Abstract: The increasing number of minimally invasive procedures is likely to increase the demand for long lasting, easy to use, efficient and reliable endoscopes. In addition to this there is an urgent need for a portable, lightweight endoscope using LED technology to be used in the field in disaster and war zones, and for training medical students. A compact and low-cost endoscope would be highly sought after by surgeons all over the world. It is the desired outcome of this work to develop a low-cost, portable system to fulfil these needs. Not only will a low-cost instrument find usage in the medical field it can also be applied to many others including engineering, the built environment, aerospace and many others when access for visual inspection is difficult. The portability of the device and its lack of reliance on a connection to a mains power source means that it can be applied virtually anywhere in the field thus making minimally-invasive surgery possible in otherwise impossible regions. This should lead to speedier procedures which are not only good for the patient but also have better economic viability.
Because it is proposed to use LED’s in the design to replace bulky, inefficient and expensive light sources which have colour-mixing features, the endoscope will also have enhanced capability as a light source. Added to this, endoscope will also incorporate a miniature camera, it then becomes possible to transmit images over a wireless network (local or global) for assisted remote diagnosis.

Brief Biography of the Speaker:
Noel Shammas is currently a Professor of Microelectronics and Solid-State Semiconductor Devices in the faculty of Computing, Engineering and Advanced Technology, Staffordshire University. He received the MSc and PhD degrees from Salford University in 1972 and 1975 respectively. Since then he lectured and researched at different universities and industry (GEC). Research work is primarily focused on Semiconductor Devices which includes mainly Power diodes, Light Emitting Diodes (LED’s), Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistors, Thyristors, and Energy Harvesting Devices. Other related areas of research work includes Power Module Packaging technologies (Both Conventional Press-pack and Smart pack designs) and Series/Parallel operation of high power semiconductor devices and their interaction with external circuits.
Professor Shammas has extensive experience in both experimental and theoretical research work and is recognised internationally for his significant contribution to research in the field of Semiconductor Devices. He has published over 120 journal and conference research papers as well as several invited Keynote and Plenary Lectures, and has held several research grants from funding councils, Advantage West Midland (AWM), as well as from industry. He is a regular reviewer for many journals (including IET Proceeding Electronic devices and systems, IEEE Transactions on power electronics, and Microelectronic Reliability) and international conferences (including the European Power Electronic conference - EPE, Microelectronic conference - MIEL, Universities Power Engineering Conference-UPEC, International Symposium Power Semiconductors-ISPS, etc…). He is a member of scientific committee for many international conferences (including MIEL, EPE, WCE, WSEAS, and Microtherm) and a steering committee member for EPE, UPEC, and ISPS international conferences. He is also a book reviewer for Prentice Hall International and McGraw Hill.