# US 2020/0404142 A1 · Controlling integral energy of a laser pulse in a fluorescence imaging system

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- Number: US 2020/0404142 A1
- Document ID: US20200404142A1
- Status: Published application
- Kind: A1
- Application number: 16/797,781
- Filed: 2020-02-21
- Published: 2020-12-24
- Earliest claimed: 2019-06-20
- Assignees: Ethicon, Inc.
- Applicants: Ethicon LLC
- Inventors: Joshua D. Talbert; Donald M. Wichern
- Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US20200404142A1

## CPC

- H04N 23/56: provided with illuminating means
- A61B 1/00006: {of control signals}
- A61B 1/00009: {of image signals during a use of endoscope}
- A61B 1/00045: {Display arrangement}
- A61B 1/0005: {combining images e.g. side-by-side, superimposed or tiled}
- A61B 1/00057: {provided with means for testing or calibration}
- A61B 1/043: {for fluorescence imaging}
- A61B 1/045: Control thereof
- A61B 1/0638: {providing two or more wavelengths}
- A61B 1/0646: {with illumination filters}
- A61B 1/0655: {Control therefor}
- A61B 1/07: using light-conductive means, e.g. optical fibres
- A61B 1/307: for the urinary organs, e.g. urethroscopes or cystoscopes
- G01N 21/6456: {Spatial resolved fluorescence measurements; Imaging}
- G01S 17/89: for mapping or imaging
- G06T 7/0012: {Biomedical image inspection}
- G06T 7/521: from laser ranging, e.g. using interferometry; from the projection of structured light
- H04N 13/296: Synchronisation thereof; Control thereof
- H04N 23/10: for generating image signals from different wavelengths
- H04N 23/125: {Colour sequential image capture, e.g. using a colour wheel}
- H04N 23/72: Combination of two or more compensation controls
- H04N 23/74: by influencing the scene brightness using illuminating means
- H04N 23/84: for processing colour signals
- H04N 25/131: including elements passing infrared wavelengths
- H04N 25/135: {based on four or more different wavelength filter elements}
- H04N 25/581: acquired simultaneously
- H04N 25/585: with pixels having different sensitivities within the sensor, e.g. fast or slow pixels or pixels having different sizes
- H04N 25/633: by using optical black pixels
- H04N 25/706: Pixels for exposure or ambient light measuring
- H04N 25/79: Arrangements of circuitry being divided between different or multiple substrates, chips or circuit boards, e.g. stacked image sensors
- G01S 7/483: Details of pulse systems
- G06T 2207/10064: Fluorescence image
- G06T 2207/10068: Endoscopic image
- G06T 2207/30024: Cell structures in vitro; Tissue sections in vitro
- H04N 23/555: {for picking-up images in sites, inaccessible due to their dimensions or hazardous conditions, e.g. endoscopes or borescopes}
- H04N 2209/047: using multispectral pick-up elements
- H04N: PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION
- A61B: DIAGNOSIS; SURGERY; IDENTIFICATION (usefulness limited to only animals A61D)
- G01N: INVESTIGATING OR ANALYSING MATERIALS BY DETERMINING THEIR CHEMICAL OR PHYSICAL PROPERTIES (measuring or testing apparatus or processes other than immunoassay, involving enzymes or microorganisms C12M, C12Q)
- G01S: RADIO DIRECTION-FINDING; RADIO NAVIGATION; DETERMINING DISTANCE OR VELOCITY BY USE OF RADIO WAVES; LOCATING OR PRESENCE-DETECTING BY USE OF THE REFLECTION OR RERADIATION OF RADIO WAVES; ANALOGOUS ARRANGEMENTS USING OTHER WAVES
- G06T: IMAGE DATA PROCESSING OR GENERATION, IN GENERAL

## Abstract

Controlling integral energy of a light pulse in a fluorescence imaging system is disclosed. A system includes an emitter for emitting pulses of electromagnetic radiation and an image sensor comprising a pixel array for sensing reflected electromagnetic radiation. The system includes an electromagnetic sensor for sensing energy emitted by the emitter. The system includes a controller configured to synchronize timing of the emitter and the image sensor. The system is such that at least a portion of the pulses of electromagnetic radiation emitted by the emitter comprises electromagnetic radiation having a wavelength from about 795 nm to about 815 nm.

