Small, round and flexible for the world’s tiniest image sensor
Leoni miniaturised round cables are supporting the trend towards ever smaller endoscopes
The endoscopy cable developed by Leoni's Business Unit Healthcare in 2011 for the Israeli company Medigus ensures interference-free and secure data transmission from a 0.66 × 0.66 mm sized CMOS sensor to the image receiver. In addition to its tiny overall diameter, this miniature round cable, which consists of four shielded cores, boasts maximum signal integrity, high flexibility and robustness. The easy assembly of the miniaturised endoscopy cable by Leoni makes it ideal for use with disposable videoscopes.
By being resistant to heat of as much as 200 °C, other Leoni endoscopy cables can, by contrast, be steam-sterilised up to 1,000 times – and are therefore predestined for repeated use.
Leoni is developing and making custom-miniaturised round cables for connecting miniaturised CMOS or CCD camera sensors in videoscopes. Wherever other cables are too large, theses miniature round cables facilitate concise transmission of everything that passes before the camera’s lens. For medical staff they provide the robustness and simultaneously the flexibility in all directions that is so important in diagnostic and surgical procedures. For the patient, the cable’s round structure and minimal surface reduces the unpleasant friction along organ and vascular walls.
Endoscopic examinations with excellent image resolution make a safe diagnosis easier. Yet patients feel that these procedures are anything but comfortable. Large instruments and components can hit organ walls during the examinations and cause the patient pain or discomfort. The wish for ever smaller endoscopes accompanied by ever better image quality is the logical consequence. And the trend towards miniaturisation – especially of videoscopes – provides other benefits: extremely small diameters create new areas of application for endoscopes. For instance, examinations of certain areas of the brain can be made possible and angioscopic procedures can be simplified. Examinations without anaesthetic are also made possible in ever more endoscopy fields as miniaturisation progresses.