Pentax Corporation

Masaaki Nakashima

Hiroshi Sano

Naoki Kikuchi

Kenichi Ohara

Yoshihiro Obata

An imaging element for an electronic endoscope is disclosed. The electronic endoscope has an elongated tubular main body. At the tip end portion of the main body, there are provided an optical imaging system comprising a convex lens, a concave lens and an optical low-pass filter, a CMOS type imaging element having a CMOS sensor, and a pair of light distribution lenses. The imaging element includes the CMOS sensor, a signal processing circuit for processing a signal outputted from the CMOS sensor, and a signal control circuit for timing control for extracting a signal from the CMOS sensor. In this imaging element, the signal processing circuit and the signal control circuit are arranged along the periphery of the light-receiving surface of the CMOS sensor so that a center of the base of the sensor on the light-receiving surface is substantially aligned with a center of an effective imaging region of the image sensor.

Imaging element for electronic endoscopes and electronic endoscope equipped with the imaging element

A television device of a portable endoscope includes an endoscope including an inserted portion and an operating portion coupled to a base end of the inserted portion, a light source for lightening a subject through the inserted portion provided in the endoscope, a radio transmission television camera for obtaining an image of the subject through the inserted portion and radioing the image as the video signal provided in the endoscope, and a power source, which supplies a power for the light source and the radio transmission television camera, provided in the operating portion.

Television device of portable endoscope

An endoscope system with an endoscope, a TV monitor, and a peripheral device separate from the endoscope and the TV monitor is provided. The endoscope includes an objective optical system and an image pickup device that converts an image formed by the objective optical system into a video signal which can be indicated in the TV monitor. The endoscope also includes a signal generator that generates a control signal to be supplied to the peripheral device so as to control the peripheral device. Additionally, the endoscope includes a transmitter that transmits the video signal to the TV monitor while no control signal is generated by the signal generator. The transmitter also transmits, as a radio signal, both the video signal and the control signal to the TV monitor and the peripheral device upon the control signal being generated by the signal generator. The endoscope also includes a signal adder that adds the control signal to a blanking interval of the video signal to output the video signal added with the control signal to the transmitter.

Endoscope system and video camera for endoscope

An electronic endoscope has a tip portion with a tip end. This electronic endoscope comprises an imaging element provided in the tip portion; an imaging optical system provided in the tip portion at a position closer to the tip end than the imaging element; and a plurality of light-emitting elements for emitting light, each of which is provided in the tip portion at a position closer to the tip end than the imaging element. Each of the light-emitting elements is arranged such that a part of the light-emitting element is seen so as to overlap with the imaging element when viewed from the optical axis direction of the imaging optical system. According to this arrangement, it is possible to reduce the diameter of the tip portion of the electronic endoscope. Further, when such an electronic endoscope is used as a medical endoscope, it becomes possible to relieve the pain that patients may feel.

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Saitama, Japan

Masaaki Nakashima