Patents by Inventor Franz Muchel

Franz Muchel has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 7492531
    Abstract: The invention is directed to an optical system with reduced chromatic aberration, particularly for use in microscopes for imaging the light source in the aperture diaphragm of a condenser. According to the invention, an adapter assembly is associated with a collector assembly. The adapter assembly has an apochromaticizing action and substantially reduces the chromatic aberration of the collector assembly and accordingly achieves the high aperture required on the lamp side for achieving high efficiency.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 2, 2004
    Date of Patent: February 17, 2009
    Assignee: Carl Zeiss MicroImaging GmbH
    Inventor: Franz Muchel
  • Patent number: 7289271
    Abstract: The invention relates to a tube lens unit that obtains a chromatically compensating effect when used with objectives having an infinite image distance and chromatic residual errors. The inventive tube lens unit fulfils the following conditions: CHL=CHLo?AT2mT?T=0??Equation (1) CHV=CHVo?1000?mT?Td1=0??Equation (2) where CHL is the longitudinal chromatic aberration of the combination of tube lens unit plus objective, CHLo is the longitudinal chromatic aberration of the objective, CHV is the chromatic difference of magnification of the combination of tube lens unit plus objective, CHVo is the chromatic difference of magnification of the objective.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 28, 2006
    Date of Patent: October 30, 2007
    Assignee: Carl Zeiss Jena GmbH
    Inventor: Franz Muchel
  • Publication number: 20070171518
    Abstract: The invention is directed to an optical system with reduced chromatic aberration, particularly for use in microscopes for imaging the light source in the aperture diaphragm of a condenser. According to the invention, an adapter assembly is associated with a collector assembly. The adapter assembly has an apochromaticizing action and substantially reduces the chromatic aberration of the collector assembly and accordingly achieves the high aperture required on the lamp side for achieving high efficiency.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 2, 2004
    Publication date: July 26, 2007
    Applicant: CARL ZEISS JENA GMBH
    Inventor: Franz Muchel
  • Publication number: 20070146872
    Abstract: An optical microscope can be converted by the user quickly with a few movements of the hand so that it can be used as an upright variant or as an inverted variant. The required optical elements are accommodated in components that can be mechanically separated from one another and variously combined. The optical system is calculated in such a way that an upright microscope with vertical illumination or transmitted illumination or an inverted microscope with vertical illumination or transmitted illumination results when the components are combined in the required manner by interfaces provided for this purpose.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 4, 2004
    Publication date: June 28, 2007
    Applicant: CARL ZEISS JENA GmbH
    Inventors: Thomas Bocher, Hans Tandler, Hubert Wahl, Hans Brinkmann, Reiner Mitzkus, Franz Muchel, Harald Schadwinkel, Peter Gretscher
  • Publication number: 20060285219
    Abstract: The invention relates to a tubular lens unit that obtains a chromatically compensating effect when used with objectives having an infinite image distance and chromatic residual errors.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 28, 2006
    Publication date: December 21, 2006
    Inventor: Franz Muchel
  • Publication number: 20040240048
    Abstract: A microscope tube comprises a housing (1) having a lower housing part (3) and an upper housing part (2), input optics (9) mounted on the lower housing part (3), which are provided for coupling to an infinite optical path of a microscope, a tube lens (12) mounted in the upper housing part (2), which is arranged on a common optical axis (OA1) with the input optics (9) and combines ray pencils supplied by the input optics (9) in an intermediate image, so that a finite optical path is formed between the tube lens (12) and the intermediate image, and a prism unit (13) mounted in the upper housing part (2) and arranged following the tube lens (12), said prism unit (13) deflecting the further optical path (OA2) by a solid angle of between 65° and 75° and being arranged in the finite optical path such that the intermediate image is viewable without further intermediate imaging by binocular optics (4) mountable on the upper housing part (2), said upper housing part (2) and said lower housing part (3) being mut
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 13, 2004
    Publication date: December 2, 2004
    Inventors: Peter Dietrich, Franz Muchel, Axel Freerk, Hans Brinkmann
  • Patent number: 5488512
    Abstract: The invention is directed to a color corrected ocular having a very simple configuration and excellent correction characteristics. The ocular includes a single lens at the eye end with the single lens having an aspherical surface r.sub.2 and a two-element composite lens (2, 3). The surface r.sub.3 of the composite lens adjacent to the aspherical surface r.sub.2 is a planar surface. In another embodiment, the composite lens includes a planar-convex lens 2 and a planar-concave lens 3 which are cemented to each other at respective convex and concave surfaces. The spacing d.sub.1 between the single lens 1 and the exit pupil 4 is sufficiently large so that the ocular is also suitable for a wearer of spectacles.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 28, 1994
    Date of Patent: January 30, 1996
    Assignee: Carl-Zeiss-Stiftung
    Inventor: Franz Muchel
  • Patent number: 5103341
    Abstract: An UV-capable dry objective for microscopes in which aperture aberration is corrected, at the same time, both for the visible spectrum and for a selected UV-wavelength. The objective comprises two lens groups separated by an air gap which is varied in size by relative movement between the two lens groups. The size of the air gap is adjusted to correct aperture aberration for the selected UV-wavelength. The objective is designed so that the mathematical sign is the same for both (i) the corrections required as the illumination moves toward the longer-wave portion of the visible spectrum, and (ii) for the corrections required as the illumination moves toward the shorter-wave portion of the UV-spectrum. The objective has an aperture of at least 0.7 and a magnification of more than 60.times..
