Light source apparatus for emitting light in accordance with adjusted driving condition and endoscope apparatus

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10327626-B2
Application number	US-201615255436-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 2, 2016
Priority date	Mar 6, 2014
Publication date	Jun 25, 2019
Grant date	Jun 25, 2019

Abstract

A light source apparatus includes at least one light-emitter, a driving circuit, an input unit, a temperature control circuit, and an effective light power setting circuit. The driving circuit allows the light-emitter to emit light by applying a driving waveform to the light-emitter. The effective light power setting circuit drives the driving circuit to allow the light-emitter to emit light with a predetermined effective light power, in accordance with a driving condition set by the temperature control circuit. The temperature control circuit controls the light-emitter to be in a predetermined heat generation state by increasing or decreasing a heat generation amount of the light-emitter without changing the predetermined effective light power of the light emitted from the light-emitter by adjusting the driving condition of the light-emitter.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A light source apparatus comprising:
a plurality of light-emitters configured to emit light;
a driving circuit configured to apply a driving waveform to the plurality of light-emitters;
a temperature control circuit configured to:
receive, as an input, a predetermined effective light power of the light emitted from the plurality of light-emitters; and
control the plurality of light-emitters to be in a predetermined heat generation state by increasing or decreasing a heat generation amount of the plurality of light-emitters without changing the predetermined effective light power of the light emitted from the plurality of light-emitters by adjusting a driving condition of the plurality of light-emitters;

an effective light power setting circuit configured to drive the driving circuit to allow the plurality of light-emitters to emit light with the predetermined effective light power, in accordance with the driving condition adjusted by the temperature control circuit;
at least one temperature detector configured to detect a temperature of the plurality of light-emitters,
wherein the predetermined heat generation state is a state where the temperature of the plurality of light-emitters detected by the at least one temperature detector is a predetermined temperature, and
wherein the temperature control circuit is configured to adjust the driving condition so that the temperature of the plurality of light-emitters detected by the temperature detector becomes the predetermined temperature; and

at least one temperature adjuster configured to adjust a temperature of the plurality of light-emitters,
wherein a number of the at least one temperature adjuster is smaller than a number of the plurality of light-emitters,
wherein the at least one temperature detector is provided adjacently to a first light-emitter of the plurality of light-emitters, and
wherein the temperature control circuit is configured to drive the at least one temperature adjuster so that the first light-emitter becomes the predetermined temperature, based on the temperature of the first light-emitter detected by the at least one temperature detector.

2. The light source apparatus according to claim 1 ,
wherein the plurality of the light-emitters are arranged so that a heat conductance between each of the plurality of the light-emitters and the temperature adjuster is equal.

3. A light source apparatus comprising:
at least one light-emitter configured to emit light;
a driving circuit configured to apply a driving waveform to the at least one light-emitter, wherein the driving waveform includes a cyclic pulse waveform;
a temperature control circuit configured to:
receive, as an input, a predetermined effective light power of the light emitted from the at least one light-emitter; and
control the at least one light-emitter to be in a predetermined heat generation state by increasing or decreasing a heat generation amount of the at least one light-emitter without changing the predetermined effective light power of the light emitted from the at least one light-emitter by adjusting a driving condition of the at least one light-emitter; and

an effective light power setting circuit configured to drive the driving circuit to allow the at least one light-emitter to emit light with the predetermined effective light power, in accordance with the driving condition adjusted by the temperature control circuit,
wherein one of a peak current value of the cyclic pulse waveform and a duty cycle is set as the driving condition,
wherein the effective light power setting circuit is configured to determine the other of the peak current value of the cyclic pulse waveform and the duty cycle, which has not been set as the driving condition, so that an effective light power of the light emitted by the at least one light-emitter becomes the predetermined effective light power, and
wherein a cycle of the cyclic pulse waveform is a cycle where the at least one light-emitter is not thermally responsive.

4. An endoscope apparatus comprising:
at least one light-emitter configured to emit light;
a driving circuit configured to apply a driving waveform to the at least one light-emitter, wherein the driving waveform includes a cyclic pulse waveform;
a temperature control circuit configured to:
receive, as an input, a predetermined effective light power of the light emitted from the at least one light-emitter; and
control the at least one light-emitter to be in a predetermined heat generation state by increasing or decreasing a heat generation amount of the at least one light-emitter without changing the predetermined effective light power of the light emitted from the at least one light-emitter by adjusting a driving condition of the at least one light-emitter;

an effective light power setting circuit configured to drive the driving circuit to allow the at least one light-emitter to emit light with the predetermined effective light power, in accordance with the driving condition adjusted by the temperature control circuit,
wherein one of a peak current value of the cyclic pulse waveform and a duty cycle is set as the driving condition, and
wherein the effective light power setting circuit is configured to determine the other of the peak current value of the cyclic pulse waveform and the duty cycle, which has not been set as the driving condition, so that an effective light power of the light emitted by the at least one light-emitter becomes the predetermined effective light power; and

an imaging apparatus,
wherein a cycle of the cyclic pulse waveform is set to be a fraction of a natural number of an image frame cycle of the imaging apparatus.

Assignees

• Olympus Corp

Inventors

• Nishio Masahiro

Classifications

• A61B1/0661

  Endoscope light sources · CPC title

• H01S5/06216

  Pulse modulation or generation · CPC title

• H01S5/4025

  Array arrangements, e.g. constituted by discrete laser diodes or laser bar (H01S5/42 takes precedence) · CPC title

• H01S5/4012

  Beam combining, e.g. by the use of fibres, gratings, polarisers, prisms · CPC title

• H01S5/02415

  by using a thermo-electric cooler [TEC], e.g. Peltier element · CPC title