Opthalmological therapy system and method for processing a portion of a processing volume of a transparent material by application of focused radiation

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11229551-B2
Application number	US-201615742233-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 6, 2016
Priority date	Jul 9, 2015
Publication date	Jan 25, 2022
Grant date	Jan 25, 2022

Abstract

A system for processing a portion in a processing volume of a transparent material by application of focused radiation including a device for generating and an optical system for focusing radiation, with a device for changing the position of the focus of the radiation and a control device. This system performs a slow scanning movement of the focus and an independent fast scanning movement of the focus which section can be moved by the slow scanning movement in the entire processing volume in an arbitrary direction; as well as by a system into which a scan pattern is encoded, with scanning movement including at least one lateral base component in the x- and/or y-direction, which is superimposed by components with synchronous change-of-direction-movements in the z-direction and in x-direction and/or y-direction. The invention also includes corresponding methods, a control program product and a planning unit.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An ophthalmologic therapy system for processing portion of a processing volume of a transparent material of an eye by application of focused radiation, comprising
a device that generates radiation,
an optical system that focuses the radiation at a focus in the processing volume, wherein the focus of the focused radiation has a focal angle (φ) and the focused radiation has a beam axis,
a device that changes position of the focus in the processing volume, which can be described with three spatial directions x, y and z, wherein the z-direction proceeds parallel to a base position beam axis of the focused radiation,
a control device that controls the ophthalmologic therapy system,
wherein the device for changing the position of the focus comprises a first scanner that is a slow scanner adapted to perform a slow scanning movement three dimensionally in the three spatial directions in the processing volume of the transparent material and a second scanner that is a fast scanner adapted to perform a fast scanning movement three dimensionally in the three spatial directions, and independently from the slow scanning movement of the slow scanner in a section of the processing volume,
wherein the section of the fast scanning movement is movable by the slow scanning movement in the entire processing volume.

2. The ophthalmologic therapy system according to claim 1 , wherein the device that generates radiation further comprises a laser.

3. The ophthalmologic therapy system according to claim 2 , wherein the laser further comprises a pulsed laser.

4. The ophthalmologic therapy system according to claim 1 , wherein a scan pattern is encoded into the control device, the scan pattern comprising a sequence of focus effective zones of the focused radiation along a scan line in the processing volume, such that focus effective zones that have already been realized are always arranged outside of a focal cone which is formed by the focus of the focused radiation and the focal angle (φ), for yet to be implemented focus effective zones.

5. The ophthalmologic therapy system according to claim 1 , wherein the second scanner further comprises a fast z-scanner and at least a fast lateral scanner that enables the fast scanning movement in the section of the processing volume in addition to the first scanner which comprises a slow z-scanner and at least one slow lateral scanner that enables the slow scanning movement in the processing volume.

6. The ophthalmologic therapy system according to claim 5 , wherein the fast lateral scanner comprises a fast x-scanner and a fast y-scanner, or the fast lateral scanner comprises a fast R-scanner whose scanning movement can be oriented in an x-y-plane perpendicular to the base position beam axis by rotating about a rotation axis parallel to the base position beam axis.

7. The ophthalmologic therapy system according to claim 5 , further comprising a fast z-scanner comprising a lens element oscillating in the z-direction, a fast lateral scanner, which comprises an x-y-mirror element movable around two axes or two individual mirror elements each respectively movable about one individual axis, a slow z-scanner, which comprises a lens element that is movable in a user defined fashion in the z-direction and a slow lateral scanner comprising a focus optical system movable in a user defined fashion in the lateral plane.

8. The ophthalmologic therapy system according to claim 5 , adapted for executing a fast scanning movement by synchronous changes of direction of at least the fast z scanner and the fast lateral scanner.

9. The ophthalmologic therapy system according to claim 8 , further adapted for executing synchronous oscillatory movements of at least two of the fast scanners.

10. The ophthalmologic therapy system according to claim 8 , wherein one of the at least two fast scanners is a resonant scanner with a free oscillation, and all other of the at least two fast scanners are synchronized to the resonant scanner.

11. The ophthalmologic therapy system according to claim 8 , further wherein the fast z-scanner and the at least one fast lateral scanner are adapted for synchronous oscillatory movements.

12. The ophthalmologic therapy system according to claim 11 , wherein the slow scanning movement comprises a lateral component in the x-direction, in the y-direction or in both the x and y directions, and wherein the oscillating movements of the fast z-scanner and the at least one fast lateral scanner are synchronized such that
with a positive lateral component of the slow scanning movement in the x-direction, in the y-direction or in both the x and y directions, the oscillatory movements of the at least one fast lateral scanner, are in phase opposition to the oscillatory movement of the fast z-scanner, and such that
with a negative lateral component of the slow scanning movement in the x-direction, in the y-direction or in both the x and y directions, the oscillatory movements of the at least one fast lateral scanner, are in phase to the oscillatory movement of the fast z-scanner.

13. The ophthalmologic therapy system according to claim 4 , further comprising a control device, in which a scan pattern is encoded, which has adjacent strokes with angles of inclination (α) to the beam axis, wherein a stroke comprises a straight part of a scan line and is formed by stringing together focus effective zones of the focused radiation, and wherein the angle of inclination (α) of the strokes to the beam axis are always larger or equal to the focal angle (φ) of the focused radiation.

14. The ophthalmologic therapy system according to claim 13 , the encoding of the scan patterns in the control device further being such that the formation of the strokes through stringing together focus effective zones of the focused radiation is always formed in an upward movement or always in a downward movement or alternatively in an upward movement and in a downward movement implemented along the scan line.

15. The ophthalmologic therapy system according to claim 1 , wherein the device that generates the radiation comprises a pulsed laser having a laser pulse repetition rate (F L ), and wherein a distance of focus effective zones from a preceding focus effective zone is determined through the laser pulse repetition rate (F L ) and an overall scanning speed, which is comprised of the scanning speeds of slow and fast scanning movements, wherein the control device, is further structured to mask a laser pulse, when a distance of the laser pulse's focus effective zone to a preceding focus effective zone falls below a minimum distance.

16. A method for processing a portion of a processing volume of a transparent material of an eye by application of focused radiation by application of an ophthalmologic therapy system which comprises
a device that generates the focused radiation; and
an optical system that focuses the radiation at a focus in the processing volume which can be described with three spatial directions x, y and z, wherein the focus of the focused radiation comprises a focal angle and the focused radiation comprises a beam axis;
the method comprising:
changing a position of the focus by a three dimensional slow scanning movement of a first scanner in the processing volume of the transparent material and a three dimensional fast scanning movement of a second scanner which is independent of the three dimensional slow scanning movement of the first scanner in a section of the processing volume determined by the three spatial directions; and
moving the section of the three dimensional fast scanning m

Assignees

• Zeiss Carl Meditec Ag

Inventors

• Bergt Michael
• Hamann Thomas
• Pomraenke Robert

Classifications

• A61F9/00825 Primary

  for photodisruption · CPC title

• A61F9/008 Primary

  using laser · CPC title

• A61F2009/00874

  Vitreous · CPC title

• A61F9/00834 Primary

  Inlays; Onlays; Intraocular lenses [IOL] · CPC title

• A61F2009/00897

  Scanning mechanisms or algorithms · CPC title