fact, the radius of curvature of the wavefront 538 at the plane of the object of the wavefront sensor is now greater than the radius of curvature of the wavefront 536 at the plane of the cornea. Thus, the measured wavefront results at the wavefront object plane will again differ from the measured wavefront results at the corneal plane of the eye.

When the eye is a hyperopic eye, as shown by the right line of Figure 5, where the lens of the eye is removed and the eye (544, 546, 548) is also drawn shorter than the normal eye to simulate a short aphakic eye, The wavefront emitted by the eye will diverge, and by extending the divergent light backwards, the virtual focus point (555, 557, 559) from which the light originated can be found. The far-field diopter value of the wavefront at the corneal plane is determined by the distance from the corneal plane of the eye to the virtual focus point. In this case, if the eye moves further away from the wavefront sensor, as shown by the top example of the right row, the wavefront 554 at the object plane 542 of the wavefront sensor again with the wavefront at the corneal plane of the eye. 556 is not the same. In fact, the divergence radius of the curvature of the wavefront 554 at the object plane of the wavefront sensor is now greater than the divergence radius of the curvature of the wavefront 556 at the corneal plane. Therefore, when the wavefront 554 at the object plane of the wavefront sensor is measured by the wavefront sensor, the measured result will again be different from the measured wavefront 556 at the corneal plane. result. On the other hand, if the eye moves toward the wavefront sensor, as shown by the bottom example of the right row, the wavefront 558 at the object plane 542 of the wavefront sensor will still be different from the corneal plane of the eye. Wavefront 556. In fact, the radius of curvature of the divergent wavefront 558 at the plane of the object of the wavefront sensor will now be less than the radius of curvature of the wavefront 556 at the corneal plane. Therefore, the measured wavefront results at the wavefront object plane will again differ from the wavefront results at the corneal plane of the eye.

In an embodiment of the invention, and useful to detect the instantaneous position of the axial position of the eye to be tested, and to instantly use the amount of axial movement of the object relative to the plane of the object of the wavefront sensor module The information correction will introduce the measured wavefront error introduced by the axial movement of the eye. As will be discussed later, the axial position measurement means of the eye include optical triangulation and optical low homology interferometry as is well known to those skilled in the art. Calibration can be performed to determine the relationship between the axial position of the eye, and the true wavefront aberration of the eye and the wave at the object plane of the wavefront sensor as measured by the wavefront sensor The curve of the pre-aberration. A lookup table can then be built on the fly and used to correct the wavefront measurement error. In the case of cataract surgery, the surgical microscope can generally present a relatively sharply focused view of the patient's eye within an axial range of approximately ±2.5 mm to the surgeon when fully displayed. Thus, when the surgeon focuses the patient's eye under the operating microscope, the change in the axial position of the patient's eye should be in the range of approximately ±2.5 mm. Therefore, calibration can be performed within this range and a lookup table can also be established within this range.

In an exemplary embodiment of the invention, when the eye is found to be perfused with water/solution, or when there are optical bubbles, or when the eyelid is in the optical path, or the facial skin or surgeon's hand or surgical tool or instrument is in the image sense When the wavefront relay beam path is blocked partially or completely in the field of view of the detector, the wavefront data can be discarded/filtered out to exclude "dark" or "bright" data and at the same time the SLD 172/272 can be turned off. In another exemplary embodiment of the invention, the wavefront sensor is used to calculate whether the eye is dry and whether a reminder in the form of a video or audio signal can be sent to the surgeon or clinician to remind him when to infuse the eye. this In addition, the signals from image sensors 162/262 can also be used to identify that the patient's eyes are in a crystalline, aphakic, or pseudo-lens state and, therefore, the SLD pulses can be turned on only during the desired period. These methods can reduce the total exposure time of the patient to the SLD beam and thus may allow for the use of higher peak power or longer on-duration SLD pulses to increase the wavefront measurement signal to noise ratio. Additionally, an algorithm can be applied to the resulting eye image to determine the optimal distance to the eye via the effective blurriness of the resulting image and/or in cooperation with the triangular measurement reference.

In Figures 1 and 2, a larger sized polarizing beam splitter (PBS) 174/274 is used to direct the SLD beam to the patient's eye. The reason for using a larger window size is to ensure that the wavefront relay beam from the eye within the desired large refractive measurement range is not partially, but completely, intercepted by the PBS 174/274. In this example embodiment, the beam from SLD 172/272 is preferably p-polarized such that the beam is substantially transmitted through PBS 174/274 and exits to the eye for use in generating an eye wavefront. The SLD beam can be pre-shaped or manipulated such that when the beam enters the eye at the corneal plane, the beam can be collimated or focused or partially defocused (divergent or convergent) at the corneal plane. When the SLD beam is guided down on the retina at a relatively small spot or a slightly extended spot, it will scatter over a relatively large angular range, and thus the resulting return beam will have original polarization and positive Both are polarized. As is well known to those skilled in the art, for ophthalmic wavefront sensor applications, only the orthogonal polarization component of the wavefront relay beam is used for eye wavefront measurements. This is because, in the original polarization direction, there are relatively strongly reflected SLD light waves from the cornea and the eye water crystal, and the relatively strongly reflected SLD light waves can introduce errors into the wavefront measurement. Therefore, another function of the large PBS 174/274 is to allow only the orthogonally polarized wavefront relay beam to be reflected by the PBS 174/274 and to direct the transmitted light that is polarized back in the original direction to transmit through the PBS 174/274. And is absorbed or used for another purpose, such as monitoring for the presence of specular reflections from the cornea or eye lens back to the SLD beam in the wavefront sensor module.

In Figures 1 and 2, the bandpass filter 176/276 is placed in the wavefront relay beam path. To suppress any visible and/or ambient background light, and only allow the relatively narrow spectrum of the wavefront relay beam light produced by the SLD to enter the remainder of the wavefront sensor module.

In addition to the fact that the SLD beam can be scanned to follow the lateral movement of the eye, the SLD beam can also be scanned under the control of an electronic device system including the front end electronic processor and the host computer to conduct a small scan in the small scan area on the retina. In an example embodiment, in order to ensure that the SLD beam always enters the eye at the desired corneal location and is not partially or completely blocked by the iris due to eye movement (within a certain range of eye movement), it may be used to scan the SLD A beam scanning mirror 180/280 (shown in Figures 1 and 2) is positioned at a focal plane behind the first wavefront relay lens 104/204. In this case, the angular scan of the scanning mirror 180/280 will result in a lateral scan of the SLD beam with respect to the corneal plane, but still allow the SLD beam to be guided down at the same retinal position if the eye is an emmetropic eye. The live image captured by the image sensor of the eye can be used to calculate the lateral position of the center of the eye pupil and provide a feedback signal to drive the scanning mirror 180/280 and enable the SLD beam to follow the eye or track the eye.

In an example embodiment, in order to enable the SLD beam to conduct and also scan around a small area on the retina, another scanning mirror 182/282 as shown in Figures 1 and 2 can be conjugated to the corneal plane. Positioned at the focus plane behind the SLD beam shape steering lens 184/284. Another lens 186/286 can be used to focus or collimate or shape the SLD beam from, for example, a single mode fiber (such as a sustained polarization (PM) single mode fiber) 188/288 to the scanning mirror 182/282. on. Scanning of the SLD beam in a small area on the retina provides several benefits; one benefit is to reduce the speckle effect caused by the SLD beam always leading down on the same retinal spot area, especially if the spot size is very small; Another benefit is to split the optical energy into a slightly larger area of the retina so that a pulsed SLD beam of higher peak power or longer on duration can be emitted to the eye for increased optical forfront measurement. Signal-to-noise ratio; and yet another benefit is the ability to average wavefront measurements in a slightly larger retinal region so that non-uniformity due to retinal morphology can be produced The pre-wavefront measurement error reaches an average or detects and/or quantizes the pre-wave measurement errors. Alternatively, by using lens 186/286 (or 184/284) to control the focus and defocus of the SLD beam, the SLD beam spot size on the retina can also be controlled to achieve similar goals.

It should be noted that the scanning of the SLD beams relative to the cornea and the retina can be performed independently, simultaneously and also synchronously. In other words, the two SLD beam scanners 180/280 and 182/282 can be activated independently of each other but simultaneously. Additionally, it should be noted that a laser beam (not shown in Figures 1 and 2) as an eye surgery beam can be combined with the SLD beam and delivered to the eye via the same fiber or delivered via another free space beam combiner. The same scanner or other scanner used for the SLD beam allows scanning of the eye surgical laser beam for performing refractive surgery of the eye, such as a limbal relaxation incision (LRI) or other corneal engraving. SLD and eye surgery lasers can be of different wavelengths and combined using a fiber-based wavelength division multiplexer or a free-space dichroic beam combiner.

When calibration/verification is performed, the internal calibration target 199/299 can be moved into the wavefront relay beam path. When the internal calibration target is moved in position, the SLD beam can be directed to be coaxial with the wavefront relay beam path axis. The calibration target may be made of a material that will scatter light in a manner similar to the retina of the eye (which may have some desired attenuation) such that a reference wavefront can be generated and the wavefront is measured by a continuous wavefront sensor for use Calibration / verification purposes. The resulting reference wavefront may be an almost planar wavefront or a typical aphakic wavefront, or have any other degree of divergence/convergence divergence or convergence wavefront.

Although for the wavefront measurement of the eye, only the beam returned from the retina with orthogonal polarization is used, this does not mean that the returning light waves from the cornea, the eye lens and the retina with the original polarization are useless. Conversely, such returning light waves with original polarization provide very useful information. Figures 1 and 2 show that the light waves returned by the eye with the original polarized light can be used to measure the distance of the eye from the wavefront sensor module, the position of the eye lens (natural or implanted) in the eye (ie, effective Crystal position), anterior chamber depth, eye depth, and other anterior and/or posterior biometric or anatomical parameters of the eye. In Figure 1 and In Figure 2, the returned light waves through PBS 174/274 are collected by a low coherence fiber interferometer as commonly used for optical low coherence interferometry (OLCI) or optical coherence tomography (OCT) measurements. The SLD output fiber 188/288 can be a single mode (SM) fiber (and maintain a polarized (PM) single mode fiber when needed) and can be connected to a normal single mode (SM) fiber (or maintain a polarized (PM) single mode) A fiber optic) coupler to send a portion of the SLD light to the wavefront sensor and another portion of the SLD light to the reference arm 192/292. The optical path length of the reference arm can roughly match the optical path length corresponding to the optical path length of the light wave returned from the eye. Light waves returning from different portions of the eye may be recombined at fiber coupler 190/290 with reference light waves returned via reference fiber arms 192/292 to cause optical low coherence interference. This interference signal can be detected by the detectors 194/294 as shown in Figures 1 and 2. It should be noted that although in Figures 1 and 2, the same fiber coupler 190/290 is used to split and recombine light waves in a Michelson type optical interferometer configuration, all other well known fibers may be used. Interferometer configuration, an example of a Mach-Zehnder configuration, uses two fiber couplers and a fiber circulator in the sample arm to efficiently direct the light waves returned by the sample arm to recombine Fiber coupler.

Various OLCI/OCT configurations and detection schemes are available, including spectral domain, sweep source, time domain, and balance detection. In order to keep the wavefront sensor module (to be attached to, for example, a surgical microscope or a slit lamp biomicroscope) compact, the detection module 194/294, reference arm 192/292 (including reference mirror plus fiber) The loop) and even the SLD 172/272 and fiber coupler 190/290 are located outside of the wavefront sensor housing. The reason for this is that the detection module 194/294 and/or reference arm 192/292 and/or SLD source 172/272 may be bulky depending on the scheme used for OLCI/OCT operation. The electronics used to operate the OLCI/OCT sub-assembly can be located inside the wavefront sensor housing or outside the wavefront sensor housing. For example, when using a balance detection scheme as discussed in US7815310, it may be desirable to incorporate a fiber circulator (not shown) into the SLD fiber arm. When using time domain detection, the reference arm 192/292 may need to include an optical path length scanner or a fast scanning optical delay line (not Show), which needs to be controlled by electronics. When using a spectral domain detection scheme, the detection module may need to include an optical spectrometer and a line scan camera (not shown) that need to be controlled by electronics. When using a swept source detection scheme, the source may need to include a wavelength scanner (not shown) that needs to be controlled by the electronics.

In an example embodiment, to ensure that a relatively strong OLCI/OCT signal can be collected, the scanning mirror 180/280 (and/or 182/282) can be controlled by the electronics system to specifically allow, for example, from the cornea, The relatively strong specular reflection of the eye lens (natural or artificial) and the retina is returned to the fiber optic interferometer so that the axial distance or relative of the optical interface of the eye components relative to the wavefront sensor module can be measured The axial distance from each other. This operation can be continuously separated from the eye wavefront measurement, because in the latter case, specular reflection should be avoided. Alternatively, two different wavelength bands can be used and spectral separation can be used. On the other hand, the OLCI/OCT signal strength can be used as an indication of whether the wavefront sensor module is collecting specular reflections, and if the wavefront sensor module is collecting specular reflections, the wave can be discarded. Front sensor data.

