Scrona: A world record and a really cool microscope

Scrona, a spin-off from ETH Zurich, was initially founded to commercialize a novel 3D inkjet printing technology, which is the highest-resolution inkjet-based technology that exists to date. Application fields are printed electronics, security printing or Life science microarrays. To demonstrate the possibilities of the new technology Scrona and ETH Zurich have now printed the tiniest colour picture ever.

The printed image, representing a scenery of clown fishes around sea anemones measures 80 µm x 115 µm. That’s about the cross-sectional area of a human hair or the area covered by a single pixel of a retina display.

What makes the image appear so lively is the result of so-called quantum-dots (QDs). QDs are nanoparticles that emit light of a very specific color. By tuning their size, this color can be freely engineered, for example from orange to yellow. QDs are known to be very intense in their color appearance, a reason why they currently make a strong debut in flat panel displays.

Until now, even with cutting-edge semiconductor technology, it was not possible to handle these nanostructured materials with the incredible accuracy that is demonstrated by this Guinness World Records Ltd. achievement. Therefore, the image printed by Scrona and ETH Zurich is not only nice to look at. It highlights new avenues towards the use of nanostructured materials in future electronics and optics, particularly in the display sector.

But before hitting industry with its printing technology, Scrona will launch a consumer product: µPeek. µPeek is a credit-card sized gadget that can be attached to almost any smartphone, wirelessly connect to it via Bluetooth, and turn it into a multi-functional microscope. Scrona started the development of the gadget because the team needed a portable, yet powerful microscope to showcase its printing technology. Then the team noticed that they not only solved their own problem.

Now after months of additional development, Scrona has started a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter for µPeek. The product that Scrona has developed departs from the paradigm of the bulky scientific apparatus and combines the functionality and image quality of a full-fledged microscope with pleasing aesthetics, portability and user-friendly operation via dedicated Android or iOS software. Taking razor-sharp images is taken care of by a 4-element lens and a miniature motor for focusing, all within a tool that has half the thickness of a smartphone. Given its size µPeek is made to stay at the side of its user whenever curiosity spontaneously awakes. Because the microcosm is all around us, be it on a crystal stone discovered on a hike or on that funny looking fungi that happens to occasionally visit your food.

Absolutely unique to µPeek is a patent-pending illumination system that allows users to experience microscopy in a much more artistic way than before. Several distinctive microscopy modes – so far reserved to costly lab devices – can be accessed via the App and reveal completely new visual facets of a specimen.

µPeek aims to reach out to schools where it provides an economic means for hands-on teaching of advanced microscopy. Thanks to its App-based control and integration with social networks, µPeek intuitively gets accustomed to young people. Meanwhile teachers can move their projects directly to the field and turn their lectures into fun.

To push the educational and social aspect of µPeek, a community platform will be introduced after the product launch. This platform will allow pictures and specific illumination settings to be exchanged between its users. As µPeek allows taking undistorted, high-quality images users will not be restricted to only share their findings but they can also express them in the most beautiful manner. Information on the platform will also become relevant where µPeek is used for professional purposes. For example, easy access to intellectual data via abundant mobile networks could help in off-site diagnostics in remote third world locations.

(SK)