Miniaturized omnidirectional flexible side-view endoscope for rapid monitoring of thin tubular biostructures

Endoscopic imaging allows longitudinal observation of epithelial pathologies in tubular organs throughout the body. However, the imaging and optical diagnosis of tubular biostructures such as small animal models and small pediatric organs require appropriately miniaturized devices. A miniaturized catadioptric flexible side-view endoscope is proposed with omnidirectional field of view (FOV) in the transverse direction and sub-mm-scale feature resolution. The FOV in the longitudinal direction is 50°. Images are unwrapped and stitched together to form composite images of the target by two different algorithms, revealing a composite FOV of more than 3.5 cm × 360°. The endoscope is well suited for minimally invasive rapid monitoring of thin tubular organs in pediatric patients, as well as for imaging of small animal disease models at near-cellular resolution.