Image-acquisition apparatus

This is a continuation of International Application PCT/JP2014/078714, with an international filing date of Oct. 29, 2014, which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety. This application claims the benefit of Japanese Patent Application No. 2013-225635, filed on Oct. 30, 2013, the content of which is incorporated herein by reference.

The present invention relates to image-acquisition apparatuses, and particularly to endoscopic image-acquisition apparatuses.

Recently, medical endoscopes, such as nasal endoscopes, including insertion sections with reduced tip diameters have been desired, for example, for improved patient comfort. Accordingly, compact endoscopic image-acquisition devices (e.g., CCD and CMOS sensors) have been developed, and the pixel pitch thereof has been decreasing year by year. With the decreasing pixel pitch, assembly tolerances, such as those of the distance between lenses and the distance between image-acquisition devices and objective lenses, have been becoming smaller, and assembly errors of several micrometers can be problematic. In particular, the accuracy of positioning the objective lens relative to the image-acquisition device greatly affects the depth of field of the endoscope, and the positioning of the objective lens relative to the image-acquisition device often requires an accuracy of 1 μm or less.

Conventional endoscopic image-acquisition apparatuses employ a structure in which an objective lens unit frame holding an objective lens and an image-acquisition-device holding frame holding an image-acquisition device are fitted together (see, for example, Patent Literature PTL 1). The objective lens in this structure is focused on the image-acquisition device by adjusting the positions of the objective lens unit frame and the image-acquisition-device holding frame relative to each other before the fitted portions of the two frames are bonded together with a thermosetting resin.

The components of the above endoscopic image-acquisition apparatus and the assembly jig used to fix the objective lens unit frame and the image-acquisition-device holding frame expand thermally when the thermosetting resin is cured by heating in a drying oven. This thermal expansion may cause the positions of the objective lens unit frame and the image-acquisition-device holding frame to deviate from their desired positions.

Patent Literature

{PTL 1}

Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, Publication No. HEI-9-192093

An aspect of the present invention is an image-acquisition apparatus including an objective lens that forms an optical image of an object, an image-acquisition device that converts the optical image formed by the objective lens into an electrical signal, and first and second holding frames holding the objective lens and the image-acquisition device inside. The objective lens consists of, in order from an object side, a first group and a second group. The first holding frame holds the first group. The second holding frame holds the image-acquisition device and the second group. The objective lens satisfies conditions (1) and (2):

−2.871< f _front/ f<− 1.180  (1)

−1.498< f _front/ f _rear<−0.607  (2)

where f_front is a focal length of the first group, f_rear is a focal length of the second group, and f is a focal length of the entire objective lens.

FIG. 1 is a sectional view illustrating the overall configuration of an image-acquisition apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a sectional view illustrating a partial configuration of an image-acquisition apparatus according to Example 1 of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a sectional view illustrating a partial configuration of an image-acquisition apparatus according to Example 2 of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a sectional view illustrating a configuration in which holding frames are attached to the objective lens in FIG. 3 .

FIG. 5 is a sectional view illustrating a partial configuration of an image-acquisition apparatus according to Example 3 of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a sectional view illustrating a partial configuration of an image-acquisition apparatus according to Example 4 of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a sectional view illustrating a partial configuration of an image-acquisition apparatus according to Example 5 of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a sectional view illustrating a partial configuration of an image-acquisition apparatus according to Example 6 of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a sectional view illustrating a partial configuration of an image-acquisition apparatus according to Example 7 of the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a sectional view illustrating a partial configuration of an image-acquisition apparatus according to Example 8 of the present invention.

FIG. 11 is a sectional view illustrating a partial configuration of an image-acquisition apparatus according to Example 9 of the present invention.

FIG. 12 is a sectional view illustrating a partial configuration of an image-acquisition apparatus according to Example 10 of the present invention.

FIG. 13 is a sectional view illustrating a partial configuration of an image-acquisition apparatus according to Example 11 of the present invention.

FIG. 14 is a sectional view illustrating a partial configuration of an image-acquisition apparatus according to Example 12 of the present invention.

FIG. 15 is a sectional view illustrating a partial configuration of an image-acquisition apparatus according to Example 13 of the present invention.

FIG. 16 is a sectional view illustrating a partial configuration of an image-acquisition apparatus according to Reference Example of the present invention.

FIG. 17 is a sectional view illustrating a partial configuration of an image-acquisition apparatus according to Example 14 of the present invention.

