A miniature fiber-optic raster scanner for 2D optocal imaging of biological tissue

This paper presents a handheld device for reflectance confocal imaging of biological tissue. A two-dimensional fiber optic raster scanner has been designed, manufactured and assembled in standard half-inch lens tubes. The scanner is driven by electromagnetic forces and provides large actuation range of ≥1 mm in both directions with driving current of ≤ 200 mA. Light polarization effects have been employed to improve image quality and contrast. The confocal scanner has lateral resolution of about 1.5 μm with imaging speed of 6 frames per second. Confocal images of a resolution target, fruit fly wing and excised normal human colon tissue were obtained as a preliminary study.