US-20260123820-A1 - HANDLE ASSEMBLY FOR USE IN A MEDICAL INSTRUMENT AND MEDICAL INSTRUMENT COMPRISING SUCH A HANDLE ASSEMBLY

US20260123820A1US 20260123820 A1US20260123820 A1US 20260123820A1US-20260123820-A1

Abstract

A handle assembly for use in a medical instrument. The handle assembly including: a sleeve which delimits an internal space thereof and is configured as a structural component; at least one electronic module housed in the internal space of the sleeve; and a heat spreader material configured to spread heat produced in the internal space of the sleeve on an outside of the sleeve. Wherein the heat spreader material is configured as part of an antenna system configured to establish wireless communication between the at least one electronic module and an external communication device.

Inventors

Andreas Mueckner
Sebastian Jungbauer

Assignees

OLYMPUS WINTER & IBE GMBH

Dates

Publication Date: 20260507
Application Date: 20251106
Priority Date: 20241107

Claims (15)

1 . A handle assembly for use in a medical instrument, the handle assembly comprising: a sleeve which delimits an internal space thereof and is configured as a structural component; at least one electronic module housed in the internal space of the sleeve; and a heat spreader material configured to spread heat produced in the internal space of the sleeve on an outside of the sleeve; wherein the heat spreader material is configured as part of an antenna system configured to establish wireless communication between the at least one electronic module and an external communication device.
2 . The handle assembly according to claim 1 , wherein a main part of the heat spreader material is configured as a ground plane of the antenna system and a second part of the heat spreader material is configured as a radiator part of the antenna system.
3 . The handle assembly according to claim 1 , wherein the heat spreader material is at least partially formed in a helical shape extending around the sleeve.
4 . The handle assembly according to claim 2 , wherein the main part is circular and the second part is helical.
5 . The handle assembly according to claim 2 , wherein the main part is circular and the second part is formed as one of a coil or a dual inverted F-shaped part.
6 . The handle assembly according to claim 1 , wherein the heat spreader material is formed as one of a shaped or slotted metal part and configured to be pushed over the sleeve.
7 . The handle assembly according to claim 1 , wherein the heat spreader material is formed by employing a 3D-MID method.
8 . The handle assembly according to claim 1 , wherein the antenna system is configured to transmit in one of a Sub-GHz ISM band at 868 MHz or at 2400 MHz.
9 . The handle assembly according claim 1 , wherein the at least one electronic module comprises one of a battery or is configured to monitor use conditions of the medical instrument by at least one sensor.
10 . The handle assembly according to claim 1 , wherein the sleeve is at least partially made from one of a plastic material, a composite material, a ceramic material or a metal material.
11 . The handle assembly according to claim 1 , further comprising an outer grip positioned outside each of the sleeve and the heat spreader material in a radial direction and configured to be gripped by a user.
12 . The handle assembly according to claim 11 , wherein the outer grip is formed of plastic.
13 . A medical instrument comprising the handle assembly according claim 1 .
14 . The medical instrument according to claim 13 , further comprising a light guide extending through the sleeve.
15 . The medical instrument according to claim 14 , wherein the light guide further comprises a fibre coupling assembly positioned at a longitudinal position of the handle assembly corresponding to the heat spreader material.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION The present application is based upon and claims the benefit of priority from EP 24 211 324.9 on Nov. 7, 2024, the entire contents of which is incorporated herein by reference. BACKGROUND Field The present disclosure relates to a handle assembly for use in a medical instrument, and more particularly, to a handle assembly for an endoscope, comprising a sleeve 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, and a heat spreader material configured to spread heat produced in the internal space of the sleeve on the outside of the sleeve. Furthermore, the present disclosure relates to a medical instrument, and more particularly, to an endoscope, comprising such a handle assembly. Prior Art It is known that inside the sleeves 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 materials outside of such sleeves 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 materials have oftentimes been implemented by sheet metals arranged around the sleeve 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 can be distributed and dissipated along the extension of the heat spreader material. 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(s) 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 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 device by an antenna system. In cases in which the above discussed heat spreader material 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. SUMMARY For these reasons, an object is 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 device. Accordingly, a handle assembly for use in a medical instrument, such as an endoscope is provided. The handle assembly comprising a sleeve 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, and a heat spreader material configured to spread heat produced in the internal space of the sleeve on the outside of the sleeve,