Miniaturized Optical Imaging Devices
Miniaturized optical imaging systems encompass compact devices and systems that employ optical components and techniques to capture and visualize images on a reduced scale. These systems possess attributes of portability, and lightness, and often exhibit integration capabilities with diverse technologies, including endoscopy and handheld imaging systems. The most formidable challenges lie in the design of distal optics capable of providing equivalent imaging performance to benchtop systems, all while reducing their dimensions to a mere few millimetres.
As an illustration, our ongoing project in fibre-based photon absorption remote sensing (PARS) microscopy (AKA Photoacoustic remote sensing) imaging centers around the development of a novel form factor that attains commensurate high-quality images as those produced by tabletop systems, but within a more flexible probe. This endeavour necessitates the miniaturization of the imaging component of the unwieldy benchtop system into a handheld probe, ultimately striving for the realization of a comprehensive endoscopic system. The ultimate objective of this endeavour is to enable optical biopsies, thereby mitigating the risks and discomfort faced by patients, while facilitating immediate diagnostic outcomes.
As an illustration, our ongoing project in fibre-based photon absorption remote sensing (PARS) microscopy (AKA Photoacoustic remote sensing) imaging centers around the development of a novel form factor that attains commensurate high-quality images as those produced by tabletop systems, but within a more flexible probe. This endeavour necessitates the miniaturization of the imaging component of the unwieldy benchtop system into a handheld probe, ultimately striving for the realization of a comprehensive endoscopic system. The ultimate objective of this endeavour is to enable optical biopsies, thereby mitigating the risks and discomfort faced by patients, while facilitating immediate diagnostic outcomes.
