Electrical connection piece for an endoscope and method for establishing an electrical connection in an endoscope

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9929483-B2
Application number	US-201715705472-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 15, 2017
Priority date	Mar 18, 2015
Publication date	Mar 27, 2018
Grant date	Mar 27, 2018

Abstract

An electrical connection piece including: a flexible circuit board having: a central section penetrated by contact openings arranged mirror-symmetrically; a first and second arm, each of the first and second arms extending in different directions away from the central section, the end of the first arm having a first end surface, the end of the second arm having a second end surface, the end of the first arm having a third end surface opposing the first end surface and end of the second arm having a fourth end surface opposing the second end surface; first strip conductors extending between the contact openings and first electrical contacting surfaces; and second strip conductors extending between the contact openings and second electrical contacting surfaces; wherein the first electrical contacting surfaces have a contact configuration different from a contact configuration of the second electrical contacting surfaces.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An electrical connection piece for an endoscope, the electrical connection piece comprising:
an at least partially flexible circuit board comprising:
a central section which is penetrated by contact openings for contact pins of a hermetically sealed feedthrough of an image-producing unit of the endoscope, the contact openings being arranged mirror-symmetrically relative to an axis of symmetry;
a bendable first arm and a bendable second arm, each of the first arm and the second arm extend in different directions from the central section, wherein the first arm having an end facing away from the central section, the end of the first arm comprising a first end surface and the second arm having an end facing away from the central section, the end of the second arm comprising a second end surface, the end of the first arm comprising a third end surface opposing the first end surface and end of the second arm comprising a fourth end surface opposing the second end surface;
first strip conductors extending between the contact openings and first electrical contacting surfaces on the first and second end surfaces; and
second strip conductors extending between the contact openings and second electrical contacting surfaces on the third and fourth end surfaces;

wherein the first electrical contacting surfaces have a first configuration for contacting using one or more of a first contact technology and a first contact assignment and the second electrical contacting surfaces have a second configuration for contacting using one or more of a second contact technology and a second contact assignment, the one or more of the first contact technology and the first contact assignment being different from the one or more of the second contact technology and the second contact assignment.

2. The electrical connection piece according to claim 1 , wherein the first and second arms branch off in opposing directions from the central section, and the axis of symmetry extends at least approximately parallel or perpendicular to a common direction of longitudinal extent of the first and second arms.

3. The electrical connection piece according to claim 1 , wherein one of the first contacting surfaces or the second contacting surfaces are connected to contacts of a further electrical connecting element.

4. The electrical connection piece according to claim 3 , wherein the first and the second contact technology are selected from a group consisting of soldering, plug connection and connection by corner vias.

5. The electrical connection piece according to claim 1 , wherein one or more of the central section, the first and second end surfaces and the third and fourth end surfaces of the circuit board have a rigidity that is less flexible than the first and second arms.

6. The electrical connection piece according to claim 1 , wherein the first arm and the second arm have at least approximately the same length and placed flat on top of one another for at least a portion of their length, wherein one of the first and the second end surfaces or the third and the fourth end surfaces face away from the central section and together with the central section form a substantially symmetrical triangle and the first and second end surfaces or third and fourth end surface are placed substantially on a central axis or rotational axis of the image-producing unit.

7. The electrical connection piece according to claim 6 , further comprising a stabilising body arranged between one of the first and the second end surfaces or the third and the fourth end surfaces.

8. The electrical connection piece according to claim 7 , wherein the stabilising body comprises an electrically insulating material.

9. The electrical connection piece according to claim 7 , wherein the electrically insulating material comprises a material by means of which signal crosstalk is reduced in one of the first and second strip conductors.

10. The electrical connection piece according to claim 1 , further comprising a connecting element, the connecting element penetrating and connecting together the first and second arms.

11. The electrical connection piece according to claim 10 , wherein the connecting element having mushroom-shaped projections on each of two sides of the first and second arms.

12. The electrical connection piece according to claim 1 , further comprising a hermetically sealed feed through having contact pins corresponding to the contact openings of the central section, wherein the contact openings are plugged by the contact pins of the hermetically sealed feedthrough.

13. The electrical connection piece according to claim 12 , wherein the contact openings are soldered to the contact pins.

14. A method for establishing an electrical connection in an endoscope, wherein an electrical connection piece is provided according to claim 1 , the method comprising:
selecting the one or more of the first contact technology and the first contact assignment or the one or more of the second contact technology and the second contact assignment for contacting the electrical connection piece, wherein
when the one or more of the first contact technology and the first contact assignment is selected:
facing a first side of the central section to the feedthrough of the image-producing unit with the contact pins of the feedthrough extending through the contact openings;

soldering the contact pins to the openings;
bending the first arm and the second arm toward one another such that the third and fourth end surfaces face each other and are connected together and the first electrical contacting surfaces face outwardly,
subsequent to the bending, establishing electrically conductive connections of the first electrical contacting surfaces with electrical conductors of a first further electrical connecting element according to the one or more of the first contact technology and the first contact assignment,
when the one or more of the second contact technology and the second contact assignment is selected:
facing a second side of the central section to the feedthrough of the image-producing unit with the contact pins of the feedthrough extending through the contact openings;
soldering the contact pins to the openings;
bending the first arm and the second arm toward one another such that the first and second end surfaces face each other and are connected together and the second electrical contacting surfaces face outwardly,
subsequent to the bending, establishing electrically conductive connections of the second electrical contacting surfaces with electrical conductors of a second further electrical connecting element according to the one or more of the second contact technology and the second contact assignment.

15. The method according to claim 14 , wherein the first contact technology and the second contact technology are selected from a group consisting of soldering, plug connection and connection by corner vias.

16. The method according to claim 14 , wherein the first arm and the second arm have at least approximately the same length and are at least partially placed on top of one another, wherein the first and the second end surfaces or the third and the fourth end surfaces face away from the central section and form a substantially symmetrical triangle.

17. The method according to claim 16 , wherein the first and second end surfaces or third and fourth end surface are substantially arranged on a central axis or rotational axis of the image-producing unit.

18. The method according to claim 14 , wherein the

Assignees

• Winter & Ibe Olympus

Inventors

• Wieters Martin
• Schnitger Jens

Classifications

• H01R2201/12

  for medicine and surgery · CPC title

• H01R13/22

  Contacts for co-operating by abutting · CPC title

• H01R12/59

  for flexible printed circuits, flat or ribbon cables or like structures · CPC title

• H01R12/592 Primary

  connections to contact elements · CPC title

• A61B1/00114 Primary

  Electrical cables in or with an endoscope · CPC title