Patent Grant
11123573
The present disclosure refers to a skin or hair treatment device for emitting, e.g. high intense, treatment light with an integrated sensor comprising a sensor light source (preferably a light source such as a laser diode or light emitting diode) and a light detector. Further, the present disclosure refers to a method for manufacturing such a skin or hair treatment device.
The skin or hair treatment device may be a hair management device, in particular an intense pulsed light (IPL) hair management device such as a hair removal device. By irradiating the intense light onto the skin surface and the hair, the intense light targets to the pigment melanin in the hair follicle helping to put the hair to sleep and to stop or reduce growth of the hair. The light is absorbed by the melanin and thereby converted to heat. The local heat development leads to obliteration of the root of the hair. The skin or hair treatment or hair removal device is a household appliance for a use by a private user.
WO 2017/134553 A1 discloses such a skin or hair treatment device comprising one or more additional sensors for measuring a skin property. Further, WO 2006/005443 A2 describes a device for reducing hair growth on a subject. The device comprises a housing having an opening to allow radiation to pass there through, a treatment light source disposed within the housing, a sensor light source disposed within the housing, and an optical sensor. The said optical sensor is arranged for detecting the reflection and scattering properties of the subject at the treatment location from a reflected and scattered sensor beam emitted by the sensor light source. To this aim, the optical sensor is conductively linked to the sensor light source and the treatment light source such that the treatment light source and the sensor light source share at least a portion of an optical path disposed within the housing. The optical sensor might comprise a mechanical or optical movement sensor and a sensor for skin recognition based on optical properties of the skin (reflection and scattering).
Known skin or hair treatment devices typically have the sensor system arranged aside the treatment window, e.g. capacitive contact sensor around the window or optical skin reflection measurement beneath or aside the window with one or two measuring areas. This design has the advantage that the light source and the sensor system are not directly connected such that they do not mechanically interfere. On the other hand, this design has a drawback in that the skin color and skin contact is measured at a skin area beneath the area of treatment. This can cause under certain conditions risk of injury by the treatment light, e.g. treating a large dark spot/tattoo on the skin with risk of burns.
It is thus an object of the present invention to provide an improved skin or hair treatment device avoiding the above mentioned drawback and having a compact design. It is a further object to provide a method for manufacturing such a device.
This object is solved by a skin or hair treatment device as defined in claim 1 and a method as defined in claim 13.
A skin or hair treatment device for emitting treatment light according to the present disclosure comprises a housing, a treatment light source, e.g. an the LED module, disposed inside the housing of the treatment device for illuminating a surface, in particular a skin surface, through a device treatment window disposed outside the housing in front of the device treatment window, e.g. a protective window made of glass or plastic, wherein the treatment light source comprises an array of a plurality of light emitting elements arranged on a substrate, a sensor system disposed inside the housing of the treatment device, said sensor system comprising at least one sensing light source, e.g. one or more sensor LED's, for emitting sensing light and at least one light sensor for detecting the sensing light, wherein the at least one sensing light source and the at least one light sensor are directed towards the device treatment window, and a control circuit having a processor, the control circuit being adapted to control the treatment light source, the at least one sensing light source and the at least one light sensor. The device further comprises a circular polarizer interposed between the device treatment window and the at least one sensing light source and the at least one light sensor and a shielding interposed between the at least one sensing light source and the at least one light sensor such that sensing light is prevented from directly entering the at least one light sensor without passing the circular polarizer. The circular polarizer may be a separate part, e.g. with direct optical contact to the device treatment window, or a coating of the device treatment window itself.
The provision of the circular polarizer between the sensor module and the device window prevents direct light from the LED's entering into the e.g. photodiode of the sensor. This optical system is designed to allow only the penetration of light scattered back from the user's skin into the photodiode. E.g. in one embodiment, the light is guided by conical light guides. In another embodiment, the unwanted stray light is blocked via an opaque rim around the photodiode.
As the light source may be directly placed over the treatment area, no other optical components are involved that absorb light or redirect light away from the treatment area, leading to very low losses of light in the path between source and treatment area. Depending on the light conversion efficiency of the light source relative to other sources, like e.g. laser diodes, the low optical losses of the system lead to a higher total energy efficiency compared to the alternatives. Higher energy efficiency will lower the system costs.
Before describing advantageous embodiments of the invention related to the embodiments depicted in
The shielding of the skin or hair treatment device may comprise a first shielding element, e.g. in the form of a rim, at least partially encasing the at least one sensing light source and/or a second shielding element, e.g. in the form of a rim, at least partially encasing the at least one light sensor. For example, the rim is made of an opaque silicone. In an embodiment of the present disclosure, a white silicone material is selected for the rim to have very low absorption for the treatment LED's and very low transmissivity for the light of the sensor LED's. The low transmissivity can be achieved via high absorption in the range of the sensor LED's or via high internal or surface light scattering.
