Accommodative Intraocular Lens Elastic Deformation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current intraocular lenses struggle to mimic the natural accommodation process of the eye, particularly in older patients who have lost the ability to exert accommodative muscle forces effectively, leading to difficulties in focusing on near objects.
Innovation Solution
An accommodative intraocular lens design featuring a deformable inner core with exposed anterior and posterior surfaces that reshape in response to ciliary muscle tension, altering optical properties to facilitate near vision, with an interface between the outer and inner lens portions that efficiently drives deformation, allowing for incremental accommodation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If a mechanically driven accommodation device is used to drive a small central portion axially in response to ciliary muscle tensing, then accommodation function is restored, but device complexity becomes extraordinarily complex
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces complex mechanical driving devices with a purely optical solution. The accommodative lens uses the natural tensing of ciliary muscles to directly alter lens shape through elastic deformation of the lens material, eliminating the need for mechanical actuators, motors, or complex transmission mechanisms. This substitution of mechanical systems with elastic-deformation-based optical adjustment resolves the contradiction between restoring accommodation function and avoiding extraordinary device complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The lens design enables the ciliary muscles to directly perform the accommodation function without requiring additional mechanical driving components. The lens material's elastic properties allow it to self-adjust its shape in response to muscle tensing, making the system self-sufficient and eliminating the need for complex external control mechanisms.
2Adaptability or versatility
If an intraocular lens with a relatively rigid outer portion and a relatively highly deformable inner core is used, then optical properties can be altered by peripheral compression, but the lens may not be incrementally responsive to accommodative muscle tension in a manner similar to the natural lens
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by creating a lens with non-uniform material properties - a highly deformable elastic core surrounded by a more rigid outer portion. This local differentiation allows the central region to be highly responsive to accommodative forces while the peripheral region provides structural stability and maintains optical quality. The gradient in material stiffness enables incremental response to varying muscle tension levels, mimicking the natural lens's behavior more closely than uniform materials could achieve.
Solution Approach 2:
The lens employs composite material construction with an elastic deformable core material and a more rigid outer lens material. This composite structure combines the advantages of both materials: the elastic core provides incremental deformability and responsiveness to accommodative forces, while the rigid outer portion maintains overall lens shape and optical integrity. The interface between materials is designed to efficiently transmit accommodative forces from the periphery to the core, enabling natural-like incremental adjustment.
3Adaptability or versatility
If the inner lens portion is made softer than the outer lens portion to allow deformation, then near vision is improved, but the lens may lose structural stability
Solution Approach 1:
The lens is segmented into distinct functional zones: a soft elastic inner core for deformation and a more rigid outer portion for structural support. This segmentation allows each region to perform its specialized function - the core provides accommodative deformability while the outer shell maintains structural integrity and stable optical surfaces. The segmented design resolves the contradiction by distributing different mechanical requirements to different spatial regions.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements local quality through spatial variation in material stiffness - soft and elastic in the central core region for accommodative deformation, and more rigid in the peripheral outer portion for structural stability. This local differentiation of material properties enables the lens to simultaneously achieve deformability where needed and stability where required, resolving the contradiction between adaptability and structural integrity.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The lens effectively simulates natural accommodation by steepening both anterior and posterior inner optic surfaces, enhancing near vision clarity and power, thus addressing the challenge of presbyopia in aging eyes.
Implementation Method 1
The inner lens portion is formed of a soft deformable resilient material... Compression at the peripheral edge of the outer lens portion, compresses the inner lens portion, such that the exposed anterior inner optic surface and the exposed posterior inner optic surface each steepen in shape
Implementation Method 2
Compression at the peripheral edge of the outer lens portion, compresses the inner lens portion, such that the exposed anterior inner optic surface and the exposed posterior inner optic surface each steepen in shape
Data Source
AI summary
An accommodative intraocular lens having a soft deformable resilient inner lens portion or core with an exposed anterior inner optic surface and exposed posterior optic surface, the surfaces responsively becoming simultaneously optically steeper and moving axially away from each other. The exposed anterior and posterior surfaces of the inner lens portions may be spherically shaped or aspherically shaped and the shape of the outer lens portion may be spherically or aspherically shaped.