Development of a hybrid piezoelectric and pneumatic miniature optical scanner for endoscopic applications

[Display omitted] •Early cancer diagnosis needs endoscopes with adequate optical quality.•Most MEMS (Microelectromechanical Systems) optical scanners have no feedback control mechanisms.•Device variabilities reduce optical quality.•A hybrid optical scanner has been demonstrated with a feedback control mechanism to improve optical quality. Gastrointestinal (GI) cancers are among some of most significant public health issues worldwide. Early cancer diagnosis will increase GI cancer patients’ survival rate, however, developing endoscopes for early cancer detection is a challenge as it is difficult to design a high-resolution optical scanner. In this paper, we report a new 3D optical scanner using piezoelectric (for in-plane, X-Y axes) and pneumatic (for out-of-plane, Z-axis) mechanisms. Feedback control is implemented to reduce disturbances and provide a stable position for the pneumatic actuator. The scanner shows a Z and X-Y resolution of 1.5 μm and 1.4 μm, respectively. The field-of-view (FOV) is around 100 × 100 (μm)2, with a frame rate of 1.25 fps (frame per second). Paper fiber, and onion epidermis images were obtained by the new optical scanner.