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 15, 1990
    Date of Patent: April 7, 1992
    Assignee: Carl-Zeis-Stiftung
    Inventors: Wilhelm Ulrich, Franz Muchel
  • Patent number: 5032011
    Abstract: The invention is directed to a transmitted-light illuminating arrangement having a condenser including one or two lenses. A glass sphere is selected as the front lens for the condenser. The illuminating arrangement permits Kohler illuminating conditions to be set and yet has a simple configuration which can be economically produced.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 24, 1990
    Date of Patent: July 16, 1991
    Assignee: Carl-Zeiss-Stiftung
    Inventor: Franz Muchel
  • Patent number: 4863249
    Abstract: For the imaging of a diode line, a catadioptric objective system is provided. The diode line to be imaged is located between a concave mirror of exactly or approximately spherical shape (possibly with aspherical correction deviating from the theoretical shperical shape) and an objective, usually comprising a plurality of members. One or more surfaces of the objective may be aspherical. The concave mirror produces a reduced image of the diode line on the front focus of the objective.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 26, 1988
    Date of Patent: September 5, 1989
    Assignee: Carl-Zeiss Stiftung
    Inventor: Franz Muchel
  • Patent number: 4786161
    Abstract: In an instrument for the examination and surgery of the eye, an ophthalmological objective is combined with an operation microscope whose main objective is combined with an optical system of variable back focus and focal length. Every plane of the eye lying between the cornea and the fundus is imaged by the instrument at an intermediate image plane. In this way, with a single instrument, the operator can carry out work on the cornea, the eye lens, the vitreous body, and the retina. Since the instrument provides the observer with a reflection-free image, contact of the eye to be operated upon with an optical auxiliary means which eliminates the refractive power is unnecessary.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 1, 1986
    Date of Patent: November 22, 1988
    Assignee: Carl-Zeiss-Stiftung
    Inventors: Ortwin Muller, Albrecht Vogel, Ulrich Lemcke, Gerhard Hanemann, Fritz Strahle, Franz Muchel, Erich Blaha
  • Patent number: 4691997
    Abstract: A compact microscope tube which provides an image which is right-way up and right-way round, and which permits the placing of attachments such as cameras in locations which do not impede the normal movements of the person using the microscope for observation. A first concave reflecting mirror (7) is arranged behind a tube lens (11) and serves to fold an initially vertical light path downwardly at an acute angle, while a second flat mirror (8) further folds it toward the eyepiece attachment location (21) An optical system (12) between the first and second mirrors again forms an intermediate image of the object (20) in the eyepiece cups (28a and 28b).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 24, 1986
    Date of Patent: September 8, 1987
    Assignee: Carl-Zeiss-Stiftung
    Inventor: Franz Muchel
  • Patent number: 4669839
    Abstract: A combined observation and laser therapy instrument having an optical system which is fully compensated for the difference in focus of the laser radiation and the observation light.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 24, 1984
    Date of Patent: June 2, 1987
    Assignee: Carl-Zeiss-Stiftung
    Inventor: Franz Muchel
  • Patent number: 4606617
    Abstract: An adapter which may be employed in place of the main objective of a surgical microscope or other stereoscopic viewing microscope. The adapter housing contains two viewing objectives laterally separated from each other to define separate right-eye and left-eye viewing ray paths, and a separate illumination ray objective. A mirror behind this third objective deflects beams or rays of incoming illuminating light or laser radiation, coming from any appropriate source, so that it will pass through the third objective toward the object being viewed. The mirror is mounted for tilting movement in all directions, so that it may receive and properly direct light beams or laser radiation coming in from any appropriate direction. Prisms behind the two viewing objectives narrow the spacing of the two observation ray paths (e.g., to normal interpupillary distance) although the centers of the two observation objectives may be at a greater distance from each other, to provide a larger stereoscopic base.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 1, 1984
    Date of Patent: August 19, 1986
    Assignee: Carl-Zeiss-Stiftung
    Inventor: Franz Muchel
  • Patent number: 4525042
    Abstract: In an optical system of variable focal and back-focal length for operation microscopes, an objective of fixed focal length is combined with an optical system of variable focal length consisting of two lens groups, the first lens group of which is displaceable. The objective projects a real, virtual, or infinity image of the object and the displaceably arranged lens group of the optical system of variable focal length images the image projected by the objective into the focal point of the second lens group of the system. The second lens group consists of two parts which are displaceable in the direction of their optical axis in order to adjust the focal length of the microscope.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 5, 1983
