Abstract: A surgical tool that can be used for both cauterizing and cutting during a surgical procedure. The surgical tool may include a tip having an edge for cutting and electrodes formed at or near the edge for cauterizing. The electrodes are configured to be in electrical contact with a contact electrode passing through a handle of the surgical tool. An electrical current may be passed through the contact electrode to the electrodes formed at or near the edge of the tip.

Abstract: A method and system is described that greatly improves the safety and efficacy of ophthalmic laser surgery. The method and system are applicable to precise operations on a target subject to movement during the procedure. The system may comprise the following elements: (1) a user interface, (2) an imaging system, which may include a surgical microscope, (3) an automated tracking system that can follow the movements of an eye, (4) a laser, (5) a diagnostic system, and (6) a fast reliable safety means, for automatically interrupting the laser firing.

Abstract: A method, apparatus and system for template-controlled, precision laser interventions is described that greatly improves interventions such as laser microsurgery, particularly ophthalmic surgery, and industrial micromachining. The instrument and system are applicable to those specialties wherein the positioning accuracy of laser lesions is critical, such as whenever precise operations on a target or series of targets subject to movement during the procedure are to be effected. The system includes a user interface, wherein the user can either draw, adjust, or designate particular template patterns overlaid on a live video images of the target (such as the cornea) which are stabilized and produce an apparently stationary display of the target and provide the means for converting the template pattern into a sequence of automatic motion instructions to direct a laser beam to be sequentially applied replicating the designated template pattern into the corresponding surgical or industrial site.

Abstract: A method, apparatus and system for template-controlled, precision laser interventions is described that greatly improves the accuracy, speed, range, reliability, versatility, safety, and efficacy of interventions such as laser microsurgery, particularly ophthalmic surgery, and industrial micromachining. The instrument and system are applicable to those specialties wherein the positioning accuracy of laser lesions is critical, wherever accurate containment of the spatial extent of a laser lesion is desirable, and/or whenever precise operations on a target or series of targets subject to movement during the procedure are to be effected. A key object of the present invention is to implement a fully integrated approach based on a number of different instrumental functions all operating in concert within a single, fully automated unit. Each of the complementary, and at times competing, functions requires its own technologies and corresponding subassemblies.

Abstract: A method and system is described that greatly improves the safety and efficacy of ophthalmic laser surgery. The method and system are applicable to precise operations on a target subject to movement during the procedure. The system may comprise the following elements: (1) a user interface, (2) an imaging system, which may include a surgical microscope, (3) an automated tracking system that can follow the movements of an eye, (4) a laser, (5) a diagnostic system, and (6) a fast reliable safety means, for automatically interrupting the laser firing.

Abstract: A method, apparatus and system for template-controlled, precision laser interventions is described that greatly improves the accuracy, speed, range, reliability, versatility, safety, and efficacy of interventions such as laser microsurgery, particularly ophthalmic surgery, and industrial micromachining. The instrument and system are applicable to those specialties wherein the positioning accuracy of laser lesions is critical, wherever accurate containment of the spatial extent of a laser lesion is desirable, and/or whenever precise operations on a target or series of targets subject to movement during the procedure are to be effected. A key object of the present invention is to implement a fully integrated approach based on a number of different instrumental functions all operating in concert within a single, fully automated unit. Each of the complementary, and at times competing, functions requires its own technologies and corresponding subassemblies.

Abstract: A method, apparatus and system for template-controlled, precision laser interventions is described that greatly improves the accuracy, speed, range, reliability, versatility, safety, and efficacy of interventions such as laser microsurgery, particularly ophthalmic surgery, and industrial micromachining. The instrument and system are applicable to those specialties wherein the positioning accuracy of laser lesions is critical, wherever accurate containment of the spatial extent of a laser lesion is desirable, and/or whenever precise operations on a target or series of targets subject to movement during the procedure are to be effected.

Abstract: In a laser beam delivery system for a surgical laser beam, steering and scanning of the laser beam along the target in transverse (X and Y) directions is accomplished in a mechanically simple and fast-responding manner. Closely adjacent to the objective lens assembly of the delivery system is a pair of prisms, i.e. a Risley prism or Herschel prism, positioned on the axis of the approaching laser beam. The two prisms, closely spaced, are mounted on separate rotating stages whereby they may be individually rotated about the beam axis. When the prisms are co-rotated, circular scans are produced on the target, in diameters depending on the angular phase between the prisms. Counter rotation of the prisms at equal and opposite speeds will produce a diametric line scan on the target. Any desired complex scan pattern can be achieved using combinations of rotations of the two prisms.

