Various embodiments for providing removable, pluggable and disposable opto-electronic modules for illumination and microscopic imaging are provided, for use with portable display devices. Generally, various medical or industrial miniature microscopes can include one or more solid state or other compact electro-optic illuminating elements, electronic vision systems and means of scanning located thereon. Additionally, such opto-electronic modules may include illuminating optics, imaging optics, and/or image manipulation and processing elements. The illuminating elements may have different wavelengths and can be time-synchronized with an image sensor to illuminate an object for imaging or detecting purpose or other conditioning purpose. All control and power functions of such disposable microscope units can be made in the control unit that the disposable microscopes are plugged into.