In another example embodiment, the SLD beam may be scanned across a front segment of the eye or across a volume of the retina and biometric or anatomical measurements of various portions of the eye may be performed. A particularly useful measure is the corneal surface and thickness profile.

In an example embodiment, the beam scanner 112/212 for shifting/scanning the wavefront and the beam scanners (180/280, 182/282) for scanning the SLD beam may also have a dynamic DC offset. To bring additional benefits to the invention. For example, scanners 112/212 for shifting and/or scanning wavefronts can be used to provide compensation for possible misalignment of optical components due to environmental changes, such as temperature, to ensure wavefront Sampling is still rotationally symmetric about the center of the eye pupil. In the meantime, the reference point on the position sensing device/detector (PSD) can also be adjusted via calibration based on the compensated image spot position as needed. If there is any angular DC offset of the sampled image spot relative to the PSD reference point, then this can be noted via calibration and data processing. Mention: can be returned via image sensor 162/262 The feed signal uses a scanner 180/280 for scanning the SLD beam to follow the lateral movement of the eye within a certain range. In the case where the eye moves relative to the wavefront sensor module, even the SLD beam can be made to pass through the same corneal position at the same angle (with the corneal position when the eye is well centered relative to the wavefront sensor module) In contrast to the angle of entry into the eye, the wavefront beam from the return of the eye will also move laterally relative to the optical axis of the wavefront sensor module. Therefore, the relayed wavefront at the wavefront sampled image plane will also move laterally. In this case, the DC offset of the scanner 112/212 for shifting the wavefront can be used to compensate for this displacement and still cause the scanned wavefront beam to be rotationally symmetric about the wavefront sample aperture 118/218. In this case, there may be coma aberrations and other extra aberrations introduced or introduced, which may be noted by calibration and data processing. In doing so, any wavefront measurement error caused by a change in position/location can be compensated or corrected.

By combining information provided by image sensors, wavefront sensors, specular reflection detectors, and/or low coherence interferometers, it is possible to combine some or all of the information to achieve calibration calibration curves and/or calibration data processing algorithms. Automatic selection of the law. In the meantime, the data integrity indication or the trust indication or the cataract opacity indication or the indication of the presence of the optical bubble may be presented to the surgeon or clinician via audio or video or other means, or may be connected to other instruments in providing feedback. . The combined information can also be used for intraocular pressure (IOP) detection, measurement and/or calibration. For example, the wavefront sensor and/or the low coherence interferometer can be used to detect the heartbeat generated by the patient's heartbeat in the front chamber of the eye or by the external sound wave in synchronization with the oximeter that monitors the patient's heartbeat signal. The resulting intraocular pressure changes. A syringe equipped with a pressure gauge can be used to inject a viscoelastic gel into the eye to swell the eye and also measure intraocular pressure. The combined information can also be used to detect and/or confirm the centering and/or tilting of an intraocular lens such as a multifocal intraocular lens (IOL) implant. The combined information can also be used to detect eye conditions, including the lens, aphakic and pseudo-lens. The wavefront sensor signal can be combined with the OLCI/OCT signal to measure and indicate the eye lens or optics of the eye system The degree of optical scattering and/or opacity of the media. The wavefront sensor signal can also be combined with the OLCI/OCT signal to measure the tear film distribution within the cornea of the patient's eye.

One of the requirements for an immediate ophthalmic wavefront sensor is the large refractive measurement dynamic range that may be encountered during cataract surgery, such as when the natural eye lens is removed and the eye is aphakic. Although the optical wavefront repeater configuration has been designed to cover the dynamic range of the large refractive measurement, continuity eliminates the crosstalk problem, and the lock detection technique filters out DC and low frequency 1/f noise, and the dynamic range can still be borrowed. Limited by position sensing device/detector (PSD). In one embodiment, the optics are optimally designed such that within the desired range of diopter coverage, the image/spot size on the PSD is always within a certain range such that its center of mass can be sensed by the PSD. In another embodiment, the dynamic wavefront/defocus cancellation device 178/278 (shown in Figures 1 and 2) is disposed at the intermediate wavefront image plane, i.e., with the corneal plane and the wavefront sampling plane. The 4-F plane conjugated by both. The dynamic wavefront/defocus cancellation device 178/278 can be a drop-in lens, a variable focus lens, a liquid crystal based transmission wavefront manipulator, or a wavefront manipulator based on a deformable mirror. In the event that the PSD becomes a limiting factor in measuring a large diopter value (positive or negative), the electronics system can activate the wavefront/defocus canceling device 178/278 to offset or partially/completely compensate for the wavefront image. Some aberrations or all of the difference. For example, in the aphakic state, the wavefront from the patient's eye is relatively divergent, and the convex lens can be mixed into the wavefront relay beam path at the 4-F wavefront image plane to offset the spherical defocus of the wavefront. The component and thus the image/spot that is guided down on the PSD is within range such that the PSD can sense/measure the centroid of the continuously sampled wavelet front.

In other conditions (such as high myopia, high hyperopia, relatively large astigmatism or spherical aberration), the wavefront/defocus offset device 178/278 can be scanned and the intentional offset can be applied dynamically to one or more A specific image difference component. In this way, some low-order aberrations can be offset and the information about other particular higher-order wavefront aberrations can be highlighted to reveal their clinically important features of the residual wavefront aberrations that require further correction. In doing so, the vision correction practitioner or surgeon can fine tune the vision correction procedure and make the residual wave The front aberration is minimized.

6 shows a general block diagram of an example embodiment of an electronic device system 600 that controls and drives the continuous wavefront sensors and other associated active devices as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2. In this embodiment, power module 605 converts AC power to DC power for the entire electronic device system 600. The wavefront data and images/movies of the eye can be captured and/or recorded in a synchronized manner. The host computer and display module 610 provides end processing including synchronizing the live eye image with the wavefront measurement result, and providing the visible display to the user, wherein the wavefront information is overlaid on the live image of the patient's eye or with the patient's eye The live images are displayed side by side. The host computer and display module 610 can also convert the wavefront data into computer graphics, which are synchronized with the digital image/movement of the eye and blended with the digital image/movie of the eye to form a composite movie, and the composite movie is displayed. On the display, the display is synchronized with the live activity performed during the vision correction procedure.

The host computer and display module 610 also provides power and communicates with the continuous wavefront sensor module 615 via a serial or parallel data link 620. The optics shown in Figures 1 and 2 reside in the continuous wavefront sensor module 615 along with some front end electronics. In one embodiment of the invention, the host computer and display module 610 communicates with the continuous wavefront sensor module 615 via a USB connection 620. However, any conventional serial, side-by-side or wireless data communication protocol will operate. The host computer and display module 610 can also include an optional connection 625, such as an Ethernet network, to allow for the download of wavefront, video, and processed or raw other data to an external network (not shown in FIG. 6). For other purposes such as later analysis or playback of data.

It should be noted that the display should not be limited to a single display that is shown as being combined with a host computer. The display can be a built-in head-up display, a translucent microdisplay in the eyepiece path of the surgical microscope, a rear-projection display that can project information over a live microscope view as visible to the surgeon/clinician, or a plurality of interconnected displays Monitor. In addition to overlaying the wavefront measurement data onto the image of the patient's eye, it can also be different on the same screen. Wavefront measurements (and other measurements, such as those from image sensors and low coherence interferometers) are displayed adjacent to the display window or displayed on different displays/monitors, respectively. result.

In contrast to prior art wavefront sensor electronics systems, the electronic device system of the present invention differs in that the host computer and display module 610 are configured to provide for including live eye images and continuous wavefront measurements. After the synchronization is processed, and at the same time, the synchronization information is displayed by overlaying the wavefront information on the live eye image or displaying the wavefront information side by side in close proximity to the live eye image. Additionally, the internal front end electronics of the continuous wavefront sensor module 615 (as will be discussed shortly) operate a continuous instant ophthalmic wavefront sensor in a locked mode and are configured to synchronize with the live eye image data. The front-end processed wavefront data is sent to the host computer and display module 610.

FIG. 7 shows a block diagram of an example embodiment of a front end electronic processing system 700 residing within the wavefront sensor module 615 shown in FIG. In this embodiment, the live imaging camera module 705 (such as a CCD or CMOS image sensor/camera) provides a live image of the patient's eyes, and transmits the live image data to the host computer and display as shown in FIG. The module 610 is such that the wavefront data can be overlaid on the live image of the patient's eye. The front end processing system 710 is electrically coupled to the SLD driving and control circuit 715 (in addition to the pulsed SLD, the SLD driving and control circuit 715 can also perform SLD beam focusing and SLD beam steering, as previously discussed with respect to Figures 1 and 2; The device is electrically coupled to the wavefront scanner driver circuit 720 and electrically coupled to the position sensing detector circuit 725. In contrast to prior art wavefront sensor electronics systems, it is presently disclosed that prior art electronic processing systems have several features that, when combined in one way or another, make them different and are also advantageous for use in Instant ophthalmic wavefront measurement and display, especially during eye refractive cataract surgery. The light source used to generate the wavefront from the eye operates in a pulsed and/or burst mode. The pulse repetition rate or frequency is higher than the typical frame rate of a standard two-dimensional CCD/CMOS image sensor (which is typically about 25 to 30 Hz (generally referred to as the number of frames per second)) (which is typically in the kHz range) Surround or above the kHz range). In addition, the position sensing detector is two-dimensional, with a high enough time-frequency response, so that it can be used in the lock detection mode and the pulsed light source (at a frequency higher than the 1/f noise frequency range). ) operate synchronously. The front end processing system 710 is at least electrically coupled to the SLD driving and controlling circuit 715, the wavefront scanner driving circuit 720, and the position sensing detector circuit 725. The front end electronics are configured to phase lock the operation of the light source, wavefront scanner, and position sensing detector.

In addition, the front end processing system 710 can also be electrically coupled to the internal gaze and LED driving circuit 730, and the internal calibration target positioning circuit 735. In addition to driving internal gaze (as previously discussed with reference to Figures 1 and 2), LED driver circuit 730 can also include multiple LED drivers and be used to drive other LEDs, including indicator LEDs, for pan-eye live imaging cameras. Light-illuminated LEDs, as well as LEDs for eye distance ranging based on triangulation. The internal calibration target positioning circuit 735 can be used to initiate the generation of a reference wavefront to measure the wavefront by the continuous wavefront sensor for calibration/verification purposes.

The front-end and back-end electronic processing systems include one or more digital processors and non-transitory computer readable memory for storing executable code and data. The various control and drive circuits 715-735 can be implemented as hardwired circuits, digital processing systems, or combinations thereof, as is known in the art.

8 shows an example internal calibration and/or verification target 802/832/852 that can be moved into the wavefront relay beam path to generate one or more reference wavefronts for internal calibration and/or verification. In an embodiment, the internal calibration and/or verification target includes a lens (such as an aspheric lens) 804 and a diffuse or scattering material (such as a sheet of diffuse reflection spectral) 806. The diffuse reflectance standard plate 806 can be positioned at a short distance in front of the focal plane after the aspherical lens 804 or a short distance beyond the rear focus plane. The aspheric lens 804 can be coated with anti-reflection to substantially reduce any specular reflection from the lens itself.

When the internal calibration and/or verification target 802 moves into the wavefront relay beam path, it will be blocked by, for example, a magnetic stop (not shown), centering the aspheric lens 804 And coaxial with the wavefront relay optical axis. The SLD beam will then be intercepted by the aspherical lens with minimal specular reflection and the SLD beam will be at least focused to some extent by the aspherical lens to act as a spot on the diffuse reflectance standard plate 806. Since the diffusely reflective standard plate is designed to be highly diffusely reflective and/or scattering, the returning light from the diffusely reflective standard plate will be in the form of a diverging cone 812 and will become slightly after traveling backward through the aspherical lens. A beam 814 that diverges or converges.

The position of the internal calibration target as shown in Figures 1 and 2 is somewhere between the first lens 104/204 and the polarizing beam splitter 174/274, so a slightly diverging or concentrating beam propagating backwards there will Equivalent to a beam of light from a point source in front of or behind the object plane of the first lens 104/204. In other words, the internal calibration and/or verification target that produces the reference wavefront is equivalent to the converging or diverging wavefront from the eye to be tested.

In an embodiment, the actual axial position of the diffusely reflective standard plate relative to the aspherical lens can be designed such that the reference wavefront can be made similar to the wavefront from the aphakic eye. In another embodiment, the actual axial position of the diffusely reflective standard plate can be designed such that the resulting reference wavefront can be made to resemble a wavefront from an emmetropic or nearsighted eye.

