Light source for a surgical microscope

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11428918-B2
Application number	US-201916584837-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 26, 2019
Priority date	Sep 26, 2018
Publication date	Aug 30, 2022
Grant date	Aug 30, 2022

Abstract

A light source for a surgical microscope includes a laser light source, first and second scattering elements defining first and second planes, respectively, and a collector optical device arranged between the first and second scattering elements with a focal length and a focus in the first plane. The laser light is focused on a first beam cross section with a first dimension in the first plane. The scattered beam emanating from the first scattering element is imaged at infinity with a first numerical aperture and produces a second beam cross section with a second dimension in the second plane. The second scattering element emits a beam of illumination light with a second numerical aperture at each point of the beam cross section in the second plane. The illumination light emanating from the second scattering element forms an illuminated field imageable into an object plane by an illumination optical device.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A light source for a surgical microscope, the light source comprising:
a laser light source;
a white light source;
an imaging optical device;
a first scattering element defining a first plane on the first scattering element;
a second scattering element defining a second plane on the second scattering element;
a collector optical device arranged between the first scattering element and the second scattering element and having a first focal length and a first focus,
wherein the first focus of the collector optical device lies in the first plane on the first scattering element,
wherein laser light emitted by the laser light source is focused by a focusing optical device on a first beam cross section with a first dimension in the first plane on the first scattering element,
wherein a scattered beam emanating from the first scattering element is imaged at infinity with a first numerical aperture by the collector optical device and produces a second beam cross section with a second dimension in the second plane on the second scattering element,
wherein the second scattering element emits a beam of illumination light with a second numerical aperture at each point of the second beam cross section in the second plane,
wherein illumination light emanating from the second scattering element forms a first illuminated field,
wherein the first illuminated field is imageable into an object plane,
wherein illumination light emanating from the white light source forms a second illuminated field of a second illumination beam path,
wherein the imaging optical device is arranged in a beam path downstream of the second scattering element and the white light source, and
wherein the imaging optical device is telecentric on both sides.

2. The light source according to claim 1 ,
wherein a scattering effect of the first scattering element is constant over an area of the first scattering element.

3. The light source according to claim 1 ,
wherein a scattering effect of the first scattering element varies over an area of the first scattering element.

4. The light source according to claim 1 ,
wherein the first dimension of the first beam cross section has a value in a range of between 0.1 millimeters and 5 millimeters in the first plane.

5. The light source according to claim 1 , further including an interchanger,
wherein the first scattering element is arranged on the interchanger, and
wherein the interchanger includes at least two first scattering elements each having a different scattering effect.

6. The light source according to claim 1 ,
wherein the collector optical device is formed by a single lens.

7. The light source according to claim 1 ,
wherein the collector optical device includes at least two lenses which are movable to permit the first focal length of the collector optical device to be variably adjustable.

8. The light source according to claim 1 ,
wherein a scattering effect of the second scattering element is constant over an area of the second scattering element.

9. The light source according to claim 1 , further including an interchanger,
wherein the second scattering element is arranged on the interchanger, and
wherein the interchanger includes at least two second scattering elements each having a different scattering effect.

10. The light source according to claim 1 ,
wherein the imaging optical device is embodied as a finite imaging optical device that images the first illuminated field into a light source output plane with an imaging scale.

11. The light source according to claim 1 ,
wherein the imaging optical device is a collimating imaging optical device.

12. The light source according to claim 11 ,
wherein the collector optical device is a first collector optical device, and
wherein the collimating imaging optical device includes a second collector optical device with a second focal length.

13. The light source according to claim 1 ,
wherein an optical input coupling element is arranged downstream of the second scattering element.

14. The light source according to claim 1 , further comprising an optical input coupling unit,
wherein the imaging optical device includes at least two optical elements, and
wherein an optical input coupling element is arranged between the at least two optical elements.

15. The light source according to claim 1 ,
wherein the first illuminated field and the second illuminated field of the second illumination beam path are couplable by an optical input coupling element and illumination light is guided along a common beam path downstream of the optical input coupling element to a light source output plane.

16. The light source according to claim 1 ,
wherein the laser light source includes at least two laser light source modules, and
wherein laser light of the at least two laser light source modules is guided in a unified fashion to the first scattering element.

17. The light source according to claim 1 , further comprising:
a light guide; and
an optical fiber bundle,
wherein the light guide or the optical fiber bundle is arranged in a light source output plane.

18. The light source according to claim 1 , further comprising a structured light guide,
wherein the structured light guide is arranged in a light source output plane.

19. The light source according to claim 1 , further comprising an optical fiber bundle,
wherein the optical fiber bundle is arranged in a light source output plane, and
wherein the optical fiber bundle has at least two delimited regions with incoherent optical fibers.

20. The surgical microscope comprising an illumination beam path and a light source according to claim 1 .

Assignees

• Zeiss Carl Meditec Ag

Inventors

• Peschka Martin
• Reimer Peter

Classifications

• G02B6/0005

  the light guides being of the fibre type (G02B6/0003 takes precedence) · CPC title

• G02B21/0012 Primary

  Surgical microscopes (counterbalanced structures for surgical microscopes G02B7/001) · CPC title

• G02B21/16

  adapted for ultraviolet illumination {; Fluorescence microscopes (G02B21/0076 takes precedence)} · CPC title

• G02B21/08 Primary

  Condensers · CPC title