Abstract: A system and method for detecting, measuring and correcting for movements of a target in a medical analytic or surgical system utilizes generally the principles of confocal microscopy. A pinhole and photodetector combination is positioned behind optics of a system for delivering an ophthalmic surgery laser beam, for example. As in a confocal microscope, the optics are arranged such that a beam waist is formed precisely at the pinhole when the target is in its nominal position. When the target moves from its nominal position in the depth direction, the signal from the pinhole/photodetector combination decreases. The change in the signal can be used to drive the objective lens of the optics so as to move with the moving target. Alternatively, the signal can be used to drive the pinhole/photodetector assembly so as to again attain peak signal, in this way allowing the target's shift to be measured.

Abstract: An improved apparatus and technique are disclosed for illuminating the cornea with points of light for analysis of the specularly reflected return light in determining the shape of the cornea. In combination with an optical illumination system which forms real images of points of light inside or in the path of the objective lens, the system of the invention includes a plurality of real light source points optically peripheral to the real image points and physically outside to the objective lens. The sources of the point light sources may be optical fibers or LEDs arranged in an array which optically extends radially outward from the objective lens, although the external points may be forward or back from the objective lens. The two types of point light sources are generally registered in a pattern and together form an ordered geometric array for providing paraxial reflections off the cornea over a wide area of the cornea, including both central and peripheral areas of the cornea.

Abstract: A system and method for detecting, measuring and correcting for movements of a target in a medical analytic or surgical system utilizes generally the principles of confocal microscopy. A pinhole and photodetector combination is positioned behind optics of a system for delivering an ophthalmic surgery laser beam, for example. As in a confocal microscope, the optics are arranged such that a beam waist is formed precisely at the pinhole when the target is in its nominal position. When the target moves from its nominal position in the depth direction, the signal from the pinhole/photodetector combination decreases. The change in the signal can be used to drive the objective lens of the optics so as to move with the moving target. Alternatively, the signal can be used to drive the pinhole/photodetector assembly so as to again attain peak signal, in this way allowing the target's shift to be measured.

Abstract: A distributed-feedback dye laser having a tuning mirror for reflecting a pumping beam onto an impinging region of a dye cell. A four-link equilateral-parallelogram structure pivotally attached to the mirror is adjustable to translate the tuning mirror along the path of the pumping beam incident on the mirror while simultaneously changing the angular orientation of the mirror. The pumping beam reflected from the tuning mirror is directed toward a predetermined point for all positions of adjustment whereby the beam impinges generally the same region of the dye cell for a wide range of incident angles. The dye cell impinged by the pumping beam may also have a surface, through which the generated laser beam is transmitted, oblique to the laser beam and perpendicular to the dye cell region impinged by the pumping beam.

Abstract: A device for separating a shorter-wavelength component of a combination-wavelength beam from an orthoganally polarized, longer wavelength component. A combination beam generator produces such a beam which is directed into a positive uniaxial crystal having an input face, an output face, and a pair of parallel faces. Each of the faces is parallel to the crystal axis. The beam enters the crystal through the input face in a predetermined orientation and impinges on the pair of parallel faces at angles greater than the critical angle of the shorter component wavelength and less than the critical angle of the longer component wavelength. The shorter wavelength component is internally reflected on the pair of parallel faces until it exits from the output face. The longer wavelength component is partially externally transmitted at each point of reflection of the shorter wavelength components.

Abstract: A Q-switched/mode-locked Nd:YAG laser oscillator employing simultaneous active (electro-optic) and passive (saturable absorber) loss modulation within the optical cavity is described. This "dual modulation" oscillator can produce transform-limited pulses of duration ranging from about 30 psec to about 5 nsec with greatly improved stability compared to other mode-locked systems. The pulses produced by this system lack intrapulse frequency or amplitude modulation, and hence are idealy suited for amplification to high energies and for other applications where well-defined pulses are required. Also, the pulses of this system have excellent interpulse characteristics, wherein the optical noise between the individual pulses of the pulse train has a power level well below the power of the peak pulse of the train.