It should be noted that although an aspherical lens is used herein, a spherical lens and any other type of lens (including a cylindrical lens plus a spherical lens or even a tilted spherical lens) can be used to generate some expected wavefront aberrations for use. For reference wavefronts for calibration and/or verification. In an embodiment, the position of the diffuse reflection standard plate relative to the aspherical lens may also be continuously varied such that the internally generated wavefront may have a continuously variable diopter value to achieve the designed refractive measurement range. Complete calibration of the wavefront sensor inside.

In another embodiment, the internal calibration target can simply be a bare diffuse reflective standard plate 836. In this case, the requirement for the stop position of the diffuse reflection standard plate 836 can be alleviated because the SLD beam can be intercepted when any portion of the surface of the flat diffuse reflection standard plate moves into the wavefront relay beam path. To produce substantially identical reference wavefronts (assuming that the topographical properties of the diffusely reflective standard plate surface are substantially the same). In this case, from the bare piece The beam emitted by the diffuse reflectance standard plate will be the diverging beam 838.

In still another embodiment, the internal calibration and/or verification target includes a bare diffuse reflection standard panel 866 and a structure having an aspherical lens 854 and a diffuse reflective standard panel 856, wherein the diffuse reflective standard panels (866 and 856) Can be a single piece structure. The mechanism for moving the internal calibration and/or verification target 852 into the wavefront relay beam path can have two stops: an absolutely repeatable intermediate stop and a highly repeatable final magnetic stop position are not required. The intermediate stop position can be used to enable the sheet bare diffuse standard plate to capture the SLD beam, and the highly repeatable stop position can be used to position the aspheric lens plus the diffuse reflection standard plate structure such that the aspheric lens is well centered and Coaxial with the optical axis of the wavefront relay beam. In this way, two reference wavefronts (864 and 868) are obtained and thus the internal calibration target is used to check whether the system transfer function appears as designed or if there is any misalignment of the compensated wavefront relay optical system. Any need.

Due to the difference between the amount of light returned from the real eye and the amount of light returned from a diffuse reflection standard plate, an optical attenuation member such as a neutral density filter and/or a polarizer can be included internally The target is calibrated and/or verified and placed in front of or behind the aspheric lens to attenuate the light such that the light is about the same as the light from the real eye. Alternatively, the thickness of the diffusely reflective standard panel can be suitably selected to only diffusely scatter and/or reflect back the desired amount of light and the transmitted light can be absorbed by the light absorbing material (not shown in Figure 8).

One embodiment of the present invention interfaces front end processing system 710 with position sensing detector circuit 725 and SLD driver and control circuit 715. Because the position sensor detector is likely to be a parallel multi-channel sensor detector so that it has a high enough time-frequency response, it can be a quadrant detector/sensor, lateral effect position sensing. A small 2D array or other device in parallel with the detector, photodiode. In the case of a quadrant detector/sensor or a lateral effect position sensing detector, there are typically four parallel signal paths. The front-end processing system calculates the ratio based on the signal amplitude from each of the four channels (A, B, C, and D) The X and Y values are measured as will be discussed later. In addition to the standard specifications, the front-end processing system can automatically adjust (and after user judgment) the gain of the SLD output and the variable gain amplifier independently for each of the channels, or for all channels, so that The final amplified output of the A, B, C, and D values of all successively sampled sub-wavefront image spots on the position sensing detector is optimized to achieve the best signal to noise ratio. This is desirable because the optical signal returned from the patient's eye can vary depending on the refractive state of the eye (myopia, elevation and hyperopia), the surgical state (with lens, aphakic and pseudo-lens), and the degree of cataract.

9A and 9B illustrate an embodiment of an electronic device block diagram that performs the tasks of automatic SLD indexing and digital gain control via a servo to optimize the signal-to-noise ratio, and FIG. 10 shows an example embodiment in the form of a block diagram of a program flow. .

Referring to FIG. 9A, the microprocessor 901 is coupled to a memory unit 905 having a code and data stored therein. The microprocessor 901 is also coupled to the SLD 911 via an SLD driver and control circuit and a digital/analog conversion 915, coupled to the MEMS scanner 921 via a MEMS scanner driver circuit and digital/analog conversion 925, and via a composite transimpedance amplifier 933. The analog/digital converter 935 and the variable gain digital amplifier 937 are coupled to the PSD 931.

It should be noted that in this example, the PSD is a quadrant detector with four channels leading to the four final amplified digital outputs A, B, C, and D, and accordingly, there are four composite transimpedance amplifiers, Four analog/digital converters and four variable gain digital amplifiers, but only one of these components is depicted in Figure 9A.

To illustrate the above points, the discussion in US 7445335 will be briefly repeated with reference to Figure 9B. Assume that a continuous wavefront sensor is used for wavefront sampling and that a PSD quadrant detector 931 having four photosensitive regions A, B, C, and D is used to indicate the centroid position of the sampled wavefront image spot position. Local tilt, as shown in Figure 9B. If the wavelet front is incident on the normal angle of the sub-wavefront focusing lens in front of the quadrant detector 931, the image The image spot 934 on the limit detector 931 will be centered and the four photosensitive regions will receive the same amount of light, with each region producing a signal of the same intensity. On the other hand, if the wavelet front is off-normally incident at an oblique angle (ie, pointing to the upper right direction), the image spot on the quadrant detector will then be formed away from the center (moving toward the upper right quadrant, such as image spot 938). Shown).

The deviation (x, y) between the centroid and the center (x = 0, y = 0) can be approximated to the first order using the following equation:

Where A, B, C, and D represent the signal strength of each corresponding photosensitive region of the quadrant detector, and the denominator (A+B+C+D) is used to normalize the measurement, thereby eliminating the fluctuation of the intensity of the light source. influences. It should be noted that equation (1) is not completely accurate in calculating the local tilt from the centroid position, but the equation is a good approximation. In practice, some mathematical analysis and a built-in algorithm may be needed to further correct the position error of the image spot caused by the equation.

Referring to Figure 10, at a start step 1002, the front end microprocessor 901 preferably initially sets the SLD to an output level of up to each eye security file requirement allowed. The gain of the variable gain digital amplifier 937 at this time can be initially set to the value determined in the previous operation phase or set to an intermediate value as would normally be selected.

The next step (1004) checks the final outputs A, B, C, and D of the variable gain digital amplifier. If the final output A, B, C, and D values of the amplification are found to be within the desired signal strength range (the range may be the same for each channel), then the program flow moves to step 1006 where the variable gain is applied. The gain of the digital amplifier remains at the set value. If any or all of the final outputs are below the desired signal strength range, the gain may be increased (as shown by step 1008), and then the final output is checked (eg, by steps) 1010 show). If the final output is within the desired range, the gain can be set (as shown by step 1012) to a value slightly higher than the current value to overcome the signal change caused by the fluctuation, and the signal change caused by the fluctuation may cause the final output to exceed again. The required range. If the final output is still below the desired signal strength range and the gain does not reach its maximum value (as shown by step 1014), the process of increasing the gain according to step 1008 and checking the final output according to step 1010 may be repeated until the end. The output belongs to the range and the gain is set (as shown by step 1012). One possible exception is that when the gain has been increased to its maximum value (as shown by step 1014), the final output is still below the desired range. In this case, the gain is set to its maximum value (as shown by step 1016) and the data can still be processed, but a statement can be presented to the end user to inform the end user that the wavefront signal is too weak to be May be invalid (as shown by step 1018).

On the other hand, if any of the final outputs A, B, C, and D is above the desired signal strength range, the gain of the variable gain digital amplifier can be reduced (as shown by step 1020) and the final The output (as shown by step 1022). If all of the final output is within the desired range, the gain can be set (as shown by step 1024) to a value slightly lower than the current value to overcome the signal change caused by the fluctuation, and the signal change caused by the fluctuation may cause the final output to be again Beyond the required range. If any of the final outputs is still above the desired signal strength range and the gain does not reach its minimum value (as checked at step 1026), the gain may be reduced according to step 1020 and the final output may be checked according to step 1022. The program until the final output all falls within the range and sets the gain (as shown by step 1024).

However, there is a possibility that when checked at step 1026, the gain has reached its minimum and one or more of the final outputs A, B, C, and D are still above the desired signal strength range. In this case, the gain is kept at its minimum value (as shown at step 1028) and the SLD output can be reduced (as shown by step 1030). After the SLD output is reduced, the final outputs A, B, C, and D are checked at step 1032, and if the final A, B, C, and D outputs are found to be within the desired range, then the SLD output is then set (eg, Exhibited by step 1034 Show) A level slightly lower than the current level to overcome the signal change caused by the fluctuation. The signal change caused by the fluctuation may cause the final output to exceed the desired range again. If one or more of the final outputs A, B, C, and D are still above the desired range and the SLD output does not reach zero according to check step 1036, the SLD output may be repeatedly reduced (as shown by step 1030) and The procedure for the final A, B, C, and D outputs (as shown by step 1032) is checked until the final output reaches the desired range and the SLD output is set (as shown by step 1034). The only exceptions are: the SLD output has reached zero and one or more of the final A, B, C, and D outputs are still above the desired range. This situation means that there is still a strong wavefront signal even if there is no SLD output. This situation can only occur when there is electrical or optical interference or crosstalk. The SLD output can be maintained at zero (as shown by step 1038) and the following message is sent to the end user: there is a strong interfering signal, so the data is invalid (as shown by step 1040).

In addition to the above, as an alternative, the end user can also manually control the gain of the SLD output and the variable gain digital amplifier until it feels that the true wavefront measurement is satisfactory.

It should be noted that the example embodiments presented in Figures 9A and 9B and Figure 10 are only one of many possible ways to achieve the same goal of improving the signal-to-noise ratio, and thus the example embodiment should be considered as an illustrative concept. For example, at the beginning step, there is no absolute need to set the SLD output to as high as the level of each eye security file requirement allowed. The SLD output can initially be set to any arbitrary level and then the SLD output and amplifier gain can be adjusted until the final outputs A, B, C, and D fall within the desired range. The advantage of initially setting the SLD output to a relatively high level is that in the field of optics or photonics, the optical signal-to-noise ratio can be maximized prior to any photoelectron conversion. However, this situation does not mean that other options will not work. In fact, it is even possible to initially set the SLD output to zero and gradually increase the SLD output as the amplifier gain is adjusted until the final A, B, C, and D outputs fall within the desired range. In this case, there will be a sequence of program flows And the corresponding changes in the details. Such variations are considered to be within the scope and spirit of the invention.

Another embodiment of the invention uses a composite transimpedance amplifier to amplify the position signal of a continuous ophthalmic wavefront sensor. 11 shows an example embodiment of a composite transimpedance amplifier that can be used to amplify a signal from any of four quadrant photodiodes of a quadrant detector (eg, D1). The circuit is used in the position sensing detector circuit as shown in Figure 9A. In this composite transimpedance amplifier, the current to voltage conversion ratio is determined by the value of feedback resistor R1 (eg, it can be 22 megohms) and matched by resistor R2 to balance the input of operational amplifier U1A. The shunt capacitors C1 and C2 may be parasitic capacitances of the resistors R1 and R2 or small capacitors added to the feedback loop. The stability of the transimpedance amplifier and the high frequency noise reduction are caused by the low pass filter formed by resistor R3, capacitor C3 and operational amplifier U2A inside the feedback loop 1150. In this circuit, +Vref is some positive reference voltage between ground and +Vcc. Since the output signal (output A) is proportional to R1, but the noise is proportional to the square root of R1, the signal-to-noise ratio increases in proportion to the square root of R1 (since it is dominated by Johnson's noise of R1).

It should be noted that prior art high frequency wide wavefront sensors generally use only standard transimpedance amplifiers rather than composite transimpedance amplifiers (see, for example, S. Abado et al., "Two-dimensional High-Bandwidth Shack-Hartmann Wavefront Sensor: Design" Guidelines and Evaluation Testing, Optical Engineering , 49(6), 064403, June 2010). Additionally, prior art wavefront sensors are not purely continuous but are juxtaposed in one way or another. Moreover, prior art wavefront sensors do not face the same weakness as the weakness faced by the continuous ophthalmic wavefront sensor of the present invention, but instead face optical signals that are synchronized and pulsed. Features that are uniquely associated with the presently disclosed composite transimpedance amplifiers, depending on their application for amplifying optical signals in a continuous ophthalmic wavefront sensor, when combined in one way or another, include the following (1) In order to improve the current-to-voltage conversion accuracy, the value of the selected feedback resistor of R1 which is substantially matched by the resistor R2 is very high; (2) in order to reduce the noise contribution from the large resistance values of R1 and R2 simultaneously Maintaining sufficient signal bandwidth, the two shunt capacitors C1 and C2 have very low capacitance values; (3) the low-pass filter formed by R3, C3 and U2A inside the feedback loop substantially improves the stability of the transimpedance amplifier And also substantially reduce the high frequency noise of the transimpedance amplifier; (4) in order to achieve the lock detection, the positive reference voltage +Vref is the appropriately scaled DC signal of the drive signal phase-locked to the SLD and the MEMS scanner And it is between ground and +Vcc. Furthermore, in order to achieve an optimum signal-to-noise ratio, a quadrant sensor having a minimum terminal capacitance is preferred; and in order to avoid any shunt conduction between any two of the four quadrants, the quadrants are good. Channel isolation is preferred.

