Traditional cameras -- even those on the thinnest of cell phones -- cannot be truly flat due to their optics: lenses that require a certain shape and size in order to function. At Caltech, engineers have developed a new camera design that replaces the lenses with an ultra-thin optical phased array (OPA). The OPA does computationally what lenses do using large pieces of glass: it manipulates incoming light to capture an image.

Lenses have a curve that bends the path of incoming light and focuses it onto a piece of film or, in the case of digital cameras, an image sensor. The OPA has a large array of light receivers, each of which can individually add a tightly controlled time delay (or phase shift) to the light it receives, enabling the camera to selectively look in different directions and focus on different things."We've created a single thin layer of integrated silicon photonics that emulates the lens and sensor of a digital camera, reducing the thickness and cost of digital cameras."

The next step for the new generation of 5G mobile phones is to include the ability to be a microscope.With the new facility, the microscope in a mobile phone can do the first set of investigations of blood and then home or office computer system can compare against healthy blood and display a preliminary result that may indicate to go to the doctor. The same information can be submitted online and a physician can make decisions about health.

The new facility allows access to modern medicine and people at large distances from medical centers.

Every person may have microscope bearer and universities can communicate in real time.

The euphoria experienced by people when they take photos with mobile phones can be relived when they can see their blood cells on a microscope screen.

People can detect the disease in its early stages with a greater chance of cure.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/06/170622104049.htm