Chip-on-the-tip ultra-compact flexible endoscopic epifluorescence video-microscope for in-vivo imaging in medical and biomedical fields

摘要

We demonstrate a flexible stand-alone video-endomicroscope with an outer diameter of less than 2.0 mm that enables surgeons and biologists to image hardly accessible, intracorporeal regions in-vivo in epifluorescence mode. The 60 mg light device improves state-of-the-art objectives by a double deflection approach using a side-fire fiber in combination with spherical microlenses, GRIN-lenses with a specific adapted gradient index profile and an extremely miniaturized chip-on-the-tip camera to achieve an excellent imaging quality. A high NA of 0.7 enables the observation of subcellular features within the entire field of view with a diameter of around 200 urn, assure a bright and high-contrast image and promise a good overview during the intervention. Ex-vivo measurements of biological samples confirmed the functionality of the probe.