In addition to the above circuits, the optical signal converted by the position sensing detector into an analog current signal can also be AC coupled to a conventional transimpedance amplifier and amplified by a conventional transimpedance amplifier, and then combined with a standard lock detection circuit. To recover small signals, these small signals would otherwise be confused with noise that may be much larger than the signal of interest. Figure 12 shows an example embodiment of this combination. The output signal from the transimpedance amplifier 1295 is mixed (i.e., multiplied) with the output of the phase locked loop 1297 at the mixer 1296, and the phase locked loop 1297 is locked to drive the SLD and pulse the reference signal of the SLD. The output of mixer 1296 is passed through low pass filter 1298 to remove the summed frequency components in the mixed signal and select the time constant of the low pass filter to reduce the equivalent noise bandwidth. The low pass filtered signal may be further amplified by another amplifier 1299 for further down analog/digital (A/D) conversion along the signal path.

An alternative to the above lock detection circuit is to initiate an A/D conversion just prior to illuminating the SLD to record the "dark" level, and to initiate an A/D conversion just after illumination of the SLD to record the "bright" level. The difference can then be calculated to remove the interference effect. Yet another embodiment is to initiate an A/D conversion or record a "bright" level just after illumination of the SLD, while ignoring the "dark" level with minimal interference effects.

In addition to the optical signal detection circuit, the next key electronic control component is the wavefront scanner/shifter. In an embodiment, the wavefront scanner/shifter is micro-processed The four D/A converters controlled by the electromagnetic microelectromechanical system (MEMS) analog steering mirror. In one example, the two channels of the D/A converter output a sine wave that is phase separated by 90 degrees, and the other two channels output X and Y DC offset voltages to steer the center of the wavefront sampling toroid. The amplitude of the sinusoidal and cosine electronic waveforms determines the diameter of the wavefront sampling annular ring, which can be varied to accommodate various eye pupil diameters, as well as one or more of the wavefronts of the desired diameter deliberately in the pupil region of the eye. Sampling around the circle. The aspect ratio of the X and Y amplitudes can also be controlled to ensure a circular scan when the mirror reflects the wavefront beam laterally.

Figures 13A-13F illustrate how the MEMS scanner is synchronized with the SLD pulse to produce the same result, as if the wavefront were sampled by multiple detectors arranged in a circle.

In Figure 13A, MEMS 1312 is oriented such that the entire wavefront is shifted downward as the SLD pulse is emitted. In this case, aperture 1332 samples a portion of the top of the circular wavefront section.

In Fig. 13B, the wavefront is shifted to the left such that the aperture samples a portion of the right side of the circular wavefront section, and in Fig. 13C, the wavefront is shifted upward such that the aperture is at the bottom of the circular wavefront section Part of the sample is taken, and in Figure 13D, the wavefront is shifted to the right such that the aperture samples the portion of the left side of the circular wavefront section.

Figure 13E depicts the equivalent of a continuous scan sequence of four pulses per cycle for sampling the wavefront segment with four detectors disposed in the circle.

In another example, the SLD can be synchronized with the MEMS scanner and can transmit 8 SLD pulses to allow each MEMS scan rotation to sample 8 sub-wavefronts and thus allow each pre-sampled toroidal ring to rotate to 8 sub-wavefronts sampling. The SLD pulse emission can be timed such that four odd or even numbered pulses of the eight pulses are aligned with the X and Y axes of the MEMS scanner and the other four pulses are placed between the X and Y axes In the middle. Figure 13F shows the resulting pattern of MEMS scan rotation and relative SLD emission position. It should be noted that the number of SLD pulses need not be limited to 8 and can be any number, the SLD pulses need not be equally spaced in time, and the SLD pulses need not be aligned with the X and Y axes of the MEMS scanner.

As an alternative, for example, by varying the relative timing and/or number of SLD transmit pulses relative to the drive signal of the MEMS scanner, the wavefront sample position can be shifted along the wavefront sample loop to select the wavefront to be sampled. Part of it also achieves a higher spatial resolution (based on wavefront sampling). Figure 14 shows an example in which 8 wavefront sample locations are shifted by 15° away from the situation shown in Figure 13F by slightly delaying the SLD pulse.

As a further alternative, the wavefront is sampled and repeated with a skew angle of 0° on the first frame, a skew angle of 15° on the second frame, and a skew angle of 30° on the third frame. For the pattern, when the data from multiple frames is processed collectively, the spatial resolution can be increased to sample the wavefront. Figure 15 shows this pattern. It should be noted that this incremental increase in the initial transmission time of the SLD can be implemented by any desired but actual timing accuracy to achieve any desired spatial resolution along any annular wavefront sampling circle. In addition, different annular rings having different diameters can also be sampled by varying the amplitudes of the sinusoidal and cosine drive signals of the combined MEMS scanner. In this manner, continuous sampling of the entire wavefront can be achieved by any desired spatial resolution in both the radial dimension and the angular dimension of the polar coordinate system. It should be noted that this example is only one example of many possible continuous wavefront scanning/sampling schemes. For example, a similar approach can be applied to the condition of raster scanning.

As described above, referring to FIG. 9B, standard interpretation can be used in terms of the centroid position of different successively sampled sub-wavefront image spots that are deriving on the position sensing device/detector (PSD). Well-known ratio measurement equations. Preferably, a quadrant detector or a lateral effect position sensing detector is used as the PSD and its XY axis is aligned in orientation with the XY axis of the MEMS scanner such that it has the same X and Y axes, But this situation is not absolutely necessary. In the case of, for example, a quadrant detector, the ratio of the continuously sampled sub-wavefront image spot can be expressed based on the signal strength from each of the four quadrants A, B, C, and D. Y value, such as: X = (A + BCD) / (A + B + C + D)

Y=(A+D-B-C)/(A+B+C+D)

In general, these ratio measurements X and Y do not directly give a highly accurate lateral displacement or position of the centroid, since the response of, for example, the quadrant detector is based on the following: Distance; the size of the image spot depending on several factors, including the local average tilt and local divergence/convergence of the sampled wavefront; and the shape and size of the sampled aperture before the wavelet. One embodiment of the present invention modifies the relationship or equation such that the sampled wavelet front tilt can be determined more accurately.

In one embodiment, the relationship between the ratiometric measurement and the actual centroid displacement is theoretically and/or experimentally determined, and the ratiometric expression is modified to more accurately reflect the centroid position. Figure 16 shows an example of the relationship between the ratiometric estimate and the theoretical determination between the actual centroid displacement or position along the X or Y axis.

Due to this non-linearity, an appropriate inverse effect can be applied to the original equation to produce a modified relationship between the ratiometric (X, Y) and the actual centroid position (X', Y'). The following is just one example of this inverse relationship.

X'=PrimeA*X/(1-X ² /PrimeB)

Y'=PrimeB*Y/(1-Y ² /PrimeB)

Among them, PrimeA and PrimeB are constants.

It should be noted that the relationships or equations shown above are illustrative and are not intended to be limiting as to the possible methods that can be used to achieve the same objectives. In fact, the above modifications are directed to the centroid position of the sampled wavelet front having a certain intensity profile as the image spot moves only along the X or Y axis. If the image spot moves over both X and Y, further modifications will be required, especially if higher measurement accuracy is required. In an example embodiment, one or more data matrices between the ratio measurement result reported by the quadrant detector according to (X, Y) and the actual centroid position (X', Y') may be established. The form uses experimental methods to determine the relationship, and an inverse relationship can be established to convert each (X, Y) data point into a new centroid (X', Y') data point.

Figure 17 shows how the calibration can be performed to obtain a modified relationship and produce more accurate An example flow chart for wavefront aberration measurement. In a first step 1705, the wavefront can be generated using various means, such as according to an eye model or according to a wavefront manipulator, such as can produce different wavefronts (such as having different divergence and convergence or having different wavefront aberrations). Deformable mirror. In a second step 1710, the true centroid position (X', Y') of the different sampled wavelets can be compared to the ratio measured by the experimental method (X, Y) to obtain The relationship between X', Y') and (X, Y). In the meantime, a calibrated wavefront tilt can be obtained and thus a relationship between the diopter value and the position of the centroid data point can be obtained. In a third step 1715, the measurement of the real eye can be performed and the relationship obtained can be used to determine the centroid position and thus the tilt of the sampled wavelet front from the real eye. In a fourth step 1720, the determined centroid position or tilt of the sampled waveletfront can be used to determine the wavefront aberration or refractive error of the real eye.

It should be noted that the first and second calibration related steps may be performed once for each of the built wavefront sensor systems, and the third and fourth steps may be repeated for real eye measurements up to the desired measurement. However, this situation does not mean that the calibration step should be performed only once. In fact, it is beneficial to repeat the calibration steps periodically.

As an embodiment of the invention, the calibration step or partial calibration may be repeated whenever the manufacturer or end user prefers to use an internal calibration target driven by a microprocessor (as shown in Figure 9A). For example, the internal calibration target may be temporarily moved into the optical wavefront relay beam path each time the system power is turned on or even after each real eye measurement is automatically or manually performed according to the needs of the end user. Internal calibration does not require the provision of all data points, as all data points are provided or available for substantially more comprehensive calibration. The truth is that the internal calibration target only needs to provide some data points. By means of such data points, it can be experimentally confirmed whether the optical alignment of the wavefront sensor is non-destructive or whether any environmental factors such as temperature changes and/or mechanical shocks disturb the optical alignment of the wavefront sensor. Therefore, this situation will determine whether a full new full calibration is required or whether correction based on a certain secondary software will be sufficient to ensure accurate true eye wavefront measurements. or, The measured reference wavefront aberration using the internal calibration target can be used to calculate the inherent optical system aberrations of the wavefront sensor optical system, and the optical system can be subtracted from the measured total wavefront aberration Determine the true eye wavefront aberration caused by the wavefront aberration.

As another embodiment of the present invention, a calibration target (internal or external) may also be used to determine an initial time delay between the SLD emission pulse and the MEMS mirror scanning position, or a sub-wavefront sampling along a certain wavefront sampling annular ring. The skew angle between the position and the scanning position of the MEMS mirror. The same calibration procedure can also be used to determine if the SLD emission time is sufficiently accurate relative to the MEMS scanning mirror position, or if there is any inconsistency with a desired accuracy, which can then be implemented based on electronic device hardware correction or based on pure software. Correction to fine tune the SLD emission time or MEMS scan drive signal.

As still another embodiment of the present invention, if the calibration (internal or external) detects that the optical alignment is off or if it is found that the eye is not positioned at the optimal position but is still within the range of the wavefront measurement by the software correction In the case of real eye measurements, software-based adjustments can be performed to accommodate this misalignment (as explained with reference to Figure 4).

In another example embodiment, if eight sub-wavefronts are sampled around a self-calibration target or an annular ring of a wavefront generated from a real eye, and there are eight centered trace center offsets of the measured pre-wavefront tilts ( Due to, for example, PSD lateral positional shift or pre-clashing of the wavefront from the patient's eye (X'(i), Y'(i)) (where i = 0, 1, 2, ..., 7) , the (X', Y') Cartesian coordinate translation can be performed, so that new Cartesian coordinates (Xtr, Ytr) are given to 8 data points and the 8 data points are expressed as a new data point set (Xtr). (i), Ytr(i)), where i = 0, 1, 2, ..., 7, where the cluster center of the centroid data points is now centered at the new origin (Xtr = 0, Ytr = 0). In this way, filtering out of the measured wavefront results in the appearance of total chopped slant tilt due to, for example, misalignment between the pre-wavefront sample aperture and the position sensing detector/device. Any effect. Therefore, the remainder of the data processing can focus on calculating the refractive error and/or higher order aberrations of the wavefront.

It should be noted that continuous wavefront sampling has the inherent advantage that it can be placed on the annular ring The position at which the sampling is performed is related to the displacement of each individually sampled sub-wavefront centroid position.

