JPS6332277B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to an emission control device for a laser device, particularly a medical laser device.

Medical laser devices are required to have a high degree of safety and reliability because the target to which the laser beam is irradiated is the human body, and the laser beam probe is directly handled by a doctor. For this reason, laser devices are controlled by a microprocessor, such as laser oscillation, laser irradiation, and abnormality detection. However, microprocessors may malfunction, run out of control, etc., and as a result, laser oscillation irradiation may occur unexpectedly, posing a danger to the human body, and there is no certainty in terms of safety.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a laser emission control device for a laser device that prevents laser oscillation from being performed contrary to the intention of the user of the laser device.

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

In FIG. 1, a laser oscillator 1 is provided with a laser oscillation control shutter 2 and a laser rod 3 for controlling the oscillation of laser light. The power supply device 4 is provided with an excitation lamp 5 and a cooler 6 for suppressing a temperature rise due to heat generated by the excitation lamp 5. When a Nd-YAG laser rod is used as the laser rod 3, the laser rod oscillates infrared light and the laser light is invisible, so the visible laser light is used as the guide light. For this reason,
For example, a He-Ne laser is used as the guide light oscillator 7.

The safety device 8 is connected to the I/O circuit 17 of the control device 15, and controls the operation of the shutter 2 of the laser oscillator 1, the power supply device 4, the guide light oscillator 7, and peripheral devices (not shown) via the control device 15. It is configured to monitor and turn off the excitation lamp 5 of the power supply device 4 when an abnormality is detected.

Irradiation data setting switch circuit 9 is I/O circuit 1
7 to the microprocessor 16;
It is provided to input data such as irradiation time into the microcomputer 16 in advance. I/O circuit 1
A display device 11 is connected to 7. This display device 11 is provided with an abnormality indicator 12, an output indicator 13, and an irradiation data indicator 14. Control device 1
A foot switch 10 is connected to the I/O circuit 17 of 5. Moreover, this foot switch 10 is
It is connected together with the O circuit 17 to the input terminal of the AND gate 18 . The output terminal of this AND gate 18 is connected to the laser oscillation control shutter 2 of the laser oscillator 1 via a buffer circuit 20. The laser oscillator 1, power supply device 4, and guide light oscillator 7 are coupled to a microprocessor 16 via an I/O circuit 17 and controlled by the microprocessor 16.

In the laser device having the above configuration, the control device 15
operates according to the program of the microprocessor 16. When the irradiation time is set by the irradiation data setting switch 9, the irradiation data display 1
The set irradiation time is displayed in 4.

When the foot switch 10 is pressed once, the microprocessor 16 records the number of times the foot switch 10 has been pressed and determines whether the number of times it has been pressed is an odd number or an even number. In the first case, that is, in the case of an odd number of times, the microprocessor 16
operates the guide light oscillator 7 to cause the guide light oscillator 7 to emit guide light. When the laser irradiation position is determined by this guide light, the foot switch 10 is depressed for the second time to emit the laser light. The microprocessor 16 outputs a laser emission control signal in response to the second activation of the footswitch 10. As a result, both input terminals of AND18 become high level, and the output of this AND gate 18 becomes high level. The output of this AND gate 18 is passed through a buffer circuit 20 to a shutter drive solenoid 2 of a laser oscillation control shutter 2, as shown in FIG.
1 to open the shutter 2. This results in
The light resonates within the laser rod 3 and laser light is output. The output of this laser light is displayed by an output display 13. When the foot switch 10 is opened after laser irradiation for a predetermined period of time, the microprocessor 16 issues a command to stop the emission of the guide light and laser light. As a result, the shutter control signal from the shutter control signal output terminal of the I/O circuit 17 becomes low level. Therefore, both input terminals of the AND gate 18 become low level.
The output of the shutter drive solenoid 21 is deenergized, the shutter 2 is closed, and the laser rod 3 no longer emits laser light. Further, at this time, the operation of the guide light oscillation circuit 7 is stopped, and the generation of the guide light is stopped.

The above operation is performed when the microprocessor 16 in the control device 15 is operating normally, but the microprocessor 16 may malfunction or run out of control. In this case, the foot switch 10
Even if the shutter control signal is released, the shutter control signal may continue to be output. However, AND gate 18
Foot switch 1 connected to one input end of
0 is open, this input terminal becomes a low level through the resistor 19, and the output of the AND gate 18 does not become a high level. Therefore, the laser oscillation control shutter 2 is closed and the laser beam oscillates. There is no possibility that the laser beam will be emitted unexpectedly and undesirably cauterize human tissue.

Although the AND gate 18 is used in the above embodiment, the structure may be constructed as shown in FIG. 3 without using the AND gate 18. That is, the foot switch 10 is connected to a solenoid of an electromagnetic relay 22, and the first contact ₂₂₁ of this relay 22 is connected to the input terminal C of the control device and is also connected via a resistor 24 to a +5V power source. The signal output terminal D of the control device 15 is connected to the electromagnetic relay 2 via a buffer circuit 25.
Connected to solenoid 3. A shutter drive solenoid 21 is connected to a power supply V _CC through a contact of a relay 23 and a second contact 22 ₂ of a relay 22 . According to such a circuit, when the foot switch 10 is open, the relay 22 is deenergized and the first and second contacts 22 ₁ and 22 ₂ are open, so the output terminal D of the control device 15 becomes high level and the relay 23 Even if the relay 23 is activated and the contacts of the relay 23 are closed, no excitation current flows through the shutter solenoid 21 and the laser emission control shutter 2 is never opened.

As described above, according to the present invention, the laser beam is emitted only when both the signal from the foot switch and the signal from the control device are present at the same time. Laser light is not emitted unexpectedly due to runaway, and the safety of the laser device is improved.

In the above embodiment, the laser oscillation is controlled by a laser oscillation control shutter, but the laser oscillation may be performed continuously and the laser emission itself may be controlled by a shutter or a mirror shutter. Further, although a microprocessor is used as the control device, a hardware sequence circuit may be configured using TTL or the like to control laser emission.

The AND gate shown in FIG. 2 may be constructed using an IC such as TTL or a transistor.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block circuit diagram of a laser device using a laser emission control device according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a circuit diagram of the control section of FIG. 1, and FIG. 3 is another embodiment of the present invention. It is a circuit diagram of the control part of the laser emission control device according to. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1... Laser oscillator, 2... Laser oscillation control shutter, 3... Laser rod, 5... Excitation lamp, 6... Cooler, 7... Guide light oscillator, 8...
...Safety device, 9...Irradiation data setting switch, 1
0...Foot switch, 12...Error indicator, 1
3... Output indicator, 14... Irradiation data indicator,
15...Control device, 16...Microprocessor, 17...I/O circuit, 18...AND gate,
21... Shutter drive solenoid, 22, 23...
…relay.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An operation switch, a laser output control shutter that opens and closes to control laser emission and stop;
a signal output means for generating a signal based on a switch signal generated by the operation of the operation switch; and a signal output means for generating a signal based on a switch signal generated by the operation of the operation switch; A laser emission control device for a laser device, comprising driving means. 2. A laser emission control device for a laser apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said shutter driving means has an AND gate receiving said switch signal and a signal from said signal outputting means. 3. The shutter driving means has a first relay activated by the switch signal, a second relay activated by the signal from the signal output means, and the first relay.
and means for supplying a drive signal to the laser output control shutter when both the second relay and the second relay are activated simultaneously by the switch signal and the signal from the signal output means. A laser emission control device for the laser device according to item 1.