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Friday, Oct. 13, 2000
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Off the Beaten Track
A Fantastic Voyage
The engineers at microTEC think small is beautiful
By URSULA SAUTTER Bonn
 The diminutive submarine that carried a surgical task force reduced to equally microscopic size through the bloodstream of a dying scientist in the 1966 movie Fantastic Voyage is one of those wacky inventions nobody ever expected to become reality. But life sometimes imitates art — or, at least hokey sci-fi films — and 34 years after the fiction, the Lilliputian U-boat — if not the shrunken doctors — has become fact.
Only half a millimeter in diameter and four millimeters in length, the tiny submarine manufactured by Duisburg-based micromechanics firm microTEC (www.microtec-d.com) is indeed small enough to cruise through an artery. Propelled by a screw fitted with a rotary magnet that can be activated by an external magnetic field, the vehicle is designed to be injected into the human body to transport drugs, make repairs and carry out general bodily maintenance. "It opens up completely new opportunities for medical diagnostics and therapeutics," says Reiner Götzen, one of microTEC's managers, who started to develop "the world's smallest U-boat" in 1998.
The possible medical applications are manifold, says Götzen. Loaded with encapsulated radioactive material, for example, the sub could be steered into cancerous organs to treat them from within. Or it could deliver a cargo of drugs to an affected area. It could also travel into a patient's kidney and help get rid of unwanted deposits or mend irregularities in the walls of arteries or blood vessels. The micro-sub may also be useful in non-medical areas such as climate control or environmental technology. Equipped with sensors, it could monitor chemical or biological processes in living animal or vegetable organisms or locate obstructions or damage in pipeline systems.
To manufacture the submarine and other miniature structures, microTEC uses a technique called Rapid Micro Product Development (RMPD). A computer program creates a three-dimensional model of the envisioned structure and divides it into layers of up to 1 micrometer, or one thousandth of a millimeter. One after the other, these ultra-thin layers are generated with the help of a computer-controlled ultraviolet laser that molds plastic according to the computer-assisted design. Because other components such as micro-lenses, micro-chips or mechanical devices like the magnet which powers the U-boat's drive shaft can be integrated during the manufacturing process, "this method allows entirely new perspectives for the layout and rapid creation of complex micro-systems," says Götzen.
Before microTEC's miniature submarine can set out on its maiden voyage through a living human being, a few technical problems still have to be solved. Conventional microchips, for instance, are still too large to fit on the tiny vehicle and smaller versions will have to be produced. Since the U-boat's propeller might accidentally injure the blood vessels it passes through, Götzen and his team are developing a prototype that swims with flippers. The Duisburg engineers are also trying to equip the vehicle with a radio-controlled on-board motor which will enable users to steer the sub with greater precision.
Götzen estimates that it "will take another eight years" until all this has been achieved and the sub is ready to leave port. All that will then remain is for Hollywood to film a real-life remake of Fantastic Voyage by shrinking actors to microbe-size. Given their giant egos, that may prove a harder task than building a mini-U-boat.
Check out timeeurope.com for more Fast Forward Europe stories in the days and weeks to come. Our Fast Forward coverage culminates in a year-end special issue and website to be published on December 14
PHOTO: EYE OF SCIENCE/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY
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