High resolution optical device with rigid fiber optic bundle
AssigneePrecision Optics Corporation
InventorA. David McNally
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Improved image guides for use in endoscopes, borescopes and analogous optical viewing scopes and a method for the manufacture of such image guides. An image guide is manufactured by drawing a three-glass fiber to a minimal diameter. Plural fibers are then gathered in a bundle and heated to fuse an outer fusible cladding on adjacent fibers. The bundle then can be cut to length and the ends are polished to produce an image guide. The resulting image guide has a spatial resolution that approximates the spatial resolution from conventional optics, is rugged and simpler to manufacture than other image guides.
Claims20
In an optical system having means for forming an image and means for viewing the image at a position displaced from the image forming means, the improvement of rigid image guide means for transferring the image from the image forming means to the image viewing means, said image guide means comprising:
- A. a fiber optic bundle including a plurality of substantially rigid optical fibers having a given length, each of said optical fibers having a central light transmitting and a concentric light reflecting layer for reflecting light into said central core, and encapsulating means encapsulating each of said optical fibers throughout said bundle for maintaining said plurality of optical fibers as a rigid bundle, and
- B. housing means for containing said rigid bundle of optical fibers with opposite ends thereof proximate the image forming means and image viewing means.
A method for forming an image guide including a optical fiber bundle with proximal and distal end surfaces, said method comprising the steps of:
- A. drawing each of a plurality of optical fibers to a final diameter, each said optical fiber having a central light transmitting core and a concentric light reflecting layer for reflecting light into the central core,
- B. forming said plurality of fibers into an integral bundle, and
- C. encapsulating the position of each optical fiber throughout the bundle thereby to maintain its spatial position at either end of the bundle.
In an optical viewing device useful in viewing an inner part of the body wherein said optical viewing device includes a tubular housing having proximal and distal ends, objective lens means at said distal end for forming an image of the inner part of the body and optical viewing means at said proximal end of said housing for enabling the image to be viewed externally to said body and said optical viewing device, the improvement of image guide means between said objective lens means and said optical viewing means comprising an optical fiber bundle formed of a plurality of optical fibers extending between said objective lens means and said optical viewing means for transferring the image from the distal end to the proximal end, each of said optical fibers having a central light transmitting core and an annular light reflecting layer for reflecting light into said central core and an encapsulating material for encapsulating each of said optical fibers throughout said bundle thereby to form a rigid bundle.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.