Tiny endoscopes

Researchers at the

have developed two prototypes of tiny endoscopes that may make life a lot more comfortable for patients who need to undergo an endoscopic procedure. The reason: they’re small.

The first of the two is a small wired endoscope, called IVP1, and the second, a tiny wireless-imaging probe, called IVP2, that can be taken in the form of a pill.

Both prototypes are equipped with optics for illumination as well as mechanical components for swivelling the inbuilt image sensor.

The head of the IVP1 is 3.5 millimetres in diameter - about the size of a match head - and the image sensor itself is a CMOS chip measuring 2.7 by 2.3 millimetres.

‘The great advantage of our prototype is the fact that the image sensor is incorporated into the head of the endoscope, which provides much better images for the surgeon,’ said Christine Harendt from the Stuttgart Institute for Microelectronics.