Miniature near-infrared dual-axes confocal microscope utilizing a two-dimensional microelectromechanical systems scanner

The first, to our knowledge, miniature dual-axes confocal microscope has been developed, with an outer diameter of 10 mm, for subsurface imaging of biological tissues with 5-7 mu m resolution. Depth-resolved en face images are obtained at 30 frames per second, with a field of view of 800 x 100 Am, by employing a two-dimensional scanning microelectromechanical systems mirror. Reflectance and fluorescence images are obtained with a laser source at 785 nm, demonstrating the ability to perform real-time optical biopsy. (c) 2007 Optical Society of America.