As described above, the displacement of the centroid of the sampled wavefront portion is determined using the ratiometric X and Y values calculated from the output signal produced by the PSD. The locations of the output values form a geometric pattern that can be analyzed by a front end or back end electronic processing system to determine the ophthalmic characteristics of the subject's eye. The formation and analysis of these patterns is illustrated in Figure 9C. In Fig. 9C, the displacement is depicted as if it were displayed on a monitor. However, in other example embodiments, the displacement is processed by an algorithm executed by the front end processing system as a software and the displacement is not necessarily displayed to the user.

Figure 9C shows the plane wavefront, defocus and astigmatism, the associated image spot position on the quadrant detector after the wavelet front focusing lens, and the corresponding quality when displayed as a 2D data point pattern on the monitor. Several representative conditions of continuous movement of the heart position. It should be noted that instead of drawing: a number of shifted wavefront samples are taken and projected onto the same wavelet front focusing lens and quadrant detector as different wavelet fronts, but with reference to Figures 13A-13E above. Equivalent representation of the description to draw several wavelet fronts around the same annular circle and therefore draw a number of quadrant detectors around the same annular circle to indicate that different portions of the wavefront are scanned to a single wavelet front focusing lens and a single The status of the quadrant detector.

It is assumed that scanning starts from the top sub-wavefront around the wavefront annular ring, and moves in the clockwise direction to the second sub-wavefront on the right side, etc., as indicated by arrow 9009. It can be seen from Figure 9C that when the wavefront is a plane wave 9001, all wavelet fronts (e.g., 9002) will form an image spot 9003 at the center of the quadrant detector 9004 and, therefore, the centroid trace 9005 on the monitor 9006 is also Will always be at the origin of the xy coordinates.

When the input wavefront diverges (as shown by 9011), the center of the image spot 9013 of each wavelet front 9012 will be radially outward from the wavefront center, with the same amount as the center of the quadrant detector 9014. The deviation, and thus, the trace 9015 on the monitor 9016 will be a clockwise circle, as indicated by the arrow 9018 from the top position 9017. On the other hand, if the input wavefront converges (as shown by 9021), then each of the wavelet fronts 9022 is in the image spot 9023. The heart will be radially inward relative to the center of the wavefront with a deviation from the center of the quadrant detector 9024. Thus, the centroid trace 9025 on the monitor 9026 will remain round, but will begin from the bottom position 9027 and will still be in a clockwise direction, as indicated by arrow 9028. Therefore, when a positive or negative sign change for both the x-axis centroid position and the y-axis centroid position is detected, the situation indicates that the input wavefront is changing from a diverging beam to a converging beam or the input wavefront is self-converging beam changing. Into a divergent beam. In addition, the starting point of the centroid trace can also be used as a criterion to indicate the divergence or convergence of the input wavefront.

It can also be seen from Figure 9C that when the input wavefront is astigmatic, it may happen that the wavefront can be divergent in the vertical direction (as shown by 9031a) and convergent in the horizontal direction (as shown by 9031b). . Therefore, the centroid position of the vertical sub-wavefront 9033a will be located radially outward relative to the center of the input wavefront, and the centroid position of the horizontal wavelet front 9033b will be located radially inward relative to the center of the input wavefront. . Thus, the centroid trace 9035 on the monitor 9036 will start from the top position 9037, but move counterclockwise (as indicated by arrow 9038), so the centroid trace rotation is now reversed.

Using similar arguments, it will not be difficult to calculate: if the input wavefront is astigmatic but all wavelet fronts are completely diverging or fully condensed, the rotation of the centroid trace will be clockwise (ie, non-reverse), however For astigmatic conditions, the center of mass of the monitor will be elliptical rather than circular, since the wavelet front along an astigmatic axis will diverge or converge more than the sub-wavefront along the other axis.

For more general astigmatic wavefronts, the centroid trace will rotate in the reverse direction (where the trace is elliptical or circular), or the centroid trace will rotate in a normal clockwise direction, but the trace will be elliptical. The axis of the ellipse may be in any radial direction relative to the center, which will indicate the axis of astigmatism. In this case, in accurately determining the astigmatism axis, the four wavelet fronts around the annular ring may not be sufficient, and more wavelet fronts (such as 8, 16, or 32 may be around the annular ring). Not 4) sampling.

In summary, for a divergent spherical wavefront and a converging spherical wave from, for example, the human eye Before, the continuous sampling of the wavefronts around the ring of the eye's pupil will cause the continuous centroid data points to be placed around the circle, but each of the data points depends on the wavefront for divergence or convergence. Leading at the position. In other words, for a divergent wavefront, for example, if a certain data point (for example, i=0) is expected to be at a certain position (for example, (Xtr(0), Ytr(0))=(0, 0.5)); For converging wavefronts with the same spherical radius but different sign, it is expected that the same data point is at the opposite position (for example, (Xtr(0), Ytr(0)) = (0, -0.5)). On the other hand, if the original wavefront has both a spherical component and a cylindrical component, the centroid data point will depict an ellipse that can be a normal rotating ellipse, a straight line, an anomalous or inversely rotated ellipse, and an anomaly or reverse rotation. circle. Such a situation has been discussed in detail in commonly assigned U.S. Patent No. 7,445,335 and commonly assigned U.S. Pat.

One embodiment of the present invention uses both positive and negative values of the major and minor axes to describe the centroid data points as equivalent ellipses. For example, the total divergence wavefront can be defined as having a positive long axis and a short axis and the total convergence wavefront can be defined to produce a "negative" major axis and a minor axis.

Figure 18 shows a graphical representation of a continuous ellipse using a trigonometric expression, where U(t) = a ̇cos(t), V(t) = b ̇sin(t), a is the radius of the larger circle and b is the comparison The radius of the small circle. As can be seen, where a > b > 0, that is, both a and b are positive and the ellipse rotates counterclockwise. Thus, the point on the ellipse can be used to represent the continuous calculation of the centroid displacement of the total divergent wavefront with both the spherical refractive error component and the cylindrical refractive error component, wherein the degree of divergence is different for the horizontal and vertical directions. If a = b , the ellipse will represent the divergent spherical wavefront, where the degree of divergence is the same for the horizontal and vertical directions. T ₀ assuming a value _{0 <t 0 <π / 2} , the point _{(U (t 0), V} (t 0)) of the first quadrant of the coordinates in a Cartesian UV.

It should be noted that in this particular example of FIG. 18, and in FIGS. 19, 20, and 21, it is assumed that the Cartesian coordinate axes U and V are aligned with the quadrant detector axes x and y, and at the same time, the astigmatism axis is also assumed. Also along the x or y axis. Thus, the ellipse as shown in Figures 18-21 is oriented horizontally or vertically.

If both the long axis and the short axis are negative, they can be expressed as - a and - b . In this case, as shown in FIG. 19, the corresponding continuous ellipse is expressed by U(t)=- a ̇cos(t), V(t)=- b ̇sin(t), where a > b > 0, - a and - b are both negative. This situation will result in an ellipse that is still rotated counterclockwise. This situation can be considered to represent the total divergent wavefront with both the spherical refractive error component and the cylindrical refractive error component, where the degree of divergence is different for the horizontal and vertical directions. If a = b , it will represent the convergence spherical front, where the convergence is the same for the horizontal and vertical directions. In the case where the value of t ₀ is 0 < t ₀ < π/2, the point (U(t ₀ ), V(t ₀ )) will now be in the third quadrant of the UV Cartesian coordinates, relative to the origin of the coordinates On the side (compared to the situation in Figure 18).

If the long axis is positive and the short axis is negative, it can be expressed as a and - b . In this case, as shown in FIG. 20, the corresponding continuous ellipse is expressed by U(t)= a ̇cos(t), V(t)=- b ̇sin(t), where a > b >0 , a is positive, and - b is negative. This situation will result in an ellipse that rotates clockwise from the fourth quadrant. This situation can be considered as a wavefront that converges in the horizontal direction and converges in the vertical direction using both the spherical refractive error component and the cylindrical refractive error component, wherein the degree of horizontal divergence and vertical convergence are different. If a = b , it will represent the cylindrical wavefront diverging in the horizontal direction and converge in the vertical direction, where the horizontal divergence and the vertical convergence are the same. In the case where the value of t ₀ is 0 < t ₀ < π/2, the point (U(t ₀ ), V(t ₀ )) will now be in the fourth quadrant of the UV Cartesian coordinates.

If the long axis is negative and the short axis is positive, it can be expressed as -a and b . In this case, as shown in FIG. 21, the corresponding continuous ellipse is expressed by U(t)=- a ̇cos(t), V(t)= b ̇sin(t), where a > b >0 , - a is negative, and b is positive. This situation will result in an ellipse that rotates clockwise from the second quadrant. This case can be regarded as a wavefront that converges in the horizontal direction and diverges in the vertical direction by both the spherical refractive error component and the cylindrical refractive error component, wherein the degree of horizontal convergence and vertical divergence is different. If a = b , it will represent the cylindrical wavefront that converges in the horizontal direction and diverges in the vertical direction, where the horizontal convergence and the vertical divergence are the same. In the case where the value of t ₀ is 0 < t ₀ < π/2, the point (U(t ₀ ), V(t ₀ )) will now be in the second quadrant of the UV Cartesian coordinates, relative to the origin of the coordinates Side (compared to the situation in Figure 20).

It should be noted that the assignment of the divergent wavefront to the "positive" axis and the "negative" axis is arbitrary and the assignment can be reversed as long as it can be distinguished. The positive direction of the shaft can also be exchanged. For example, the U axis can point upwards instead of pointing to the right, and the V axis can point to the right instead of pointing upwards. In this case, as shown in FIG. 22, the continuous centroid data point expected at the divergent spherical wavefront sampled at the plane indicated by the broken line will be a clockwise circle, wherein the position and polarity of the obtained data point are as The numbers and arrows in Figure 22 indicate. It should be noted that the continuous direction of rotation has changed as compared to the situation of Figure 18 due to the different assignment of the axes of the axes. Similarly, under the same conditions, as shown in Figure 23, the continuous centroid data point expected at the converging spherical wavefront sampled at the plane indicated by the dashed line will be a clockwise circle with the resulting data point position and polarity. As indicated by the numbers and arrows in Figure 23. It should be noted that when the sampled wavefront self-diffusion changes to convergence, the numbered data points are switched from the original position in Fig. 22 to the relative position in Fig. 23.

One embodiment of the invention uses calibration (internal or external) to determine the initial skew angle of the data point vector relative to the Xtr or Ytr axis. Another embodiment of the invention rotates the Cartesian coordinates (Xtr, Ytr) up to the skew angle to rotate to another Cartesian coordinate (U, V) such that the centroid data points are calibrated (eg, i=0 data) At least one of the points (U(0), V(0))) is on the U or V axis of the new Cartesian coordinate UV. In this way, the measured wavelet fronts can be easily tilted (now expressed as data points (U(i), V(i)), where i=0, 1, 2, ..., 7, where the data At least one of the points is aligned on the U-axis or the V-axis) associated with the ellipse and/or averaging the measured wavelet front tilt as if it were on the associated ellipse, where the elliptical parameter and the sampled wavefront The spherical and cylindrical diopter values are related and wherein the major axis and/or minor axis direction is related to the cylindrical axis of the sampled wavefront.

Figure 24 shows the Cartesian coordinate translation and rotation of the eight consecutively sampled centroid data points from the original X-Y coordinates to the shifted Xtr-Ytr coordinates of the continuous ellipse and further rotated to the U-V coordinates. It should be noted that for the total divergent wavefront and the coordinate axis selection shown, The direction of rotation continues to be clockwise. In this example, the centers of the eight consecutively acquired data points are first determined and the X-Y coordinates are translated to the Xtr-Ytr coordinates, where the origin of the Xtr-Ytr coordinates is the center of the eight consecutively acquired data points. The long and short axes of the fitted ellipse are then obtained via digital data processing (where the corresponding axis polarity of the ellipse is as discussed previously) and by making the long or short axis of the fitted ellipse with the U coordinate or V of the UV coordinate The axis is aligned to perform coordinate rotation, and the UV coordinates have the same origin as the Xtr-Ytr coordinate. It should be noted that in this example, the first data point (point 0) has been aligned with the U axis or on the U axis. In a more general case, this may not be the case. However, if the first data point (point 0) is aligned with the U axis to facilitate data processing, the emission time of the SLD relative to the drive signal of the MEMS scanner can be adjusted to achieve this alignment and two The phase delay between the signals is used for the simplification of data processing.

The currently disclosed wavefront sampling examples around the toroidal circle, coordinate transformations, and associated data processing have the following benefits: the spherical mirror can be simply expressed in terms of analysis based on (U(i), V(i)) data point values. - Cylinder diopter values and, thus, material processing can be substantially simplified and data processing can be performed extremely quickly. In other words, it is now easy to fit the ellipse in a typical position (the center at the origin, along the long axis of the U axis) with the data points (U(i), V(i)), where the expression is U(t ) = a ̇cos(t) and V(t) = b ̇sin(t), where a and b are the major and minor axes, respectively, and may have positive or negative values.

