Disposable Microcameras May Revolutionize Endoscopy

[TECH NEWS]

There have been gloves and shavers for one-off use for a long time. In future, there will also be disposable endoscopes for minimally invasive operations on the human body. A new microcamera is what makes it possible. It’s the size a large grain of salt (1 mm³), supplies razor-sharp pictures and can be manufactured very inexpensively. Endoscopy has gone through amazing advances in recent years. Microcameras on the tip of endoscopes supply images from the inside of the human body in ever higher resolution, which often makes it possible to identify tumors at an early stage. Endoscopes to date have some downsides, however, since they are expensive and, because of their multiple usages, have to be put through time-consuming and exhaustive cleaning procedures every time they are used. This problem might be solved by the new microcamera that the Fraunhofer Institute for Reliability and Microintegration (IZM) in Berlin, Germany has developed together with Awaiba GmbH and with the support of the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering IOF in Jena, Germany. Martin Wilke, a scientist at the Fraunhofer Institute for Reliability and Microintegration, says “we can produce microcameras so inexpensively with our technology that doctors can dispose of endoscopes after using them only once.”

3/9/11, Fraunhofer Research News