Ophthalmologic microscope with micro-mirror balancing
AssigneeHaag-Streit AG
InventorsCaspar Trittibach, Frank Zumkehr
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The ophthalmologic microscope has an illumination device for projecting light onto an eye to be observed and a microscope device with a camera to view the eye. The illumination device generates pulsed light. The light is pulsed at least at twice the frame rate of the camera to reduce flicker. The illumination device uses an array of micro-mirrors as spatial light modulator, and the mirrors are controlled for a balanced deflection over the frame cycles, which allows to increase the service life of the microscope.
Claims24
An ophthalmologic microscope, comprising:
- i) an illumination device generating illumination pulses and having
- a) at least one light source generating light,
- b) an electronically controlled spatial light modulator spatially modulating the light from the light source before it hits a patient's eye and comprising a two-dimensional array of micro-mirrors individually deflectable into a first and a second position, and
- c) illumination imaging optics projecting an image from the spatial light modulator onto the patient's eye,
- ii) a microscope device having
- a) microscope optics and
- b) at least one electronic camera, and
- iii) a control unit,
- wherein said control unit brings, for a group of N≤100 consecutive frame cycles of said camera, each micro-mirror of said spatial light modulator into the first position during a time t1 and into the second position during a time t2, wherein 0.1<t1/t2<10.
A method for operating an ophthalmologic microscope, wherein said device comprises:
- i) an illumination device having
- a) at least one light source generating light,
- b) an electronically controlled spatial light modulator comprising a two-dimensional array of micro-mirrors individually deflectable into a first and a second position, and
- c) illumination imaging optics,
- ii) a microscope device having
- a) microscope optics and
- b) at least one electronic camera, and
- iii) a control unit,
- wherein said method comprises
- spatially modulating the light from the light source with the spatial light modulator before the light hits a patient's eye, projecting an image from the spatial light modulator onto the patient's eye, and bringing, for a group of N≤100 consecutive frame cycles of said camera, each micro-mirror of said spatial light modulator into the first position during a time t1 and into the second position during a time t2, wherein 0.1<t1/t2<10.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.