A 45° tilted 3D-printed scanner for compact side-view laser scanning endoscopy

Side viewing, miniaturized laser scanning endoscopes are powerful tools in providing sub-cellular level resolution and multi-layered imaging of the walls of body cavities. Yet, the level of miniaturization for such devices is significantly hampered by the necessity for 45° placement of the whole scanner unit with respect to the cavity axis. With its rapid and low-cost production capability, 3D printing can be employed in addressing the challenge of producing a laser scanner, whose scanning head makes 45°, or any desired angle, with the scanner unit. Producing a 10 × 10 mm 2 scanner device with tilted scan head (as opposed to the conventional design with identical size) enabled size shrinkage of a near fully 3D-printed laser scanning imager by × 1.5 in diameter (from 17 to 11 mm). We also share the initial results on 5 × 5 mm 2 total die size scanners, having literally identical die size with their MEMS counterparts, and discuss the road steps in producing