FIG. 18 is a sectional view illustrating a configuration in which holding frames are attached to the objective lens in FIG. 17 .

FIG. 19 is a sectional view illustrating a partial configuration of an image-acquisition apparatus according to Example 15 of the present invention.

FIG. 20A is sectional views illustrating partial configurations of an image-acquisition apparatus according to Example 16 of the present invention at the wide-angle end.

FIG. 20B is sectional views illustrating partial configurations of an image-acquisition apparatus according to Example 16 of the present invention at the telephoto end.

FIG. 21 is a diagram for illustrating condition (3).

An endoscopic image-acquisition apparatus 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIG. 1 .

As shown in FIG. 1 , the image-acquisition apparatus 1 according to this embodiment includes an objective lens 2 that forms an optical image of an object, an image-acquisition device 3 that converts the optical image formed by the objective lens 2 into an electrical signal, and two cylindrical holding frames 4 and 5 holding the objective lens 2 and the image-acquisition device 3 . As shown, reference sign S denotes an aperture stop, reference sign F denotes an optical filter, reference sign CG denotes a glass cover, and reference sign IMG denotes the image plane of the objective lens 2 .

The objective lens 2 is a retrofocus type lens, which is suitable for achieving wider angles and smaller sizes, and consists of, in order from the object side, a first group G 1 and a second group G 2 . The first group G 1 in this example includes, in order from the object side, a plano-concave lens L 1 having the flat side thereof facing the object side and a plano-convex lens L 2 having the flat side thereof facing the object side. The second group G 2 includes, in order from the object side, a plano-convex lens L 3 having the flat side thereof facing the object side and a cemented lens L 4 composed of a biconvex lens and a meniscus lens.

The first group G 1 and the second group G 2 satisfy conditions (1) and (2):

f _front/ f< 0  (1)

f _front/ f _rear<0  (2)

where f_front is the focal length (mm) of the first group G 1 , f_rear is the focal length (mm) of the second group G 2 , f is the focal length (mm) of the entire objective lens 2 , and f>0. That is, the lenses L 1 to L 4 that form the objective lens 2 are divided into a divergent system, namely, the first group G 1 , and a convergent system, namely, the second group G 2 .

Preferably, the first group G 1 and the second group G 2 satisfy conditions (1)′ and (2)′.

−2.871< f _front/ f <−1.180  (1)′

−1.498< f _front/ f _rear<−0.607  (2)′

The objective lens 2 and the image-acquisition device 3 also satisfy condition (3):

2.5× P×Fno< 0.03  (3)

where P is the pixel pitch (mm) of the image-acquisition device 3 , and Fno is the effective f-number of the objective lens 2 .

Condition (3) will now be described. As shown in FIG. 21 , the defocus tolerance, Δ Pinto , of the image-acquisition apparatus 1 is expressed by the following equations:

δ/ D=Δ Pinto /f

Δ Pinto =δ·f/D

Substituting δ=2.5P gives the following equation:

Δ Pinto =Fno× 2.5× P

where D is the effective aperture of the objective lens 2 , f is the focal length of the objective lens 2 , and δ is the tolerable blur diameter on an image-acquisition plane 3 a.

The reason for using δ=2.5P in this embodiment is as follows. Specifically, if an image of a black-and-white chart is formed on an image-acquisition device by an objective optical system for each pixel of the image-acquisition device, the reference blur level is δ=2P, which is used in image-acquisition devices such as those that use luminance signals. An image-acquisition device including a color filter for each pixel of the image-acquisition device needs to create a luminance signal from the color filter, and the reference blur level is typically δ=3P. Thus, the middle level, i.e., δ=2.5P, is used as a reference blur level that is compatible with all types of image-acquisition devices.

The second group G 2 includes at least one cemented lens L 4 . The cemented lens L 4 , which is disposed near the image plane IMG, can effectively correct for chromatic aberration of magnification due to the concave lens L 1 of the first group G 1 .

The holding frames 4 and 5 are the first holding frame 4 holding the first group G 1 and the second holding frame 5 integrally holding the second group G 2 and the image-acquisition device 3 . That is, the image-acquisition apparatus 1 is composed of two sections: a first unit U 1 composed of the first group G 1 and the first holding frame 4 and a second unit U 2 composed of the second group G 2 , including the aperture stop S, the image-acquisition device 3 , and the second holding frame 5 .

The end of the first holding frame 4 on the image side and the end of the second holding frame 5 on the object side are fitted to each other in a nested manner. This allows the first holding frame 4 and the second holding frame 5 to be moved relative to each other along the optical axis of the objective lens 2 during manufacture.

