Researchers at The California Institute of Technology have developed a microscope that is quite small to fit inside a mobile handset. Don’t be fooled by its small size, this tiny little microscope is good enough to deliver best quality magnification needed for detecting germs. It can also be used to diagnose humans as its small size makes it possible to implant it inside human body. This micro-microscope utilizes combined power of computer technology and microfluidic technology to give optimum performance in miniature form. What’s special about this microscope besides its small form-factor is the fact that it’s got no lenses or optical elements that have been defining microscopes ever since they first appeared in 1500s. Absence of lenses is also causing its price to be extremely low as it can be mass produced at $10 each.
If you are a science lover then you’d like to know the details of this small wonder. It’s got three layers; top most layer is made of microfluidic channel, then comes the metal coating and last one is a CCD sensor. Metal layer’s got tiny holes that are one-millionth of a meter in diameter that are in co-ordination with pixels on CCD array. While microfluidic channel’s got sample of the liquid that needs to be investigated.
Via: GizmoWatch