Patent ID: 8808311

Claim:
A surgical instrument, comprising: an end effector configured and adapted to engage tissue, the end effector including a staple cartridge assembly and an anvil operatively associated with the staple cartridge assembly; and at least one micro-electromechanical system (MEMS) device operatively connected to the end effector, each of the staple cartridge assembly and the anvil defining tissue contacting surfaces, and the at least one MEMS device being operatively connected to at least one of the tissue contacting surface of the staple cartridge assembly and the tissue contacting surface of the anvil, the MEMS device comprising an integrated electronic system including at least one sensor for sensing the amount of light applied to tissue clamped between the staple cartridge assembly and anvil; wherein the at least one MEMS device includes (i) a light producing device, and (ii) a light receiving device, wherein the light receiving device is configured to detect changes in an amount of light received as a result of a changing angle of rotation between the anvil and the staple cartridge assembly, wherein the at least one MEMS device is configured to determine tissue thickness and a distance between the anvil and the staple cartridge assembly by timing a duration between initial light reception by the light receiving device and activation of the light producing device, the tissue thickness and the distance computed by a processor accessing one or more look-up tables correlating the distance to the tissue thickness.