The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Aug. 19, 2003
Filed:
Aug. 21, 2001
Paolo Vinciguerra, Milan, IT;
Maurizio Sborgia, Milan, IT;
Daniel Epstein, Langenthal, CH;
Marco Azzolini, Milan, IT;
Scott MacRae, Portland, OR (US);
Nidek Co., Ltd., Aichi, JP;
Abstract
An apparatus for corneal surgery to correct a refractive error by ablating corneal tissue with a laser beam emitted from a laser source and delivered onto a cornea of a patient's eye with a light delivering optical system, the apparatus comprising an irradiation area limiting device for limiting an irradiation area of the laser beam and for varying the irradiation area, a first control device for controlling the irradiation area limiting device so as to reduce an ablation amount as the laser beam irradiates further away from a flattest meridian of astigmatism whereby effecting astigmatic correction, a second control device for controlling the irradiation area limiting device so as to increase an ablation amount as the laser beam irradiates further away from a steepest meridian of astigmatism whereby effecting astigmatic correction, and an arithmetic device for dividing a refractive power required for astigmatic correction into halves approximately-equally so that an approximately half of the astigmatic correction is achieved by the first control device and the residual astigmatic correction is achieved by the second control device.