This algorithm enables instant high-precision measurement of the wavefront of the eye over a large dynamic range. When the U and V axes are rotated to fit the ellipse to a typical position, the orientation of the ellipse indicates the axis of astigmatism. Additionally, the magnitudes of a and b indicate the relative magnitude of the divergence and convergence astigmatism components, and the direction of rotation helps identify which component is divergent and which component is convergent. Therefore, an instant titration of the surgical vision correction program can be performed. In particular, immediate wavefront measurements can be used to guide and/or align and/or guide the operation of the limbal relaxation incision (LRI) and/or astigmatic keratotomy (AK) and toroidal intraocular lens (IOL). ) Rotate the titration.

Figure 25 shows the result of the rotation of the coordinates on the U-V coordinates of the special case of Figure 24 and 8 centroid data points, wherein the left side corresponds to a divergent spherical wavefront having equal positive and minor axes, and wherein the right side corresponds to a converging spherical wavefront having equal negative long and short axes. Again, it should be noted that when the sampled wavefront self-diffusion changes to convergence, the numbered data points are exchanged from the original position to the relative position.

When there is an astigmatism component overlaid onto the spherical component, a number of centroid data point traces occur, depending on the degree of astigmatic wavefront tilt (as compared to the spherical surface as discussed in US Pat. No. 7,345,335 and commonly assigned US Pat. The degree of wavefront tilt is compared). With the Cartesian coordinate transformation mentioned above, the centroid data point can depict a pattern centered at the origin of the UV coordinate, wherein at least one of the data points is aligned with the U-axis or the V-axis. Quasi, but with different elliptical shapes and orientations. The shape of the pattern includes a normal rotation ellipse having a positive long axis and a positive short axis, a straight line having a positive or negative long axis or a positive or negative short axis, a negative long axis and a positive short axis or a positive long axis and a negative short Anomalous or counter-rotating ellipse of an axis, and an anomalous or counter-rotating circle having a positive long axis and a negative short axis or having a negative long axis and a positive short axis.

Since the continuous wavefront is measured positively, three different circular trace patterns (divergent spherical circle, converging spherical circle, and astigmatic reverse rotating circle) can be distinguished under the condition of the circular trace, because the axis polarity is The order of the wavefront samples is collected to determine. In fact, the astigmatic reverse rotation circle is effectively related to the ellipse because the one axis (long axis or short axis) has a sign or polarity different from the other axis (short axis or long axis). The orientation of the elliptical or straight or counter-rotating circle can be determined from the long or short axis direction and can be at any angle between 0 and 180 degrees, which is a well accepted specification for optometrists and ophthalmologists. It should be noted that the assignment of the major axis and/or the minor axis is arbitrary, so there is no need for the absolute length of the major axis to be longer than the absolute length of the minor axis. This assignment is only intended to facilitate the calculation of the refractive error associated with the wavefront from the eye.

It should also be noted that in addition to sampling the wavefront around an annular ring, a plurality of annular rings or a plurality of concentric annular rings having different diameters of the wavefront may also be sampled. Doing this In the middle, a 2D wavefront map is obtained and the 2D wavefront map is presented to the end user. The aphakic condition of the subject throughout the corneal field of view can also be confirmed by dynamically changing the annular ring sample size of the wavefront sensor.

In yet another embodiment, the MEMS scanning mirror can be operated to sample the wavelet fronts in a spiral pattern or concentric circles having varying radii, thereby allowing detection of higher order aberrations. Zernike decomposition can be performed to extract all wavefront aberration coefficients, including higher order aberrations, such as trefoil, coma aberration, and spherical aberration. For example, the coma aberration can be determined by detecting a lateral shift of the wavefront when increasing or decreasing the scan radius. If the number of samples per annular ring is uniformly divided by 3, a trilobal aberration can be detected when the dot forms a triangular shape that is inverted when the scanning radius is increased or decreased.

The effective spacing between any two wavefront sampling points can be controlled by controlling the SLD emission time and the amplitude of the drive signal of the MEMS scanning mirror. In addition to reducing the size of the sample aperture before the wavelet (in the case where the aperture is electronically variable, the reduction can be achieved by the front-end processing system), the higher spatial accuracy/resolution of the wavefront can be achieved by the following operations. Sampling: Accurately control SLD emission time and also reduce SLD pulse width, and increase accuracy under the control of MEMS scanning mirror amplitude or position. In this regard, the MEMS scanning mirror can be operated in a closed loop servo mode in which the MEMS mirror scan angle monitoring signal is fed back to the microprocessor and/or electronics control system to control the scan angle drive signal for better scan angle control accuracy. . On the other hand, more averaging can be achieved by increasing the size of the sub-wavefront sample aperture or even increasing the pulse width of the SLD. Thus, another embodiment of the present invention uses an electronic device to control the SLD and the wavefront shifter/scanner to achieve higher accuracy/resolution in spatial wavefront sampling or more averaging in spatial wavefront sampling. . Higher precision/resolution spatial wavefront sampling is required for higher order aberration measurements and more average spatial wavefront sampling is required for measuring the refractive error of the wavefront (based on spherical and cylindrical diopter values and cylindrical axis) Or astigmatism axis).

It should be noted that the Cartesian coordinates translation and rotation mentioned above are only available to facilitate One of many possible coordinate system transformations for calculating refractive error and wavefront aberration. For example, non-Cartesian coordinates may be used, such as polar coordinates or coordinate transformation based on non-vertical axes. Therefore, the use of coordinate transformations to facilitate the calculation of the concept of wavefront aberrations and refractive errors should not be limited to Cartesian coordinates. The transformation can even be between Cartesian coordinates and polar coordinates.

In practice, in addition to the spherical lens refractive error and the cylindrical refractive error, the wavefront from the patient's eye can also contain higher order aberrations. However, for most vision correction procedures such as cataract surgery, the spherical and cylindrical refractive errors are generally corrected only. Therefore, the need for averaging is desirable so that the best spherical and lenticular correction diopter values and lenticular axis angles can be found and prescribed. The present invention is well suited for applications such as averaging centroid traces and correlating centroid traces with one or more ellipses on one or more annular circles, and correlating centroid data points with ellipse When considering the polarities of the long axis and the short axis, the resulting prescription is given based on the spherical and cylindrical diopter values and the included cylindrical axis, thereby averaging the effects of higher order aberrations. On the other hand, the algorithm and data processing can also inform the end user of the extent of higher order aberrations in the wavefront by calculating the degree of correlation between the centroid data points and the ellipse.

26 shows a flow chart of an example of an example embodiment of decoding a spherical mirror and a cylindrical diopter value and a cylindrical axial angle. Can be performed once for many live eye measurements (such as once a day before any measurement) or multiple times (such as once before each eye measurement, as discussed previously) including the following calibration steps: internal Step 2610 of moving the calibration target into the wavefront relay path to calibrate the system and obtaining the skew angle, step 2610 of obtaining the relationship between the SLD pulse delay and the skew angle value, and relaying the internal calibration target from the wavefront relay beam Step 2615 is removed from the path.

Once the skew angle information is obtained, an optional step 2620 exists to change or adjust the skew angle, which can be achieved by changing the SLD pulse delay or the initial phase of the sine and cosine drive signals sent to the MEMS scanning mirror. For example, by spherical reference wavefront, the skew angle can be adjusted such that one of the centroid data points is aligned with the X or Y axis and in this situation Underneath, no further coordinate rotation transformation is required. This situation can reduce the burden of data processing.

In the next step 2625, the values from A, B, C, and D to the ratio measurement (X, Y) values, to the modified centroid position values (X', Y'), and to the translation can be calculated as discussed previously. The position of the centroid data point of the centroid position value (Xtr, Ytr). If the SLD pulse delay relative to the MEMS mirror scan can be controlled such that one of the centroid data points is already on the Xtr or Ytr axis, then the subsequent rotation of the coordinates from (Xtr, Ytr) to (U, V) is involved. Step 2630 can be optional.

In the next step 2635, in determining whether the wavefront is a spherical wavefront, some (such as a vertical pair) or all centroid data point vectors may be compared in different ways (Xtr = 0, Ytr = 0) or (U) =0, V=0) The magnitude or length of the origin. For example, if the standard deviation of all vector magnitudes or lengths is below a predetermined criterion value (eg, corresponding to a value less than 0.25 D lenticule), the wavefront can be considered a spherical wavefront. Alternatively, the vector magnitude of some or all of the data point vectors may be compared and if the magnitudes are substantially equal and the difference is below a predetermined criterion value, the wavefront may be considered a spherical wavefront.

In this spherical wavefront condition, as shown in subsequent step 2640 shown in Figure 26, the data points can still be correlated with the ellipse, but in addition to calculating the length of the long or short axis that is substantially equivalent, it can also be long. The axis and minor axis lengths are averaged and depend on the sign or polarity of the major and minor axes (which may be positive or negative), and the averaged positive or negative spherical power values are output. It should be noted that the relationship between the diopter value and the length of the major or minor axis may be and should be obtained during the full calibration phase as discussed previously.

An optional subsequent step 2645 is to quantitatively display the calculated spherical diopter value as a number and/or qualitatively display the calculated spherical diopter value as a circle, wherein the circle diameter or radius represents an absolute spherical diopter value, and wherein the spherical mirror The sign is displayed using, for example, a different color or line type of the circle.

On the other hand, if the wavefront is found to be an aspherical wavefront, it can be assumed that there is an astigmatism component. As a subsequent step 2650, the data points can be correlated with the ellipse and the long axis and the short axis length can be calculated. Degree and polarity (because the value can be positive or negative), and can be the ellipse angle of the long or short axis angle. The spherical and cylindrical diopter values can be calculated using experimentally obtained calibration relationships or look-up tables where the ellipse, long and short axis lengths have been calculated. Preferably, the diopter value is monotonically related to the major axis and the minor axis length (including polar or sign information) such that there is only a unique solution for an ellipse. In the case of a spherical wavefront, an optional subsequent step 2655 quantitatively displays the calculated spherical and cylindrical diopter values and the cylindrical axis as a set of numbers and/or qualitatively calculates the spherical and cylindrical surfaces. The diopter value and the cylindrical axis are shown as a circle plus a line, where the diameter of the circle represents the diopter value of the sphere, where the length of the line represents the diopter value of the cylinder, and the linear orientation angle indicated by the long thin line or the dotted line or the arrow indicates the column. Mirror axis angle. Alternatively, the qualitative display may also be in the form of an ellipse, wherein the length of the major axis or the minor axis represents the diopter value of the spherical mirror, wherein the difference between the lengths of the major axis and the minor axis (considering polarity) represents the diopter value of the cylinder, and wherein the elliptical orientation angle represents the column Mirror axis angle. In addition, the sign of the spherical and cylindrical diopter values can be displayed using, for example, a circle plus a straight line representation or a different color or a different line type represented by an ellipse. One embodiment of the present invention allows the user to select an ellipse or circle plus a straight line to represent the refractive error of the patient's eye.

It should be noted that there may be many other ways to qualitatively display refractive error. The qualitative representations mentioned above are illustrative only and not comprehensive. For example, the representation can also be an ellipse whose major axis is proportional to a separate cylindrical diopter value and whose minor axis is proportional to another independent and perpendicular cylindrical diopter value. In addition, the angle of the angle representing a cylindrical mirror angle or another cylindrical mirror angle may be the original angle or the displacement of 90°, because the cylindrical mirror angle may depend on the end user's preference for the positive cylindrical prescription or the negative cylindrical prescription. It is a long axis or a short axis. Alternatively, the representation can be two orthogonal lines, wherein the line length is proportional to a separate cylindrical diopter value and the other orthogonal line length is proportional to another independent and perpendicular cylindrical diopter value.

As mentioned previously, an embodiment of the invention overlays the wavefront measurement on the live video image of the patient's eye in a qualitative and/or quantitative manner. The ellipse or straight angle shown may also depend on the orientation of the surgeon/clinician relative to the patient's eye (upper or temporary) And if it is temporary, it depends on which eye of the patient is imaged (right eye or left eye). For cataract surgery, preferably, the cylindrical axis presented to the cataract surgeon is aligned with the steeper axis of the cornea so that the surgeon can perform a limbal relaxation incision (LRI) based on the axis direction presented.

The live eye image can be processed by a pattern recognition algorithm to achieve eye alignment for a supine or vertical patient position and/or reference to an iris location indication (such as a crypt) to determine the implanted toroidal intraocular lens (IOL). axis. In addition, live images can also be used to identify specific lens (natural or artificial) alignment for alignment and/or comparison of optical signals (from, for example, wavefront and/or OLCI/OCT measurements) to eye crystals or irises. Physical characteristics.