The operation of the thus-constructed image-acquisition apparatus 1 will now be described.

During the manufacture of the image-acquisition apparatus 1 according to this embodiment, the first unit U 1 is positioned relative to the second unit U 2 by adjusting the position of the first unit U 1 relative to the second unit U 2 along the optical axis so that the image plane IMG coincides with the image-acquisition plane 3 a of the image-acquisition device 3 . In this way, the focusing of the image-acquisition apparatus 1 is achieved.

The surfaces of the ends of the two holding frames 4 and 5 are coated with a thermosetting resin adhesive in advance, and after the two units U 1 and U 2 are positioned as described above, the portions of the holding frames 4 and 5 fitted to each other are heated to cure the adhesive. In this way, the holding frames 4 and 5 are bonded to each other to couple the two units U 1 and U 2 together.

Focusing of the conventional endoscopic image-acquisition apparatus is performed by adjusting the distance between the entire objective lens and the image-acquisition device. In this case, the amount of movement of the objective lens is equal to the amount of movement of the image plane; therefore, the objective lens requires a high positional accuracy equal to the accuracy of positioning the image plane relative to the image-acquisition plane. If the position of the image plane deviates from the image-acquisition plane, the desired depth of field required for endoscopes cannot be stably achieved. Specifically, the range from near to far in which objects appear with a certain resolution through an endoscope cannot be stably and uniformly provided.

In contrast, focusing is performed in this embodiment only by the movement of the divergent system located on the object side, namely, the first group G 1 . In this case, the amount of movement of the image plane IMG is smaller than the amount of movement of the first group G 1 ; therefore, the first group G 1 requires a positioning accuracy lower than the accuracy of positioning the image plane IMG relative to the image-acquisition plane 3 a . For example, if the accuracy of positioning the image plane IMG relative to the image-acquisition plane 3 a is 1 μm, the first group G 1 only requires a positioning accuracy of about several to ten micrometers. Thus, the use of the first group G 1 , which has less effect on the position of the image plane IMG, for focusing allows the deviation of the image plane IMG from the image-acquisition plane 3 a to fall within a tolerance limit of 1 μm or less in the event of an error in the positioning of the first group G 1 or a deviation of the position of the first group G 1 during the curing of the adhesive. The image-acquisition apparatus 1 can thus be easily manufactured with the desired depth of field equal to that of the objective lens 2 .

Additionally, the solution employed in this embodiment does not depend on improved assembly accuracy and thus facilitates a reduction in pixel pitch. Specifically, with the conventional technique in which focusing is performed by adjusting the distance between the entire objective lens 2 and the image-acquisition device, it is difficult to achieve a high focusing accuracy sufficient to satisfy condition (3), and it is therefore technically difficult to provide an image-acquisition apparatus that satisfies condition (3). In contrast, this embodiment facilitates the manufacture of such an image-acquisition apparatus 1 .

Although the first holding frame 4 used in this embodiment is of a unibody construction, the first holding frame 4 can be designed in any suitable manner. For example, the first holding frame 4 may be composed of a plurality of holding frames, each holding at least one lens.

If the first holding frame 4 is composed of a plurality of holding frames, one of the plurality of holding frames may be configured to be movable along the optical axis. This allows one of the lenses L 1 and L 2 that form the first group G 1 to be movable along the optical axis to provide a focus function for the objective lens 2 without affecting focusing. The movable lens is preferably the lens of the first group G 1 that is located closest to the image side.

Examples 1 to 16 of the image-acquisition apparatus 1 according to the foregoing embodiment will be described below with reference to FIGS. 2 to 20B .

In the lens data for objective lenses shown in the examples, r is the radius of curvature (mm), d is the distance between lens surfaces (mm), ne is the refractive index at the e-line, Ve is the Abbe number at the e-line, OBJ (surface No.=0) is the object plane, IMG is the image plane, and S is the aperture stop. In the drawings, the holding frames and the image-acquisition device are not shown except for some examples. Table 1 summarizes the f-number of the objective lens, the pixel pitch P of the image-acquisition device, the focal length f_front of the first group, and the focal length f_rear of the second group G 2 for each example.

1 image-acquisition apparatus

2 objective lens

3 image-acquisition device

3 a image-acquisition plane

4 , 5 holding frame

G 1 first group

G 2 second group

U 1 first unit

U 2 second unit

IMG image plane

S aperture stop