Ophthalmic range finding

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9521949-B2
Application number	US-201313798457-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 13, 2013
Priority date	Jun 23, 2011
Publication date	Dec 20, 2016
Grant date	Dec 20, 2016

Abstract

Systems and methods for analyzing the anatomy of a patient's eye with circular or rotated polarized laser beams, or with laser beams of different wavelengths are disclosed. One system includes a polarization beam-splitter and a quarter-wave plate, wherein the quarter-wave plate is configured to circularly rotate a laser beam received from a laser that is transmitted and passes through the polarization beam-splitter, and to transform a circularly rotated back-reflected beam to a linearly polarized laser beam that is perpendicular to the beam that was transmitted through the polarization beam-splitter. Substantially all of the back-reflected beam is directed to a photo-detector for analysis. A Faraday rotator subsystem may be substituted for a polarization beam-splitter. An optical system including a laser that generates a laser beam of a first wavelength for therapeutic treatment, and another laser that generates a laser beam of a second wavelength for measurement is also disclosed.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system for analyzing a patient's eye comprising:
a laser configured for directing a pulsed laser beam along a path;
an optical beam-splitting device disposed along the path from the laser, the optical beam-splitting device configured to polarize and rotate the polarity of the laser beam;
an objective component including a focusing lens to focus the laser beam within the eye;
a sensor oriented along the path, wherein the sensor receives a back-reflected laser beam from the eye, and generates a signal corresponding to that laser beam; and
a computing device communicatively coupled with the sensor and configured to receive the signal, wherein the computing device determines a position of an anatomical feature of the eye based on the signal.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the optical beam splitting device comprises:
a polarization beam splitter configured to transmit a laser beam oriented in a first linear direction; and
a quarter-wave plate configured to rotate in a first circular direction the laser beam transmitted through the polarization beam splitter toward the eye, and to transform the rotation of the back-reflected laser beam from a second circular direction to a second linear direction.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the optical beam-splitting device comprises a partially reflecting and a partially transmitting mirror.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the optical beam-splitting device comprises a Faraday rotator subsystem configured to polarize and rotate the laser beam along the path from the laser.

5. The system of claim 4 , wherein the Faraday rotator subsystem comprises a polarization beam-splitter and a Faraday rotator.

6. The system of claim 4 , wherein Faraday rotator subsystem comprises a Faraday optical isolator.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein the sensor is selected from the group consisting of a CCD camera, a photodiode detector, and a Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor.

8. The system of claim 1 , wherein the sensor comprises a lens, a pinhole, and a photo detector.

9. The system of claim 1 , wherein the laser comprises a non-ultraviolet, ultra-short pulsed laser.

10. A system for analyzing an eye of a patient comprising:
a laser configured for directing a pulsed laser beam along a path;
a polarization beam-splitter disposed along the path from the laser and configured to transmit a laser beam oriented in a first linear direction;
a quarter-wave plate disposed between the polarization beam splitter and the eye, and configured to rotate in a first circular direction the laser beam that is transmitted by the polarization beam splitter toward the eye, and to transform the rotation of a back-reflected laser beam from a second circular direction to a second linear direction;
an objective component including a focusing lens to focus the laser beam within the eye;
a confocal system comprising a lens and a pinhole oriented to focus the back reflected laser beam from the eye, wherein the back-reflected laser beam is transmitted to the confocal system by the polarization beam splitter;
a sensor oriented along the path, wherein the sensor receives the back-reflected laser beam from the confocal system and generates a signal corresponding to that laser beam; and
a computing device communicatively coupled with the sensor and configured to receive the signal, wherein the computing device determines a position of an anatomical feature of the eye based on the signal.

11. The system of claim 10 , wherein the sensor is selected from the group consisting of a CCD camera, a photodiode detector, and a Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor.

12. The system of claim 10 , wherein the laser comprises a non-ultraviolet, ultra-short pulsed laser.

13. A system for analyzing an eye of a patient comprising:
a laser configured for directing a laser beam along a path;
a Faraday rotator subsystem configured to polarize and rotate the laser beam along the path;
an objective component including a focusing lens to focus the laser beam within the eye;
a confocal system comprising a lens and a pinhole oriented to focus a back laser beam energy from the eye, wherein the back-reflected laser beam is transmitted to the confocal system by the Faraday rotator subsystem;
a sensor oriented along the path, wherein the sensor receives the back-reflected laser beam from the confocal system and generates a signal corresponding to that laser beam; and
a computing device communicatively coupled with the sensor and configured to receive the signal, wherein the computing device determines a position of an anatomical feature of the eye based on the signal.

14. The system of claim 13 , wherein the Faraday rotator subsystem comprises a polarization beam splitter and a Faraday rotator.

15. The system of claim 13 , wherein Faraday rotator subsystem comprises a Faraday optical isolator.

16. The system of claim 13 , wherein the sensor is selected from the group consisting of a CCD camera, a photodiode detector, and a Shack-Hartmann sensor.

17. The system of claim 13 , wherein the laser comprises a non-ultraviolet, ultra-short pulsed laser.

18. A system for analyzing an eye of a patient comprising:
a first laser configured for directing a first laser beam along a path;
a second laser configured for directing a second laser beam along the path, the second laser beam having a shorter wavelength than the first laser beam;
a beam-splitter configured to reflect the second laser beam along the path toward the eye, and to transmit a back reflected second laser beam from the eye toward a sensor;
a dichroic mirror configured to reflect the second laser beam along the path toward the eye and to transmit the first laser beam along the path toward the eye;
an objective component including a focusing lens to focus the first and second laser beams within the eye;
a sensor oriented along the path, wherein the sensor receives the back reflected second laser beam and generates a signal corresponding to that laser beam; and
a computing device communicatively coupled with the sensor and configured to receive the signal, wherein the computing device determines a position of an anatomical feature of the eye based on the signal.

19. The system of claim 18 , wherein a portion of the second laser beam is transmitted through the beam-splitter and the system further comprises a beam dump that absorbs the portion of the second laser beam transmitted through the beam splitter.

20. The system of claim 18 , wherein the sensor is selected from the group consisting of a photodiode detector, a CCD camera, and a Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor.

21. The system of claim 18 , wherein the first laser comprises a non-ultraviolet, ultra-short pulsed laser.

Assignees

• Amo Dev Llc

Inventors

• Bor Zsolt
• Tamkin John
• De Guzman Peter-Patrick
• Levin Mikhail B
• Dennison Anthony W
• Campos Michael A
• Fu Hong

Classifications

• A61F9/00831

  Transplantation · CPC title

• A61B3/1225

  using coherent radiation · CPC title

• A61F2009/00878

  Planning · CPC title

• A61B3/10 Primary

  Objective types, i.e. instruments for examining the eyes independent of the patients' perceptions or reactions · CPC title

• A61F2009/0087

  Lens · CPC title