Again, it should be noted that the conversion of the autocorrelation ellipse major axis and minor axis length to diopter values may be performed in different ways depending on the preferences of the end user. As is well known to those skilled in the art, there are three ways of representing the same refractive error prescription. The first way is to represent the refractive error prescription as two independent vertical cylinders, the second way to represent the refractive error prescription as a spherical mirror and a positive cylindrical mirror, and the third way is to prescribe the refractive error prescription. Expressed as a spherical mirror and a negative cylindrical mirror. In addition, the representation may relate to a prescription or an actual wavefront. The associated ellipse of the present invention actually provides directly the diopter values of two independent vertical lenticules. The conversion from one representation to another is well known to those skilled in the art. It should be emphasized that one embodiment of the present invention uses both positive and negative values to represent the major and minor axes of the associated ellipse, and to make the major and minor axes (which may be positive or negative) and two Independent vertical cylindrical diopter values (which can also be positive or negative) related calibration methods.

It should be noted that optometrists, ophthalmologists, and optical engineers can use different methods to represent the same wavefront at the cornea or pupil plane of the patient's eye. For example, optometrists generally prefer which lens to use to eliminate wavefront bending to make it a flat or flat prescription representation; ophthalmologists tend to prefer eyes based on spherical and cylindrical diopter values and cylindrical axes The wavefront at the corneal plane is a direct representation of the wavefront; while the optical engineer does not generally use the diopter value, but instead uses a true wavefront and a full or flat wavefront. The wavefront map of the 2D deviation or the representation of the Zernike polynomial coefficient. One embodiment of the present invention is a mutual conversion between such different representations. When the algorithm has been built into the device for this conversion, the interconversion can be performed by the end user, so the end user selects the representation. The format.

According to further improvement of the signal-to-noise ratio and thus further improving the measurement accuracy and/or precision, ellipse or circle addition may be performed on one frame (or set) of the data points or multiple frames (or sets) of the data points. Straight line correction. Alternatively, the obtained spherical and cylindrical diopter values and the cylindrical axis angle can be averaged over multiple captures. For example, averaging can be accomplished simply by adding a plurality of measurements of a given number of spherical and cylindrical diopter values, respectively, and dividing the resulting value by a given number. Similarly, the lenticular angle can also be averaged, but it can be more difficult, due to the close around 0° problem (when reporting from 0° to 180°). As a method, trigonometry functions are used to solve this wraparound problem.

It should be noted that in addition to the other LEDs, the front end processing system also controls the international gaze target as indicated in FIG. However, internal fixation does not need to be limited to a single LED or a single image (such as a back-illuminated hot air balloon). The reality is that the internal gaze target can be a microdisplay that combines eye adaptation to achieve optical elements such as variable focus lenses. The patient's eyes can be viewed in different directions by illuminating the different pixels of the microdisplay such that peripheral vision wavefront information (such as a 2D array of wavefront maps) is available. In addition, the patient's eyes can be gaze at different distances to achieve a measure of the range or magnitude of adaptation. In addition, the gaze microdisplay target can be controlled to cycle or blank at various rates or time periods, and the microdisplay can be a color microdisplay such that the gaze target can change color and illuminate the pattern or spot.

As mentioned previously, one embodiment of the invention consists in tracking the eye. Figure 27 shows an example program flow diagram of an eye tracking algorithm. The steps involved include estimating the position of the eye pupil using eye spot information from a live eye pupil or iris image or other means (by scanning the SLD beam in two dimensions to detect specular reflection from the corneal top) Step 2705; adjusting the SLD beam scanner to follow the eye movement step 2710; with the SLD The beam adjustment proportionally offsets the DC drive component of the wavefront scanner/shifter to compensate for eye pupil movement such that step 2715 of the same expected portion of the wavefront from the eye is always taken regardless of eye movement; and Option) Step 2720 of correcting the measurement of the wavefront aberration. A live video camera provides a visual estimate of either: (a) the center of the iris, or (b) the center of the limbus. By correlating the position of the SLD beam (X, Y) with the visual field of view, the SLD can be directed to the same location on the cornea. Typically, for wavefront sensing, this position is slightly off the corneal axis or the top of the cornea because, in this way, the specular reflection of the SLD beam will not be directly returned to the position sensing of the wavefront sensor. Detector / device. The center of the iris or the center of the limbus can be used as a reference point for guiding the SLD beam.

It should be noted that the unique feature of the presently disclosed algorithm is the step of offsetting the DC drive component of the wavefront scanner/shifter in proportion to the SLD beam adjustment. This step is a critical step because it ensures that the same portion of the wavefront from the eye, such as the same annular ring of the wavefront, is sampled. Without this step, when the eye moves laterally, different portions of the wavefront from the eye will be sampled and this situation can cause significant wavefront measurement errors. The final step of correcting the measurement of the wavefront aberration is optional because the result of the wavefront measurement is: by the compensation provided by the wavefront scanner/shifter that is proportional to the SLD beam adjustment: All sampled portions of the wavefront that can be predetermined and considered will have added astigmatism and/or slant tilt and/or other known image difference components. It has been shown that the refractive error decoding algorithm of the present invention automatically averages the aberrations to calculate a compromised spherical mirror and a cylindrical mirror and filters the tilt of the pupil through the coordinate, so that for the refractive error measurement, there is no额外 Additional need for tilt correction. Despite the fact that the amount of coordinate translation has indicated the tilt of the wavefront from the eye, this additional astigmatism and/or tilt should be subtracted and/or due to the full wavefront measurement that should include the tilt of the eye. Other known image difference components caused by eye tracking, so the final calibration step may still be required.

Another embodiment of the present invention consists in adaptively selecting the diameter of the wavefront sampling annular ring such that when performing wavefront sampling only in the region of the eye pupil, the diameter of the annular ring The slope sensitivity of the response curve can also be used to provide higher measurement sensitivity and/or resolution. In general, among all the diopter values of different wavefront aberrations (such as spherical, cylindrical, and trilobal), the spherical diopter value generally requires the largest coverage, because when the natural eye is removed When the crystal is in the crystal (ie, the eye is aphakic), the spherical diopter value can vary greatly in different eyes and during cataract surgery. On the other hand, when the cataract surgery is completed or near completion (where the intraocular lens (IOL) is implanted in the eye), the wavefront from the eye should be close to the plane, since the pseudo-phakic eye should be generally close to the normal eye. For a typical automatic refractive measurement, a wavefront sample from a central region of only 3 mm diameter of the eye pupil is generally sampled. The wavefront sensor can thus be designed to provide sufficient refractive measurement resolution (eg, 0.1 D) and sufficient diopter in the region of the effective wavefront sampling annular ring covering, for example, a diameter range from 1 mm to 3 mm. Coverage (for example, -30D to +30D). In the meantime, in order to confirm the normal eye with higher sensitivity and/or wavefront measurement resolution, the wavefront sampling annular ring can be expanded to a diameter of, for example, 5 mm at the end of the cataract surgery, as long as the pupil size is large enough. To more accurately measure the wavefront or refractive error of the pseudo-lens eye.

28 shows a flow diagram of an embodiment of an algorithm that can implement this concept. The steps involved include the step 2805 of estimating the eye pupil size using the eye pupil information obtained from the live eye image, the step 2810 of determining the maximum diameter of the wavefront sampling annular ring using the eye pupil size information, and increasing the diameter of the annular ring. Up to step 2815, which achieves a preferred diopter resolution for pseudomorphometry, as determined by step 2810. This "magnified display" feature can be user selectable or automatic. Alternatively, the PSD ratio measurement output can be used to adaptively adjust the annular ring diameter for optimal diopter resolution and dynamic range coverage.

One feature of the present invention combines live eye images (with or without pattern recognition algorithms) with wavefront measurements to detect the presence of: eyelids/eyelashes, irises, facial skin, surgical tools Surgeon's hand, perfusion water or eye design The range moves away. In doing so, "dark" or "bright" data can be excluded and the SLD can be turned on and off intelligently to save exposure time, which can enable higher SLD power to be delivered to the eye to increase optical or photon signal-to-noise ratio . Figure 29 shows a flow chart of an example program illustrating this concept. The steps involved include: using the live eye image and/or the wavefront sensor signal to detect the presence of an unintended object in the wavefront relay beam path or the step 2905 of moving the eye away from the desired position and/or range, Step 2910 of abandoning the wrong "bright" or "dark" wavefront data, step 2915 of closing the SLD when the wavefront data is wrong, and an optional step 2920 of notifying the end user that the wavefront data is erroneous or invalid. .

Another embodiment of the invention consists in scanning and/or controlling an incident SLD beam across a small area on the retina to remove spots, averaging, and possibly allowing an increase in optical power within the safety limits that can be delivered to the eye. (This situation can increase the optical signal to noise ratio). Alternatively, the SLD beam divergence/convergence can be dynamically adjusted using, for example, an axially movable lens or a variable focus lens or a deformable mirror and thus dynamically adjust the size of the SLD beam spot on the retina so that it can be controlled The SLD spot size on the retina is sized to achieve a more consistent and/or well calibrated measurement of the wavefront from the eye. In the meantime, it is also possible to monitor the SLD beam on the retina by, for example, using the same live eye image sensor by adjusting its focus or using a different image sensor that is dedicated to monitoring the SLD beam spot on the retina of the eye. Spot size and / or shape. The static or scanning pattern of the SLD spot on the retina can be controlled by this feedback and with a closed loop servo electronics system.

Yet another embodiment of the present invention includes a laser as a surgical light source or another free space beam combiner that can be combined with an SLD beam to exit via the same fiber, which can be scanned using the same SLD beam scanner or different scanners. The laser beam is surgically used to perform refractive correction of the eye, such as a limbal relaxation incision (LRI). The same laser or different lasers can also be used to "mark" the eye or "guide" the surgeon, that is, "overlap" on the eye so that the surgeon can see the laser mark through the surgical microscope.

Another embodiment of the present invention consists in measuring the distance of the eye when measuring the wavefront of the eye and correcting the measurement of the wavefront from the eye as the distance of the eye changes. Information about the distance of the eye from the wavefront sensor module is especially important for cataract surgery because it removes the natural crystal of the eye, that is, when the eye is aphakic, the wave from the eye The front height is divergent and, therefore, the small axial movement of the eye relative to the wavefront sensor module can cause a relatively large change in refractive error or wavefront aberration measurement. It has been discussed how the correction of the wavefront can be done with the eye moving laterally away from the designed position. A similar correction should be made when the eye moves axially away from its designed position. In performing axial correction, a low optical coherence interferometer (LOCI) or an optical coherence tomography (OCT) may be included in the wavefront sensor module and used to measure the axial distance of the eye. Alternatively, a simpler technique of measuring the distance of the eye using optical triangulation can also be used. LOCI and OCT are preferred because they can also perform eye biometric/anatomical measurements in addition to eye distance. These measurements are especially valuable for refractive surgery because they also reveal the position of the active crystal (natural or artificial), the presence of tilt in the crystal, the depth of the anterior chamber, the thickness of the cornea and the lens. And the depth of the eyes. The corneal and/or ocular crystal (natural or artificial) diopter can even be derived cooperatively or independently by lateral scanning as can be achieved by the OCT system, especially for aphakic eyes.

Yet another embodiment combines two or more of the measurements obtained by the wavefront sensor, the eye imaging camera, and the LOCI/OCT for other purposes. In one embodiment, combined information can be used to detect optical scatter and/or opacity in the media of the eye system, such as cataract opacity and the presence of optical bubbles in the eye, especially in natural eye crystals. After the shot breaks. The combined information can also be used to detect the aphakic state of the eye and to instantly calculate the IOL prescription required for the target refraction in the operating room (OR) when required or just prior to implantation of the IOL, and/or to confirm refraction And/or find the effective crystal position just after the IOL is implanted. In addition, you can also use the combined information to determine The alignment of the patient's head, that is, whether the patient's eye is orthogonal to the optical axis of the wavefront sensor module. In addition, combined information can be used to perform dry eye detection and to notify the surgeon when to infuse the eye. In addition, the combined information may be displayed according to customizations performed by the clinician/surgeon to present only better information to the clinician/surgeon, such as eye refractive error prior to surgery, IOL prescription without aphakic conditions, And indicating, for example, whether the target end point of the eye refraction is reached at the end of the procedure, or whether the multifocal IOL is properly centered without significant tilting, or when the toric IOL is implanted, whether it is centered and Rotate to the corrected shaft angle. The display can also display a data integrity indicator or a trust indication.

The combined information can further be used to determine if the eye is well aligned, and if the eye is not well aligned, determine if a guided guide is included in the display to inform the surgeon/clinician which way to move the patient's eye Or a microscope to achieve better alignment. The information can also be used to indicate whether the eyelid is closed, or whether there are optical bubbles in the wavefront measurement or the remainder of the broken/broken eye crystal material inside the eye bag, and whether a confidence indicator is included in the display to indicate the wavefront Measured or not.

