A portable, optical scanning microsystem for large field of view, high resolution imaging of biological specimens

Adapting medical technology for use at the point of care, demands the development of portable, robust and accurate systems for the early diagnosis and monitoring of a wide range of diseases. Microscopy at the point of care, fueled by recent advances in micro-optics, micro-electronics and micro-electromechanical systems, is an emerging and promising field. However, imaging devices already developed remain rather sophisticated and bulky, mainly because of failure to address the most challenging technical limitation: to combine large field-of-view (FOV) with high resolution imaging of biological specimens. To address this need, we developed a portable, optical scanning microsystem that can image - with approximately 1 μm resolution- large areas (6 mm × 40 mm) from various biological samples. This is achieved through the use of a microfabricated - 2D lens array that scans a sample in 1 direction in few minutes. We demonstrated that our system can image blood smear and identify single white blood cells immobilized in a microfluidic chip.