Composite Light Adjustable Intraocular Lens Diffractive Structure
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current intraocular lenses (IOLs) face challenges such as post-surgical misalignments and uneven healing, leading to suboptimal medical outcomes, despite advancements in cataract surgery techniques. Existing light adjustable IOLs can be improved by combining the benefits of acrylic and silicone materials to enhance material properties and haptic designs, addressing issues like 'springiness' and manufacturing costs.
Innovation Solution
A composite light adjustable intraocular lens comprising an acrylic diffractive IOL with integrated haptics and a silicone light adjustable lens, featuring a diffractive structure that produces multiple focal points and suppresses certain diffractive orders to redistribute energy, allowing for post-surgical adjustments and improved optical performance.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If a light adjustable IOL is made from silicone material, then the lens can be adjusted post-surgically, but the lens exhibits springiness and lacks control during implantation
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines silicone material (providing light adjustability) with acrylic material (providing stability and control) to create a composite IOL. The acrylic portion maintains structural integrity and ease of implantation, while the silicone portion enables post-surgical optical power adjustment through photopolymerization.
2Adaptability or versatility
If a diffractive structure is designed to produce multiple focal points, then vision correction across multiple ranges is improved, but energy is distributed across multiple orders reducing efficiency
Solution Approach 1:
The diffractive structure is designed with varying local properties across different zones. Specific diffractive orders are enhanced or suppressed by adjusting the local depth and spacing of diffractive steps in different regions of the lens, allowing optimal energy distribution to near, intermediate, and distance focal points.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent modifies the physical parameters of the diffractive structure, specifically the depth and spacing of diffractive steps, to control the diffraction efficiency of different orders. By changing these parameters, the lens optimizes energy distribution to achieve balanced multi-focal vision correction.
3Manufacturing precision
If pre-surgical diagnostics are performed to determine optimal IOL placement, then surgical precision is improved, but post-surgical misalignment still occurs due to uneven healing
Solution Approach 1:
The IOL transitions from a static optical element to a dynamic one that can be adjusted after implantation. The light-adjustable silicone portion allows post-surgical modification of optical power to compensate for alignment deviations caused by uneven healing or capsular bag changes, ensuring long-term visual quality.
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 composite lens provides enhanced control and predictability during surgery, reduces misalignment issues, and offers adjustable optical power, leading to improved surgical outcomes and increased market acceptance of advanced IOLs by ensuring optimal vision correction and reduced chromatic aberration.
Implementation Method 1
The diffractive structure produces constructive interference in at least four consecutive diffractive orders corresponding a range of vision between near and distance vision
Implementation Method 2
the constructive interference produces a near focal point, a distance focal point corresponding to the base power of the ophthalmic lens, and an intermediate focal point between the near focal point and the distance focal point
Implementation Method 3
These lenses involve light sensitive materials that photopolymerize upon activation by an irradiation. Irradiation with a carefully designed radial profile initiates the photopolymerization with a corresponding radial profile, which, in turn, leads to the IOL changing its physical shape and therefore, its optical power.
Data Source
AI summary
A composite light adjustable intraocular lens comprises an acrylic diffractive intraocular lens, having a diffractive structure and haptics; and a silicone light adjustable lens, attached to the acrylic diffractive intraocular lens. The diffractive structure produces constructive interference in at least four consecutive diffractive orders corresponding a range of vision between near and distance vision, wherein the constructive interference produces a near focal point, a distance focal point corresponding to the base power of the ophthalmic lens, and an intermediate focal point between the near focal point and the distance focal point and wherein a diffraction efficiency of at least one of the diffractive orders is suppressed to less than ten percent.