A Thinner, Higher Resolution Endoscope?

Researchers at Stanford University have developed a prototype endoscope that could revolutionize minimally invasive visualization. The scope has just one fiber yet "improves the resolution … fourfold over existing designs, [which] could lead to an era of needle-thin" devices, according to the Stanford School of Engineering.

The high-resolution rigid "micro-endoscope" can allow viewing of structures about 2.5 microns on size — or 2.5 thousandths of a millimeter — and may eventually be able to view those just 0.3 microns in size. Current endoscopes are capable of 10 microns, and the naked eye about 125, according to Stanford. In fact, the incredibly detailed viewing and small size of the scope's inner-workings posed a paradox of physics to the researchers.

"Somehow, we were capturing more information than the laws of physics told us could pass through the fiber," said Joseph Kahn, professor of electrical engineering at the Stanford School of Engineering, in a statement. "It seemed impossible," but it turns out the random intensity light patterns used in the fiber are the key to the fourfold improvement in visualization detail.

The prototype is not the first single-fiber endoscope, but it is the first to produce this kind of imaging quality with a fiber just thicker than a human hair. The only issue is that the fiber developed by the researchers would work only in rigid scopes, as "[b]ending a multimode fiber scrambles the image beyond recognition," says Stanford.

Stephanie Wasek