Rick Sternbach designed this version of the Starfleet tricorder during the second season of Star Trek: Voyager. It replaced the props that he had originally created for Star Trek: The Next Generation. Sternbach wasn't quite sure how the Voyager crew, stranded in the Delta Quadrant, would have gotten the new devices. He figured they had been on the ship all along, but lost somewhere on the ship's cargo deck, until they were accidentally discovered during the second season.