Researchers from Germany engineer medical camera as small as a grain of salt

Orange County, CA - July 22nd 2016 -  Every day, innovative ideas born in science fiction become a reality. In Germany, this was the case when a group of researchers engineered a micro-camera so miniscule that can fit in the needle of a syringe. The device’s size allows it to be delivered instantaneously to organs, including the brain.

Ingenuous PhD students, located at the University of Stuttgart, utilized 3D printing or additive manufacturing, to make-up for shortcomings in the manufacturing process that prevents creation of micro-sized objects. The entire process of designing and manufacturing the lens only took a few hours, according to Timo Gissibi and Simon Thiele, the two students leading the endeavor.

The time from the idea, the optics design, a CAD model, to the finished, 3D-printed micro-objectives [had taken] less than a day,” said Stuttgart professor Harald Giessen.

Researchers from Germany engineer medical camera as small as a grain of salt

To make the tiny lens, researchers shot a femtosecond laser at light-sensitive material resting on a glass substrate. The laser critically employs pulse durations, spanning less than 100 femtoseconds, allowing the material to absorb two types of photons. Once absorbed, researchers wash away unexposed material with a solvent to reveal the hardened crosslinked polymers, forming the basis of the lens.

In order to work, three .12 millimeter wide lenses are attached to a five ft. optical fiber the size of two strands of hair. When paired with a LED to illuminate the image, the optical fiber facilitates noninvasive, in-depth viewing and can capture images up to 3 mm away.

From medical practices and covert operations, a wide range of possibilities exist for the tiny image capturing device. The team also constructed a CMOS image chip with a sensor to open the nanoscale camera to a host of applications such as diminutive drones, cars, robots, smartphones, and humans.

 The 3D printed method can be applied to an array of optical instruments, such as endoscopes and optical fiber traps. In the future, such innovations will propel a fundamental shift in how medicine is performed, allowing physicians to heal patients with technology inserted into their bodies instead of traditional methods.

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Researchers from Germany engineer medical camera as small as a grain of salt Orange County, CA – July 22nd 2016 –  Every day, innovative ideas born in science fiction become a reality. In Germany, this was the case when a group of researchers engineered a micro-camera so miniscule that can fit in the needle of a […]