Flexible digital ureteroscope

Inventors

Liu, Geping • Wei, Xibo • Wei, XiYi

Assignees

Otu Medical Inc A California Corp

Abstract

The present invention discloses a flexible digital ureteroscope that is at least partially disposable. The ureteroscope comprises a single-use catheter and a handle. The catheter comprises a distal end, a bend portion, and a proximal portion. The distal end has a rigid or semi-rigid shell that houses a set of micro lenses, an image sensor microchip, and a plurality of LED light sources. A working channel extends along the entire catheter and is coupled to a working channel port on the handle to receive various medical devices and irrigation lines during an endoscopic procedure. In addition, the catheter includes one or more steering wires to control the distal end to bend towards a desired direction. The rigid or semi-rigid shell of the distal end is made of a mix of polymer composite material with graphene nano-filler for enhancing thermal dissipation. The handle may be a single-use handle or a reusable handle. In case the handle is a reusable handle, it includes a battery module and a wireless communication module for communicating with a host machine wirelessly. In case the handle is a single-use handle, to reduce cost, the handle does not include a battery module and/or a wireless communication module. Rather, the single-use handle includes a host interface for receiving power from the host machine and transmits image data to the host machine.

Core Innovation

A flexible digital ureteroscope is provided with a catheter intended for a single use, including a proximal portion coupled to a handle, a bending portion, and a distal end. The distal end has a cross-section area whose circumference with a French scale is between 7.2 and 9.6 Fr, and the catheter distal end comprises a transparent taper/bullet shaped shell (TTBSS) with a taper shaped slop side and an opening in a central area of the taper shaped slop side, where the opening serves as a terminal of a working channel inside and along the ureteroscope throughout the catheter.

Inside the TTBSS, at least one CMOS image sensor microchip with a resolution not less than 0.16 million pixels is housed. A set of squared-shaped micro lenses is stacked one by one from a surface of the CMOS image sensor microchip and housed inside the TTBSS, where each micro lens has a size not larger than 1.0 millimeter by 1.0 millimeter. A farthest lens of the set of squared-shaped micro lenses away from the CMOS image sensor microchip serves as a part of the TTBSS, and this part of TTBS does not comprise any graphene and is located at a distal terminal of the distal end.

Illumination is implemented using at least one LED light source positioned to illuminate only an object outside of the TPBSS by positioning the LED light source(s) behind the CMOS image sensor microchip(s) for minimizing light contamination toward any/all image sensing surface(s) of the image sensor microchip(s) inside the TTBSS. The catheter further includes a plurality of metal wires for transmitting image data and electric power, partially housed inside the transparent shell and partially located throughout the rest of the catheter. Components inside the TTBSS are bonded together using an adhesive comprising a mix of polymer composite material(s) and graphene nano-filler material(s).

Claims Coverage

The provided independent claims are clm-00001 and clm-00010. Both independent claims share a common core structure with seven inventive features centered on the single-use flexible digital ureteroscope catheter distal end architecture, the transparent TTBSS with graphene-containing materials, the CMOS image sensor microchip with stacked squared-shaped micro lenses, the LED illumination arrangement to minimize light contamination, and the working-channel terminal through the catheter to the distal end.

Across clm-00001 and clm-00010, the claim coverage centers on a single-use flexible digital ureteroscope catheter with a graphene-containing transparent TTBSS that houses a CMOS image sensor microchip and a stacked set of squared-shaped micro lenses, together with LED light sources placed behind the CMOS sensor to minimize light contamination and a working-channel terminal integrated through the proximal, bending, and distal portions of the catheter. The catheter construction additionally includes metal wires for image data and electric power and a graphene-containing adhesive bonding the components inside the TTBSS, with a specified distal cross-section circumference range on the distal end.

Stated Advantages

Documented Applications