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EP-4740828-A1 - HANDLE ASSEMBLY FOR USE IN A MEDICAL INSTRUMENT AND MEDICAL INSTRUMENT COMPRISING SUCH A HANDLE ASSEMBLY

EP4740828A1EP 4740828 A1EP4740828 A1EP 4740828A1EP-4740828-A1

Abstract

The present invention relates to a handle assembly (10) for use in a medical instrument, in particular an endoscope, comprising a sleave element (12) which delimits an internal space (14) thereof and serves as a structural component, at least one electronic module (16) housed in the internal space (14) of the sleave element (12), and a heat spreader element (20) which is adapted to spread heat produced in the internal space (14) of the sleave element (12) on the outside of the sleave element (12), wherein the heat spreader (20) element also serves as part of an antenna system which is adapted to establish wireless communication between the at least one electronic module (16) and an external communication unit. The invention also relates to a medical instrument, in particular an endoscope, comprising such a handle assembly.

Inventors

  • Mückner, Andreas
  • JUNGBAUER, SEBASTIAN

Assignees

  • Olympus Surgical Technologies Europe

Dates

Publication Date
20260513
Application Date
20241107

Claims (13)

  1. Handle assembly (10) for use in a medical instrument, in particular an endoscope, comprising: - a sleave element (12) which delimits an internal space (14) thereof and serves as a structural component; - at least one electronic module (16) housed in the internal space (14) of the sleave element (12); and - a heat spreader element (20) which is adapted to spread heat produced in the internal space (14) of the sleave element (12) on the outside of the sleave element (12); characterized in that the heat spreader (20) element also serves as part of an antenna system which is adapted to establish wireless communication between the at least one electronic module (16) and an external communication unit.
  2. Handle assembly (10) according to claim 1, wherein a main part (20a) of the heat spreader element (20) serves as a ground plane of the antenna system and a second part (20b, 20c, 20d, 20e) thereof serves as a radiator part of the antenna system (20).
  3. Handle assembly (10) according to any of the preceding claims, wherein the heat spreader (20) element is at least partially formed in a helical shape extending around the sleave element.
  4. Handle assembly (10) according to claims 2 and 3, wherein the heat spreader element (20) comprises a circular main part (20a) serving as the ground plane of the antenna system (20) and a second helical part (20b) serving as the radiator part of the antenna system (20).
  5. Handle assembly (10) according to claim 2, wherein the heat spreader element (20) comprises a circular main part (20a) serving as the ground plane of the antenna system (20) and a second part (20b, 20c, 20d) serving as the radiator part of the antenna system (20) is formed as a coil or a dual inverted F-shaped part.
  6. Handle assembly (10) according to any of the preceding claims, wherein the heat spreader element (20) is formed as a shaped or slotted metal part and pushed over the sleave element (12).
  7. Handle assembly (10) according to any of the preceding claims, wherein the heat spreader element (20) is formed by employing a 3D-MID method.
  8. Handle assembly (10) according to any of the preceding claims, wherein the antenna system (20) is adapted to transmit in a Sub-GHz ISM band at 868 MHz and/or at 2400 MHz.
  9. Handle assembly (10) according to any of the preceding claims, wherein the at least one electronic module (16) comprises a battery and/or is adapted to monitor use conditions of the medical instrument by means of at least one sensor unit.
  10. Handle assembly (10) according to any of the preceding claims, wherein the sleave element (12) is at least partially made from a plastic material, a composite material, a ceramic material or a metal material.
  11. Handle assembly (10) according to any of the preceding claims, further comprising an outer grip portion (22), preferably made of a plastic material, which is positioned outside of the sleave element (12) and the heat spreader element (20) in a radial direction and adapted to be gripped by a user of the medical instrument.
  12. Medical instrument, in particular endoscope, comprising a handle assembly (10) according to any of the preceding claims.
  13. Medical instrument according to the preceding claim, further comprising a light guide element (18) extending through the sleave element, in particular comprising a fibre coupling assembly (18a) positioned at a longitudinal position corresponding to the heat spreader element (20).

Description

The present invention relates to a handle assembly for use in a medical instrument, in particular an endoscope, comprising a sleeve element which delimits an internal space thereof and serves as a structural component, at least one electronic module housed in the internal space of the sleeve element, and a heat spreader element which is adapted to spread heat produced in the internal space of the sleeve element on the outside of the sleeve element. Furthermore, the invention relates to a medical instrument, in particular an endoscope, comprising such a handle assembly. It is known that inside the sleave elements of handle assemblies of medical instruments, heat may be produced which has to be dissipated, for example due to light guides of endoscopes passing through their handle assemblies and in particular fibre couplings being positioned in such handle assemblies which produce a substantial amount of waste heat in small areas such that hot spots inside the handle assembly could occur which might damage its structure and/or impair its functionality. For these reasons, it is known in the art to position heat spreader elements outside of such sleeve elements which spread the heat produced in certain small areas or hot spots along the extension of the handle in order to prevent localized high temperatures in the corresponding positions as well as large temperature gradients along the respective handles. Such heat spreader elements have oftentimes been implemented by sheet metal elements arranged around the sleeve element delimiting the internal space of the handle assembly such that any temperature gradient originating from certain points or small areas of heat production inside the sleeve element can be distributed and dissipated along the extension of the heat spreader element. On the other hand, there has been a recent development that certain electronic modules are to be positioned inside the internal space of such handle assemblies, for example sensor units with corresponding processing devices which may detect usage states of the respective medical instruments and provide information representing the usage states to an external device. One such use case may for example be accelerometer data gathered by an electronic module located inside the handle assembly which may be monitored in order to detect unwanted drops or impacts on the instrument. In such configurations and in particular in use cases in which the corresponding at least one electronic module housed in the internal space of the sleeve element is also to be operated in configurations in which the medical instrument is not connected to a superordinate or external structure by means of communication lines, it can be necessary to establish a wireless communication between the at least one electronic module and an external communication unit by means of an antenna system. In cases in which the above discussed heat spreader element made of a metal material is provided in a handle assembly also comprising an antenna system, such an internal antenna would be shielded which would drastically reduce its performance. On the other hand, varying the positioning of such antennas in the handle assembly might result in undefined radiation characteristics thereof. It also has to be kept in mind in this context that the size of an antenna is primarily determined by its transmission wavelength and the lower the frequency, the larger the dimensions of the antenna have to be. The minimum size of the antenna and its mass surface is determined by the lowest frequency in the application and for this reason, devices with integrated antennas cannot arbitrarily be reduced in size without degradation of antenna performance. It also has to be acknowledged that the size of the required ground plane for such an antenna system should also be around the same size as the actual active part thereof which is in conflict with the available space for using a printed circuit board in handle assemblies of typical medical instruments such as endoscopes. For these reasons, it is the object of the present invention to provide an improved handle assembly which on the one hand allows for spreading heat produced inside its internal space and on the other hand facilitates wireless communication of at least one electronic module housed in its internal space to an external communication unit. In order to achieve this object and overcome the above discussed shortcomings of the known prior art, the present invention proposes a handle assembly for use in a medical instrument, in particular an endoscope, comprising a sleeve element which delimits an internal space thereof and serves as a structural component, at least one electronic module housed in the internal space of the sleeve element, and a heat spreader element which is adapted to spread heat produced in the internal space of the sleeve element on the outside of the sleeve element, wherein the heat spreader element also serves as part of a