In addition or as an alternative, the shielding may comprise at least one light focusing element, e.g. lenses, Fresnel lenses, or light guides with conical shapes. This increases the signal to noise ratio and is a measure to get a more stable and reliable measurement. The circular polarizer may in combination with the light focusing element(s) deliver a further improvement for the signal to noise ratio. The circular polarizer may be a separate part with direct optical contact to the focusing optic or a coating of the focusing optic itself.
The skin or hair treatment device may have a relatively compact design if the sensor system is arranged in the array of light emitting elements of the treatment light source interposed between and/or adjacent to the light emitting elements, i.e. the treatment LED's. In other words, an LED module intended for light based hair removal may be provided with one or more embedded sensor sub-assemblies, e.g. skin color sensors. The advantages of a light emitter array with LED's and an embedded sensor system for measuring various skin characteristics include a more uniform illumination of the treatment area, an adaptive illumination of the treatment area depending on the remission of the skin (skin color), in case of segmented LED modules, each segment can have an assigned sensor for the skin characteristic allowing the adjustment of treatment parameters for each LED segment, and an easy system integration of sensor systems for enhanced user guidance and eye safety measuring the skin characteristics directly on the spot to be treated.
The light source can be placed directly over the treatment area (behind a protective window) without additional optics (mixer, components to increase divergence, etc.) and without a diffuser. That reduces the complexity of the light delivery system of the device. It may also allow designing a smaller device as the light delivery system can be made smaller. The optical system to be included for detection purposes can be implemented with low costs.
The treatment light source may comprise a carrier having a plurality of apertures for receiving light emitting elements and an outer wall at least partially surrounding the array of light emitting elements. According to an embodiment of the disclosure, the carrier comprises the shielding. For example, the outer wall of the carrier is in sealing abutment with the device treatment window. Further, the transparent cover sheet (plastic or glass) with circular polarizing capabilities may be in close contact with the opaque aperture to prevent any direct light channel between the LED's and the photo detector.
The light emitting elements, the at least one sensing light source and/or the at least one light sensor may be embedded in transparent or translucent silicone. Preferably, the thickness of the assembly (base plate is the general base plate of the complete module) is very low. The whole assembly may have a similar height as the silicone filling between and above the LED-chips.
The treatment light source and/or the sensor may be as described in WO 2017/134553 A1 and/or in WO 2006/005443 A2. For example, the at least one sensing light source comprises a red LED and IR LED.
The control circuit with the processor may be adapted to control the sensing light source by switching off and on a sensing light, and/or to control the treatment light source by full intensity control of the high intense treatment light, and/or to control the light sensor by collecting data from the light sensor and evaluating the data.
A method for manufacturing a skin or hair treatment device, in particular the skin or hair treatment device as defined above, comprises the steps of placing light emitting elements, e.g. an array of a plurality of light emitting elements, on a substrate, placing at least one sensing light source on the substrate, placing at least one light sensor on the substrate, providing a shielding interposed between the at least one sensing light source and the at least one light sensor, providing a circular polarizer covering at least the at least one sensing light source and the at least one light sensor, providing a control circuit having a processor, the control circuit being adapted to control the treatment light source, the at least one sensing light source and the at least one light sensor, and providing a housing having a device treatment window covering at least the array of a plurality of light emitting elements, the at least one sensing light source and the at least one light sensor. The method may further comprise the step of embedding the light emitting elements, the at least one sensing light source and/or the at least one light sensor in transparent silicone such that the circular polarizer is not covered by the transparent silicone. Still further, the method may comprise the step of providing a carrier having a plurality of apertures for receiving light emitting elements and an outer wall at least partially surrounding the array of light emitting elements, such that the outer wall of the carrier is in sealing abutment with the device treatment window.
Turning now to the first embodiment depicted in
In
The housing 1 comprises an aperture corresponding to the outer wall 5a of the carrier 5. In other words, the printed circuit board 4 is covered by the housing 1. A device treatment window 6 is provided in the housing 1 covering the aperture. The device treatment window 6 may be in sealing contact with the outer wall 5a of the carrier, thereby defining a sealed space for the treatment light source 2 and the sensor system 3.
In the embodiment depicted in
The sensor subassemblies are further covered by a circular polarizer 7 which is arranged on or near the device treatment window 6. The circular polarizer 7 is adapted and arranged such that light reflected by the device treatment window 6 is blocked, whereas light scattered by a user's skin passes through the circular polarizer 7. The circular polarizer 7 may be a transparent cover sheet, e.g. plastic or glass, with circular polarizing capabilities. As an alternative to a separate circular polarizer 7, the circular polarizer 7 may be an integral part of the device treatment window 6, wherein the area with the circular polarizing capabilities of the device treatment window 6 covers at least the sensor subassemblies.
