Micro assembly of a MEMS based endoscope tip
15 June 2010 - 18 June 2010
Austria
Fraunhofer IPMS has years of experience in micro scanning mirror and microsystems developments. At the OPTATEC 2010, the institute will publish for the first time ever results from its new competence in micro assembly. A completely mounted microscopical endoscope tip will be shown. The system contains the MEMS device, the miniaturized optics and the optical position detection for the MEMS device. The extremely small microscope tip (8 mm aperture) can be used for imaging in endoscopes as in medical in-vivo cancer diagnosis, but also in the industrie for the monitoring of components, which are difficult to access.
The demonstration systems presents the work of Fraunhofer IPMS in the field of micro assembly of devices on suitable substrates (e.g. silicon, ceramic, glass). Because of the preceding miniaturization of electronical, micro optical and micro mechanical devices and their hybrid combination into a minimum of space the new technological know-how was essential. The extension of the competence will allow a pilot manufacturing of such systems in the future.
Micro mechanical and micro optical components only can operate as a system, if they are very precisely placed and fixed at a defined position. Especially for the assembly of the MEMS and MOEMS developed by Fraunhofer IPMS together with necessary opto electronical components and micro optical devices a high precision is essential.
Respecting the endoscope tip the coupling of light is carried out by fiber optics, which can be choosen for different optical band width (from UV to near infrared). This causes a maximum of flexibility for the selection of light sources and detectors suitable for each particular case of analysis. This is one big advantage over CCD or CMOS based image sensors, which are normally used for endoscopical applications since they have characteristical and rather small optical band widths in visible light. Another advantage is that MEMS based systems eliminate the need for complex optics which are difficult to integrate into miniaturized endoscope tips, especially if high magnification is required.
The demonstration systems presents the work of Fraunhofer IPMS in the field of micro assembly of devices on suitable substrates (e.g. silicon, ceramic, glass). Because of the preceding miniaturization of electronical, micro optical and micro mechanical devices and their hybrid combination into a minimum of space the new technological know-how was essential. The extension of the competence will allow a pilot manufacturing of such systems in the future.
Micro mechanical and micro optical components only can operate as a system, if they are very precisely placed and fixed at a defined position. Especially for the assembly of the MEMS and MOEMS developed by Fraunhofer IPMS together with necessary opto electronical components and micro optical devices a high precision is essential.
Respecting the endoscope tip the coupling of light is carried out by fiber optics, which can be choosen for different optical band width (from UV to near infrared). This causes a maximum of flexibility for the selection of light sources and detectors suitable for each particular case of analysis. This is one big advantage over CCD or CMOS based image sensors, which are normally used for endoscopical applications since they have characteristical and rather small optical band widths in visible light. Another advantage is that MEMS based systems eliminate the need for complex optics which are difficult to integrate into miniaturized endoscope tips, especially if high magnification is required.