Wireless Acoustic-Surface Actuators for Miniaturized Endoscopes

• DOI: 10.1021/acsami.7b12755
• Publication Date: 2017-11-17T20:06:57Z
• Authors: Tian Qiu; Fabian Adams; Stefano Palagi; Kai Melde; Andrew Mark; Ulrich Wetterauer; Arkadiusz Miernik; Peer Fischer
• Keywords: Endoscope; Microactuator

Endoscopy enables minimally invasive procedures in many medical fields, such as urology. However, current endoscopes are normally cable-driven, which limits their dexterity and makes them hard to miniaturize. Indeed, urological have an outer diameter of about 3 mm still only possess one bending degree-of-freedom. In this article, we report a novel wireless actuation mechanism that increases the permits miniaturization endoscope. The actuator consists thin active surfaces can be readily attached any device wirelessly powered by ultrasound. consist two-dimensional arrays microbubbles, oscillate under ultrasound excitation thereby generate acoustic streaming force. Bubbles different sizes addressed unique resonance frequency, thus multiple degrees-of-freedom incorporated. Two miniaturized devices (with side length around 1 mm) demonstrated: mechanical arm realizes two degrees-of-freedom, flexible endoscope prototype equipped with camera at tip. With endoscope, endoscopic examination is successfully performed rabbit bladder. results show potential applicability surface actuators penetrating through biological tissues.