In the embodiment depicted in
Taking into account that the treatment light source 2 is typically not activated simultaneously with the sensor system 3, it is not required to shield the with respect to the treatment light source 2. Thus, the photo diode of the light sensor 3a is not necessarily decoupled from the treatment LEDs 2a, but may also be surrounded by the silicon rim as the sensor LEDs 3b. The advantage of having the photodiode not decoupled from the treatment LEDs 2a is the option to use the photo diode 3a within the same setup also as a monitor diode to control the light emission of the treatment LEDs 2a.
The sensor LEDs 3b may be surrounded by a white, non-absorbing silicon shielding rim 8 made of the same material as the carrier 5 around the treatment LED area. The shielding rim 8 around the sensor LEDs 3b has the function to prevent light from directly entering the photodiode without being scattered by the user's skin. The white silicone material is selected to have very low absorption for the treatment LEDs 2a and very low transmissivity for the light of the sensor LEDs 3b. The low transmissivity can be achieved via high absorption in the range of the sensor LEDs 3b or via high internal or surface light scattering.
The space between the circular polarizer 7 and the substrate 4 and the light sensor 3a, respectively may be filled by a transparent silicone layer 9, thereby embedding the light sensor 3a and the shielding rim 8. The transparent silicone may further embed and/or cover the treatment LEDs 2a. However, the circular polarizer 7 is not covered or embedded by the transparent silicone layer 9 at the side facing towards the device treatment window 6.
A second embodiment of the present disclosure is depicted in
In the depicted embodiment the light focusing elements 10 are light guide cones designed to prevent direct light from the LEDs 3b entering into the photodiode 3a. An additional light guide cone may be provided interposed between the light sensor 3a and the circular polarizer 7. Additional shielding rims 8 may be provided surrounding the sensing light sources 3b and/or the light sensor or 3a.
The optical system interposed between the LED module and the device treatment window 6 is used to prevent direct light from the LEDs entering into the photodiode. The optical system is designed to allow only the penetration of light scattered back from the user's skin into the photodiode. In combination with the light focusing elements 10, the circular polarizer 7 further improves the signal to noise ratio.
A third embodiment of the present disclosure is depicted in
Instead of providing a separate shielding rim 8 as in the first embodiment, the Sensor LEDs 3b are surrounded be a white, non-absorbing silicon shielding rim 5c made of the same material as the carrier 5 around the treatment LED area. Omitting the separate shielding rims 8 may facilitate mounting of the skin or hair treatment device. As can be seen in
As can be taken from a comparison of all three embodiments, the present disclosure comprises a light delivery system for a light-based beauty device for skin treatment with a fully embedded skin color measurement system. The light delivery system may be based on semiconductor light sources, e.g. VCSEL (Vertical-Cavity Surface-Emitting Laser), VECSEL (Vertical External Cavity Surface-Emitting Laser), LED, or OLED (Organic light emitting diode) array.
The light delivery system according to the present disclosure has the advantage that the array size may be close to or about the same size of the treatment area, so that the light source can be directly placed close to the treatment area without the need for additional beam shaping optical elements. Further, the emitters may be mounted on one plain thermally highly conductive surface, e.g. a heat spreader. The heat spreader may be thermally connected to a heat sink. However, the provision of a heat spreader is optional and the light source may be mounted directly onto a heat sink. The light module, preferably an LED-module with chip on board LED-chips, has one or more embedded sensor systems to measure the light remission of the area the light source is directed to, i.e. a user's skin.
The dimensions and values disclosed herein are not to be understood as being strictly limited to the exact numerical values recited. Instead, unless otherwise specified, each such dimension is intended to mean both the recited value and a functionally equivalent range surrounding that value. For example, a dimension disclosed as “40 mm” is intended to mean “about 40 mm.”
Every document cited herein, including any cross referenced or related patent or application and any patent application or patent to which this application claims priority or benefit thereof, is hereby incorporated herein by reference in its entirety unless expressly excluded or otherwise limited. The citation of any document is not an admission that it is prior art with respect to any invention disclosed or claimed herein or that it alone, or in any combination with any other reference or references, teaches, suggests or discloses any such invention. Further, to the extent that any meaning or definition of a term in this document conflicts with any meaning or definition of the same term in a document incorporated by reference, the meaning or definition assigned to that term in this document shall govern.
While particular embodiments of the present invention have been illustrated and described, it would be obvious to those skilled in the art that various other changes and modifications can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. It is therefore intended to cover in the appended claims all such changes and modifications that are within the scope of this invention.
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