## Claims

### Claim 1

A system comprising:
an emitter for emitting pulses of electromagnetic radiation;
an electromagnetic sensor for sensing energy emitted by the emitter;
an image sensor comprising a pixel array for sensing reflected electromagnetic radiation;
a controller in electronic communication with the emitter, the electromagnetic sensor, and the image sensor, wherein the controller is configured to synchronize timing of the emitter and the image sensor;
wherein at least a portion of the pulses of electromagnetic radiation emitted by the emitter comprises electromagnetic radiation having a wavelength from about 795 nm to about 815 nm.

### Claim 2 (depends on 1)

The system of claim 1, wherein the emitter comprises a laser bundle for emitting a partition of wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum and the laser bundle comprises a plurality of discrete laser units each capable of emitting electromagnetic radiation.

### Claim 3 (depends on 2)

The system of claim 2, wherein the electromagnetic sensor is embedded within the emitter, and wherein the electromagnetic sensor senses the energy emitted by the emitter by sensing energy emitted by at least one, but less than all, of the plurality of discrete laser units within the laser bundle.

### Claim 4 (depends on 1)

The system of claim 1, wherein:
the electromagnetic sensor provides a value for the energy emitted by the emitter to the controller; and
the controller controls a duty cycle of the emitter based on a predetermined, known output and the value for the energy emitted by the emitter such that the emitter illuminates a scene with a desired exposure for images captured by the image sensor.

### Claim 5 (depends on 1)

The system of claim 1, wherein:
the emitter comprises a plurality of laser bundles and each of the plurality of laser bundles comprises a plurality of laser units;
the system comprises a dedicated electromagnetic sensor for each of the plurality of laser bundles such that energy emitted by each of the plurality of laser bundles is sensed by a different dedicated electromagnetic sensor; and
the dedicated electromagnetic sensor is configured to sense energy emitted by at least one, but fewer than all, of the plurality of laser units for its assigned laser bundle.

### Claim 6 (depends on 1)

The system of claim 1, wherein the controller comprises one or more processors configurable for executing instructions stored in non-transitory computer readable storage media, the instructions comprising:
receiving from the electromagnetic sensor a value for the energy emitted by the emitter;
comparing the value for the energy emitted by the emitter with a desired light output for the emitter;
determining whether the value for the energy emitted by the emitter is within a tolerance threshold with respect to the desired light output for the emitter; and
in response to the value for the energy emitted by the emitter not being within the tolerance threshold, adjusting wavelength and/or duration of at least one pulse of the pulses of electromagnetic radiation to bring the value for the energy emitted by the emitter within the tolerance threshold.

### Claim 7 (depends on 1)

The system of claim 1, wherein the controller comprises one or more processors configurable for executing instructions stored in non-transitory computer readable storage media, the instructions comprising:
determining a mean pixel value for pixels in the pixel array based on an exposure level of the image sensor;
calculating a measured exposure level for the image sensor based on the mean pixel value;
calculating an error measurement based on the measured exposure level and a desired exposure level;
determining whether the error measurement is within a tolerance threshold; and
in response to the error measurement not being within the tolerance threshold, adjusting wavelength and/or duration of at least one pulse of the pulses of electromagnetic radiation to bring the error measurement within the tolerance threshold.

### Claim 8 (depends on 1)

The system of claim 1, wherein the emitter comprises a plurality of laser bundles and each of the plurality of laser bundles comprises a plurality of laser units, wherein the plurality of laser bundles comprises:
a red laser bundle for emitting a red wavelength of electromagnetic radiation;
a green laser bundle for emitting a green wavelength of electromagnetic radiation;
a blue laser bundle for emitting a blue wavelength of electromagnetic radiation; and
a fluorescence bundle for emitting a fluorescence excitation wavelength of electromagnetic radiation for fluorescing a reagent.

### Claim 9 (depends on 8)

The system of claim 8, wherein the fluorescence bundle for emitting the fluorescence excitation wavelength of electromagnetic radiation is configured to emit the electromagnetic radiation having the wavelength from about 795 nm to about 815 nm.

### Claim 10 (depends on 1)

The system of claim 1, further comprising an operational amplifier circuit in electronic communication with the electromagnetic sensor.

### Claim 11 (depends on 1)

The system of claim 1, wherein the image sensor is configured to generate a plurality of exposure frames, wherein each of the plurality of exposure frames corresponds to a pulse of electromagnetic radiation emitted by the emitter.

### Claim 12 (depends on 11)

The system of claim 11, wherein the pixel array of the image sensor senses reflected electromagnetic radiation to generate the plurality of exposure frames during a readout period of the pixel array, wherein the readout period is a duration of time when active pixels in the pixel array are read.

