New ultra tiny sensor cleans your arteries sans surgery

Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have developed a 1.4-millimeter silicon chip that takes real-time 3D images from inside the heart, coronary arteries, and surrounding blood vessels.

The device using volumetric imaging, could better guide doctors through heart surgery and allow them to unclog some patients' arteries without them undergoing major surgery, the Verge reported.

The catheter-based device made with CMOS technology is an active pixel sensor, which is common in cell phone cameras and webcams.

The chip uses ultrasound transducers to process signals directly on the device, which allows info from more than a hundred elements on the device to be transmitted using 13 tiny cables.