Light source device

Details Light source device Light source device

2002-07-31

2004-02-17

Wong, Don (Department: 2821)

Electric lamp and discharge devices: systems

Current and/or voltage regulation

C315S307000, C315S360000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06693397

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a light-source device, and more particularly, to a light-source device which emits illuminating light to be used in an endoscope, for example.
2. Description of the Related Art
In light-source devices used in, for example, endoscopes, the light-source lamp electrically wears out as a result of feeding electricity. Thus, in order to inform the user when the light-source lamp needs to be replaced, the conventional light-source devices are equipped with a lifetime meter for measuring and displaying the accumulated illumination time of the lamp.
An endoscope light-source device having the lifetime meter described above has been proposed, for example, in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication Nos. 10-268071 and 2000-126124, which were previously filed by the present applicant.
An endoscope light-source device having the conventional lifetime meter like this has the configuration, for example, shown in
FIGS. 8 and 9
.
FIG. 8
is a perspective view and a partly enlarged view illustrating an endoscope light-source device having a conventional lifetime meter, and
FIG. 9
is a block diagram illustrating the configuration of an endoscope light-source device shown in FIG.
8
.
As shown in
FIG. 8
, a light-source device
30
has a lamp-unit replacement door
32
on one side of a device housing
31
in an openable/closable manner. The light-source device
30
has a lamp-unit container
33
which is accessed through an opening covered by the lamp-unit replacement door
32
in the device housing
31
.
In the lamp-unit container
33
, a lamp-unit mounting/demounting detection switch
34
, which is a leaf switch, is disposed on the bottom face. At the same time, the lamp unit
37
consists of a light-source lamp
35
for emitting illuminating light and heat sinks
36
.
The light-source lamp
35
uses, for example, a xenon lamp. Thus, the lamp unit
37
is formed by covering the light-source lamp
35
with the heat sinks
36
in order to cool the anode and the cathode of the light-source lamp
35
.
In the light-source device
30
having such a configuration, when the lamp unit
37
is installed in the lamp-unit container
33
, the lamp-unit mounting/demounting detection switch
34
detects this action. Then, in the light-source device
30
, a lamp-replacement detection circuit
38
(refer to
FIG. 9
) operates to supply the necessary current for illuminating the lamp from a power-supply circuit
39
to the light-source lamp
35
.
In the light-source device
30
described above, as shown in
FIG. 9
, within the device housing
31
, the lamp-unit container
33
, the power-supply circuit
39
, a control circuit
44
, a condenser lens
41
, a diaphragm
42
, and a light-guide connector
43
are appropriately disposed.
The above-described control circuit
44
has the above-described lamp-replacement detection circuit
38
, a CPU (Central Processing Unit)
45
, and an EEPROM (Electrically Erasable Programmable Read-only Memory)
46
. When the light-source lamp
35
is lit, the power-supply circuit
39
sends an illumination signal to the control circuit
44
.
Next, the CPU
45
measures the operating time in order to record it as the illumination time based on the illumination signal, and monitors the illumination time. The CPU
45
accumulates and writes the illumination time into the EEPROM
46
, in which information data is electrically rewritable.
This means that when the power of the light-source device
30
is turned on, the CPU
45
reads the total operating time data stored in the EEPROM
46
, and measures the illumination time of the light-source lamp
35
to be added to the total operating time.
Also, the light-source device
30
has a lifetime meter
50
on a front panel
49
of the device housing
31
. The lifetime meter
50
displays the total operating time (accumulated operating time) that the light-source lamp
35
has been lit. In this way, in the light-source device
30
, the above-described lifetime meter
50
gives an indication of whether or not the light-source lamp
35
has reached the end of its lifetime.
The front panel
49
is connected to the CPU
45
of the control circuit
44
. As shown in the enlarged view of
FIG. 8
, the front panel
49
includes a display part
50
a
of the lifetime meter
50
, an automatic light control/manual light control changing-over switch
51
, a brightness setting-up switch
52
a,
a brightness setting-down switch
52
b,
and so on.
Also, as shown in
FIG. 9
, in the light-source device
30
, the condenser lens
41
is disposed on the optical axis O of the light-source lamp
35
and opposes the light-source lamp
35
.
The illuminating light of the light-source lamp
35
is condensed by the condenser lens
41
, and strikes the end face of the light-guide connector
43
through the diaphragm
42
. The light-guide connector
43
is connected to a light-guide cap
47
which is attached to the front face of the device housing
31
. The light-guide connector
43
supplies the illuminating light of the light-source lamp
35
to a light-guide cable
48
which is attached to the light-guide cap
47
. The light-guide cable
48
transmits the illuminating light to a light guide of the endoscope, which is not shown in the figure. Then the endoscope irradiates the illuminating light transmitted by the light guide to an object.
In this regard, external power is supplied to the above-described power-supply circuit
39
by connecting the plug of a power cable
53
to a power outlet and turning on the power switch.
In the conventional endoscope having such a configuration, the above-described light-source lamp
35
is an electrically consumable item. Consequently, when the above-described light-source lamp
35
is illuminated for a long time, the amount of light emitted decreases.
In this case, when the endoscope irradiates light on the object such as a diseased part of a body through the light guide, the amount of the light decreases. Thus the endoscopic image obtained by the endoscope through its observation optical system becomes dim.
In order to eliminate such a defect, in the conventional endoscope light-source device, the lifetime of the light-source lamp
35
is reported by the lifetime meter
50
so that the light-source lamp
35
can be replaced with a new one.
However, in the case of the endoscope light-source device having the conventional lifetime meter, for example, when interchangeably using various lamp units having different illumination currents and so on, the CPU
45
cannot identify each of the lamp units.
Consequently, in the case of the above-described conventional endoscope light-source device, when totaling the illumination time in EEPROM
46
on the assumption that the same lamp unit is used, the reliability of the time displayed by the lifetime meter
50
might be too low.
Also, in the case of the conventional endoscope light-source device, an increase in the number of illuminations of the light-source lamp might shorten its lifetime, thus it has not been possible to get accurate information for individual light-source lamps.
Furthermore, in the case of the conventional endoscope light-source device, the user might mistakenly reset the lifetime meter without changing the light-source lamp. Consequently, in the case of the conventional endoscope light-source device, the total operating time displayed on the lifetime meter does not necessarily indicate the actual operating time of the light-source lamp.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a light-source device to be used for an endoscope and so on which can provide accurate information on light-source lamps by storing the information, such as the operating time of the light-source lamp and the number of illuminations, in each of the light-source lamps.
Also, it is another object of the present invention to provide a light-source device which can prevent fluctuation of the light level of the light-source lamp and which can easily provi

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