### Claim 13 (depends on 1)

The system of claim 1, wherein at least a portion of the pulses of electromagnetic radiation emitted by the emitter is a fluorescence excitation wavelength for fluorescing a reagent, wherein the fluorescence excitation wavelength comprises the electromagnetic radiation having the wavelength from about 795 nm to about 815 nm.

### Claim 14 (depends on 1)

The system of claim 1, wherein the emitter is configured to emit, during a pulse duration, a plurality of sub-pulses of electromagnetic radiation having a sub-duration shorter than the pulse duration.

### Claim 15 (depends on 1)

The system of claim 1, wherein one or more of the pulses of electromagnetic radiation emitted by the emitter comprises electromagnetic radiation emitted at two or more wavelengths simultaneously as a single pulse or a single sub-pulse.

### Claim 16 (depends on 1)

The system of claim 1, wherein at least a portion of the pulses of electromagnetic radiation emitted by the emitter is a fluorescence excitation emission that results in a fluorescence exposure frame created by the image sensor, and wherein the controller is configured to provide the fluorescence exposure frame to a corresponding system that determines a location of a critical tissue structure within a scene based on the fluorescence exposure frame.

### Claim 17 (depends on 16)

The system of claim 16, wherein the fluorescence excitation emission comprises the electromagnetic radiation having the wavelength from about 795 nm to about 815 nm.

### Claim 18 (depends on 16)

The system of claim 16, wherein the controller is further configured to:
receive the location of the critical tissue structure from the corresponding system;
generate an overlay frame comprising the location of the critical tissue structure; and
combine the overlay frame with a color image frame depicting the scene to indicate the location of the critical tissue structure within the scene.

### Claim 19 (depends on 18)

The system of claim 18, wherein the critical structure comprises one or more of a nerve, a ureter, a blood vessel, an artery, a blood flow, or a tumor.

### Claim 20 (depends on 1)

The system of claim 1, wherein the controller is configured to synchronize timing of the pulses of electromagnetic radiation during a blanking period of the image sensor, wherein the blanking period corresponds to a time between a readout of a last row of active pixels in the pixel array and a beginning of a next subsequent readout of active pixels in the pixel array.

### Claim 21 (depends on 1)

The system of claim 1, wherein two or more pulses of electromagnetic radiation emitted by the emitter result in two or more instances of reflected electromagnetic radiation that are sensed by the pixel array to generate two or more exposure frames that are combined to form an image frame.

### Claim 22 (depends on 1)

The system of claim 1, wherein the image sensor comprises a first image sensor and a second image sensor such that the image sensor can generate a three-dimensional image.

### Claim 23 (depends on 1)

The system of claim 1, wherein the emitter is configured to emit a sequence of pulses of electromagnetic radiation repeatedly sufficient for generating a video stream comprising a plurality of image frames, wherein each image frame in the video stream comprises data from a plurality of exposure frames, and wherein each of the exposure frames corresponds to a pulse of electromagnetic radiation.

### Claim 24 (depends on 1)

The system of claim 1, wherein the pulses of electromagnetic radiation are emitted in a pattern of varying wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation, and wherein the emitter repeats the pattern of varying wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation.

### Claim 25 (depends on 1)

The system of claim 1, wherein at least a portion of the pulses of electromagnetic radiation comprise a red wavelength, a green wavelength, a blue wavelength, and a fluorescence excitation wavelength such that reflected electromagnetic radiation sensed by the pixel array corresponding to each of the red wavelength, the green wavelength, the blue wavelength, and the fluorescence excitation wavelength can be processed to generate a Red-Green-Blue (RGB) image frame comprising an overlay of fluorescence imaging data, wherein the fluorescence excitation wavelength of electromagnetic radiation comprises the electromagnetic radiation having the wavelength from about 795 nm to about 815 nm.

### Claim 26 (depends on 1)

The system of claim 1, wherein at least a portion of the pulses of electromagnetic radiation comprise a luminance emission, a red chrominance emission, a blue chrominance emission, and a fluorescence excitation emission such that reflected electromagnetic radiation sensed by the pixel array corresponding to each of the luminance emission, the red chrominance emission, the blue chrominance emission, and the fluorescence excitation emission can be processed to generate a YCbCr image frame comprising an overlay of fluorescence imaging data, wherein the fluorescence excitation emission of electromagnetic radiation comprise the electromagnetic radiation having the wavelength from about 795 nm to about 815 nm.

### Claim 27 (depends on 1)

The system of claim 1, further comprising a filter that filters electromagnetic radiation having a wavelength from about 795 nm to about 815 nm.