Medical electronics research: Endoscope as thin as hair

Engineers at Stanford have developed a prototype single-fiber endoscope that improves the resolution of these much-sought-after instruments fourfold over existing designs. The advance could lead to an era of needle-thin, minimally invasive endoscopes able to view features out of reach of today's instruments. Professor Joseph Kahn (right), and graduate students Reza Nasiri Mahalati (left) and Ruo Yu Gu (center) with their prototype single-fiber endoscope. The device improves resolution by four times over previous instruments. Engineers at Stanford have demonstrated a high-resolution endoscope that is as thin as a human hair with a resolution four times better than previous devices of similar design. The so-called micro-endoscope is a significant step forward in high-resolution, minimally invasive bio-imaging, with potential applications in research and clinical practice. Micro-endoscopy could enable new methods in diverse fields ranging from study of the brain to early cancer detection. The new endoscope was developed by a team under the direction of Joseph Kahn, professor of electrical engineering at the Stanford School of Engineering. The results were published recently in the journal Optics Express and showcased in the Optical Society of America's "Spotlight on Optics." Their prototype can resolve objects about 2.5 microns in size, and a resolution of 0.3 microns ...