Referring back to Figure 2, it can be noted that the sub-wavefront focusing lens 220 can also be controlled by an electronic device system. This lens can be a variable focus lens or an axially movable lens or even a deformable mirror. The objective of making the lens active is to dynamically adjust its focal length in an open loop or closed control loop so that the image/spot formed by the sub-wavefront focusing lens can be controlled based on local divergence or convergence of the continuously sampled wavelet fronts. size. This is especially true when wavefront sampling is performed around the annular ring. For example, in order to achieve a better response slope sensitivity to achieve better accuracy and/or accuracy of the wavefront tilt measurement, it is preferred to focus the image spot on the quadrant for determining the lateral movement of the image spot. Or lateral effect position sensing detector (PSD). Alternatively, the image spot of the sampled sub-wavefront guided down on the quadrant detector or the lateral effect position sensing detector (PSD) can be controlled to a desired size. For example, one of the spot sizes is selected as one skilled in the art. The spot size of a single quadrant of the well-known quadrant detector. Another possible choice is to produce a compromise between high sensitivity and a large dynamic response range. Again, the image spot size is approximately twice the size of the gap of the quadrant detector. The size of such different image spots may vary dynamically depending on the averaged local divergence or convergence of the successively sampled wavelet fronts.

By dynamically compensating for the defocus of the wavefront or DC offset wavefront, the image spot can also be guided down at or near the center of the quadrant detector. By this method, it is possible to lock the size and position of the image spot of each sampled wavefront and invalidate the size and position of the image spot so that the highest sensitivity can be achieved. The drive signals for the wavefront compensation or defocus offset device, the wavefront shifter, and the sub-wavefront focus lens can be used to accurately determine the wavefront tilt of each sampled wavelet front.

It should be noted that the presently disclosed apparatus may perform a number of additional tasks depending on the configuration of the host computer processing the wavefront data, eye image data, eye distance data, low coherence interferometer data, and the like. For example, the host computer can be configured to analyze the wavefront data to obtain a measure such as refractive error, qualitatively and/or quantitatively display the measurements on the display, and allow the surgeon/clinician to select to display Qualitative and / or quantitative measures. Depending on how the wavefront measurements should be displayed, the end user can choose to display wavefront aberrations and refractions and prescriptions, and/or positive and negative cylinders, and/or end points such as normal eyes.

The host computer can also be configured to allow the surgeon/clinician to flip or rotate the live patient eye image/movie to a preferred orientation. In addition, the surgeon/clinician may rewind and replay the desired recorded segments of the composite film during or after the surgery, which may include eye images, wavefront measurements, and even include Low homology interferometry measurement results.

More importantly, the present invention can direct the surgeon to titrate the vision correction program in real time to optimize the vision correction procedure results. For example, the present invention can guide the surgeon to adjust the IOL position in the eye based on the centering, tilting, and circumferential angular orientation until the measurement confirms that the IOL is optimally placed. In addition, the present invention can guide the surgeon to rotate the implanted ring Intraocular lens (IOL) to correct/suppress astigmatism. The present invention may also direct the surgeon to perform a limbus/corneal relaxation incision or intramatrital microlens laser (flexible) to titrate astigmatism and thereby suppress astigmatism.

In addition to optimizing positioning, the presently disclosed apparatus can also be used to indicate whether the implanted multifocal IOL has the desired focus range. The presently disclosed devices can also be used to measure whether an implanted AIOL (Adapted or Adaptive IOL) can provide the desired range of adaptation.

An instant guide to the following description can be provided on the display: how the vision correction procedure should be performed to facilitate removal of residual aberrations, confirmation of results, and documentation of the values and meanings of the aberrations. The displayed instant information may also be "zoomed out" or "zoomed in" manually or manually to warn the surgeon or vision correction practitioner that the calibration procedure is entering the wrong direction or the correct direction. When a certain level of correction is reached, the displayed information may be in the form of a highlighted display based on, for example, font size, thickness, style, or color to confirm that the patient's refractive endpoint has been reached during the surgical procedure ( Such as normal eyes).

In addition to visual feedback, audio feedback can be used alone or in combination with video feedback. For example, the audio information may or may not have video/graphic information to indicate in which direction the IOL is moved to achieve proper alignment or in which direction the toric lens is rotated to correct/suppress astigmatism. An instant audio signal can also be generated to indicate the type of refractive error, the magnitude of the error, and the change in error. The pitch, pitch, and loudness of the instant audio signal can be varied to indicate an improvement or deterioration of the applied corrections during the vision correction procedure. A particular pitch of the instant audio signal can be generated to identify a lenticular lens having an error, for example, having a tone indicative of the magnitude of the lenticular error.

One of the most important applications of the present invention is to assist a cataract surgeon in determining whether the number of IOLs selected prior to surgery is correct in the aphakic state of the patient's eye. Instant aphakic wavefront measurements (preferably, along with eye biometric measurements, such as eye biometric measurements provided by built-in low coherence interferometers), can more accurately determine the required number of IOLs and thus confirm surgery Is the previously selected IOL degree correct, especially for preoperative IOL selection? The formula does not deliver consistent results for patients with postoperative corneal refractive procedures.

Another important application of the present invention is to monitor and record changes in corneal shape and other eye biometric/anatomical parameters during the entire operational phase of cataract surgery while measuring the wavefront from the patient's eye. The changes can be measured in the operating room (OR) before, during, and after cataract surgery and the changes can be in corneal topography and thickness as measured by a keratometer and a corneal thickness tester. Front chamber depth, crystal position and thickness (due to various factors that can cause changes in the wavefront from the patient's eye). Such factors include, for example, topical anesthesia, opener, incision/wound in the cornea, anterior chamber filling material, intraocular pressure, water/solution perfusion to the cornea, wound healing, and even wound healing effects and surgery The wavefront altering effect caused by the doctor (due to surgeon-specific cataract surgical procedures).

Information about changes in eye biometric/anatomical parameters can be used to compensate for effects caused by various factors. It is thus possible to predict the wavefront results after the incision/wound healing and use the wavefront results to set a desired target eye refraction for cataract surgery. Use built-in OCT and eye camera and built-in or external keratoplasty/keratometer (which can be attached to a surgical microscope or the device currently disclosed) to measure just before surgery and just after surgery Corneal shape and other eye biometric/anatomical parameters. The measurement can be performed just prior to surgery, in the OR, when the patient is in the supine position, before and after applying the topical anesthesia, before and after applying the opener to keep the eyelids open. In the OR, after the incision is made in the cornea, after removing the cataract crystal and filling the anterior chamber with a gel (OVD, ophthalmic viscoelastic device) but before implanting the artificial intraocular lens, Measurements were taken during the procedure after the IOL but before the wound wound healed. It can also be measured in the OR, just after the patient is still in the supine position, just after the surgeon seals the incision/wound but before removing the opener, and after removing the opener, just after the surgery.

The corneal shape and other eye biometric/anatomical parameters thus obtained can be obtained The changed data is combined with the eye wavefront measurement data and stored in the database. Another round of measurement can be performed after the incision/wound has fully healed weeks or months after surgery, and differences or changes in eye wavefront and corneal shape and/or eye biometric parameters can also be collected. It is therefore possible to build a nominal database and process the nominal database to calculate the target refraction just after the cataract surgery, and to set the target refraction to produce the final desired vision correction result after the wound has completely healed. In this way, all effects will be considered, even including aberrations caused by the surgeon, such as astigmatism due to, for example, specific personalized corneal incision habits.

The currently disclosed wavefront sensors can be combined with a variety of other ophthalmic instruments for a wide range of applications. For example, the currently disclosed wavefront sensor can be integrated with a femtosecond laser or excimer laser for LASIK, or eye lens rupture, or for alignment and/or guidance with respect to the "cut". Lead, or closed loop resection for eye tissue. Live eye images, OLCI/OCT data, and wavefront data can be combined before, during, and after eye surgery to indicate the presence of optical bubbles in the lens of the eye or in the anterior chamber. Alternatively, the wavefront sensor can be integrated with a slit lamp biomicroscope or the wavefront sensor can be adapted to a slit lamp biomicroscope.

The invention may also be integrated or combined with an adaptive optics system. A live-type eye manipulation based on a deformable mirror or liquid crystal (LC) transmission type wavefront compensator can be used to partially or completely compensate for some or all of the wavefront errors.

Additionally, the presently disclosed wavefront sensor can be combined with any other type of intraocular pressure (IOP) measurement member. In one embodiment, the currently disclosed wavefront sensor can be used to detect IOP by measuring eye wavefront changes based on the heartbeat of the patient. The wavefront sensors disclosed so far can also be used directly to calibrate IOPs.

Such embodiments may also be deployed to measure optics, spectacles and/or glasses, IOLs, and/or cutting/machining devices that direct the optics. These embodiments may also be suitable for microscopy for cell and/or molecular analysis or other metrology applications. mirror. The invention can also be used in the production of crystals, the confirmation of glasses, the application of microbiology, and the like.

Although various embodiments of the teachings of the present invention have been shown and described in detail herein, those skilled in the art can readily devise many other variations of the embodiments.

202‧‧‧Compensation lens or window

204‧‧‧First lens

212‧‧‧Microelectromechanical system (MEMS) beam scanning/shifting/deflecting mirror

216‧‧‧second lens

218‧‧‧ wavefront sampling aperture

220‧‧‧Subwavefront focusing lens

222‧‧‧ quadrant detector

235‧‧‧Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) (or arrays)

240‧‧‧ third lens

242‧‧‧4th lens

252‧‧‧Mirror

260‧‧‧ imaging beam splitter

261‧‧‧ dichroic or short-pass beam splitter

262‧‧‧Image sensor

264‧‧ ‧ gaze at the target

266‧‧‧ gaze/image beam splitter

268‧‧‧ lens or lens assembly

270‧‧‧ lens or lens assembly

272‧‧‧Superluminescent Diode (SLD)

274‧‧‧Polarized beam splitter (PBS)

276‧‧‧Bandpass filter

277‧‧ ‧ aperture

278‧‧‧Dynamic wavefront/defocus offset device

280‧‧‧ scanning mirror

282‧‧‧ scanning mirror

284‧‧‧Superluminescent Diode (SLD) Beam Shape Control Lens

286‧‧ lens

288‧‧‧ Single mode fiber (such as maintaining polarized (PM) single mode fiber)

290‧‧‧Fiber coupler

292‧‧‧ reference arm

294‧‧‧Detector

299‧‧‧ Internal calibration target

Claims (4)

A wavefront sensor comprising: a light source 172 configured to output a light beam to illuminate an eye of a subject; a light source driver circuit 715 coupled to the light source, the light source driver circuit configured Outputting a light source driving signal at a first pulse delivery frequency; a position sensitive detector 122 having a plurality of detector elements configured to output a plurality of detector output signals, the detector outputs The signal indicates the signal strength of the incident light on each of the detector elements; a first beam deflecting element 112 configured to intercept one of the subject's eye returns when the subject's eye is illuminated by the source a wavefront beam and configured to direct a portion of the wavefront from the subject's eye through an aperture toward the detector, wherein the portion of the wavefront that is guided through the aperture is at the detector Forming a light spot thereon, and wherein the amplitude of the deflection of one of the light points from a reference point on the detector is approximately indicated by a ratio measurement combination of the signal strengths and wherein the deflection is The amplitude indicates the wavefront Divided from the inclination or convergence or divergence of a plane wave; a beam deflection element drive circuit 720 coupled to the first beam deflection element, the beam deflection element drive circuit configured to output a beam deflection element drive signal Scanning the portion of the wavefront at a wavefront scan frequency; and a plurality of composite transimpedance amplifiers. Figure 11, each composite transimpedance amplifier has an input and an output coupled to receive the plurality of detectors One of the output signals for providing an amplified detector output signal, wherein the output of each transimpedance amplifier is phase locked to the source drive signal and the beam deflection element drive signal. A wavefront sensor as claimed in claim 1, wherein each composite transimpedance amplifier comprises a low Filter 1150 is passed to increase stability and reduce high frequency noise. The wavefront sensor of claim 2, wherein the low pass filter comprises: a first operational amplifier U2A having an input and an output; a first resistor R3; and a first capacitor C3, wherein the A resistor and the capacitor are connected in series between the input of the first operational amplifier and the output. The wavefront sensor of claim 3, wherein the composite transimpedance amplifier further comprises: a second operational amplifier U1A having an input and an output; and a feedback resistor R1 having a feedback resistance value, a feedback resistor coupling the output of the first operational amplifier to the input of the second operational amplifier, wherein an amplitude of the amplified detector output signal is proportional to R1 and the noise is proportional to a square root of R1 .