    Date of Patent: June 25, 1985
    Assignee: Carl-Zeiss-Stiftung
    Inventor: Franz Muchel
  • Patent number: 4523821
    Abstract: In a device for examining anterior sections of the eye, based on the Scheimpflug principle, an electric receiver is provided in the imaging-beam path for electronic evaluation of results of the examination. Various meridian sections in the patient's eye are produced by means of a rotatable prism. A fixation object and a graticule in the illumination beam path enable easy reproducibility of measurement results, as well as facilitating follow-up examinations which seek to observe the same eye for changes, from one examination to a later examination.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 7, 1982
    Date of Patent: June 18, 1985
    Assignee: Carl-Zeiss-Stiftung
    Inventors: Walter Lang, Dieter Muller, Franz Muchel, Roland Wanner, Peter Niesel
  • Patent number: 4518231
    Abstract: A stereomicroscope in which the axes of the two stereo channels are guided in parallel behind the objective assembly. Two different embodiments of the objective assembly are disclosed. One embodiment contains a common main objective for both individual stereoscopic pencils as well as a pair of wedge prisms of dispersive action to correct for the chromatic aberration in the direction of the stereo base which is produced as a result of the eccentric passage of the individual pencils through the objective. The second embodiment comprises a pair of individual objectives (Greenough type) which are inclined to each other, as well as a pair of a chromatic wedge prisms in order to adapt the angle of inclination of the objectives to the parallel passage of the beam in the tube.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 2, 1983
    Date of Patent: May 21, 1985
    Assignee: Carl-Zeiss-Stiftung
    Inventors: Franz Muchel, Fritz Strahle
  • Patent number: 4465348
    Abstract: A compact apparatus for the subjective and objective determination of refraction of the eyes of a person. Two projection ray paths (6, 7), separated in space from each other, are provided, both ray paths containing systems (10, 11) for the continuous adjustment of spherical and astigmatic effects. Together with an optical telesystem (15) and the lenses of the eye they focus a test mark (3) on the retina of each of the eyes (18, 20) of the test subject. The light reflected by the retina passes via mirrors (14) into observation ray paths (21). They focus the retina and thus the test mark (3) in an image plane (30). The adjustment systems are displaced until the images of the test mark appear sharp in the image plane (30). After such an objective determination it is possible by actuating the same adjustment elements (10, 11) to adjust subjectively until the test subject sees the test mark with optimum sharpness.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 24, 1981
    Date of Patent: August 14, 1984
    Assignee: Carl-Zeiss-Stiftung
    Inventors: Walter Lang, Franz Muchel, Erich Blaha
  • Patent number: 4427269
    Abstract: In articulated optical systems, rotation of the image takes place due to the articulations. The invention eliminates this disadvantage by producing a signal whose polarity is dependent on the direction of rotation in which the image produced in the observation plane (64) is turned with respect to the object. By the signal, a compensation element (72) arranged in the articulated optical system is turned until the signal has disappeared. Two devices are disclosed for producing the signal: 1. At the start of the articulated optical system a mark (16) is introduced by reflection, it being focused at the end of the articulated optical system on a sensor (67). 2. On all articulations there are arranged position transmitters (111,112, etc.) which are connected with a minicomputer (130) which calculates the resultant image rotation and gives off a corresponding signal via a digital analog converter (131).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 25, 1981
    Date of Patent: January 24, 1984
    Assignee: Carl-Zeiss-Stiftung
    Inventors: Walter Lang, Erich Blaha, Roland Schmauder, Franz Muchel
  • Patent number: 4420219
    Abstract: A device for connecting first and second light guides to an external part. Each of the light guides extend into a housing which includes a converging aspheric plano-convex lens. The lenses are mounted so that the focal point of the lens is located at the end surface of the light guide and the aspheric surface of the lens faces the light guide. The planar surface of the lens forms a coupling surface to support immersion fluid for connection to the external part.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 17, 1981
    Date of Patent: December 13, 1983
    Assignee: Carl-Zeiss-Stiftung
    Inventor: Franz Muchel