MEMS Array Chip Can Project Video the Size of a Grain of Sand
spectrum.ieee.orgThis reminds me of the original patents that Magic Leap had, which involved pumping light through a single optical fiber that was wiggled by piezoelectrics into a spiral to project light (https://kguttag.com/2018/01/06/magic-leap-fiber-scanning-dis...).
Seems what it is, but with a "waveguide" instead of an "optical fiber" wiggling about. Seems like a sneaky use of the word "projection" though, since the "surface" the image is "projected" is just what the flopping waveguide head traces, with no projection extending beyond the end of the waveguide.
Yes but one could argue the frame refresh/redraw cycle of a laser projector or lcd projector is the same at slow speed. It’s not just one giant ball of light. It goes through a process and the frame itself has to redraw.
Sure, the image doesn't come from nowhere. In this case, it's a wiggly piezo pushed raster scan with the light source varied to, ideally, match the frame contents for any raster position.
But the "projection" is only to the end of the waveguide, which makes a real image, which could then be protected onto a real surface. It would be as misleading as saying a CRT screen projects an image. Well, not really. A CRT screen uses electron beam projection in the image generation. After that image is generated, it can then be projected.
A scanning beam laser projector can, by all definitions (including that pesky dictionary), project an image as part of the generation. An LCD, a CRT, and this, cannot project an image without additional projection optics attached to it to throw that generated real image.
I understand what they did (very neat), I'm just complaining about the press release wording. And then there's this shoved at the bottom "Because the chip can project so many more spots in any given time interval than any previous beam scanners, it could also be used to control many more qubits in quantum computers". Might as well throw "AI" in there. Or, maybe I'm just confused about it all because I stupidly read a university backed press release.
> The chip projected a roughly 125-micrometer image of the Mona Lisa.
This may seem small (barely visible as a dot to the naked eye), but that's also the geometric mean of the Planck length and the diameter of the observable universe. So average size actually.
I really can't follow your comment and I've been trying. Would you mind a longer explanation of what you're getting at here?
They mean 125um = sqrt(a*b), where a is the Planck length* and b the size of the observable universe (I didn't verify). Implying, 125um is some sort of middle ground. *Often said to be the smallest length with physical meaning.
Ok, so it's a bullshit comment. Thank you. You could say this about everything that is not 'Planck length', it's about as useful as Douglas Adams' 'the universe is empty' (only he had a sense of humor).
Oh, even worse they are repeating it in different threads.
Sure!
It was a joke :)
I wonder if this has implications for custom home chips/prototyping. I'm sure a big issue is vibrations but something like this could remove the need for masks at least. (again, not my area so I am clobbering terminology I am sure). It may open up home fab capabilities.
In general, hobby photo-lithography projects already use DMD/DLP projectors, and some inexpensive optics.
Huygens Optics:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_w0Z2Y5vaAQ
Sam Zeloof:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nxz_ENnmgtI
In general, getting vanity silicon made is usually much less expensive than trying to bootstrap a fab line. =3
I think half the fun for people that do things like this is figuring out how to out innovate a multi-billion dollar company so that they can make something 1/4th as good but at 1/10000th the price. I bet there are some -really- innovative people out there that would figure alternatives to a lot of the expensive parts of the process and figure out how to be able to produce 2000's level chips at home. I'm not one of them though :)
The problem is that they aren't (yet) 1/4th as good for 1/10000th of the price. Patterning is just one part of the process - and not nearly the most difficult one.
I think abusing a write-off electron microscope to side step the need for masks is also an interesting idea, however, I believe acquiring wafers of sufficient quality and depositing layers to be etched could be the bigger challenge here.
Hold on, if I had an electron microscope, can I just put in a decapped cheap large format photodiode under it, jack the beam current way up, and start etching trenches on it?
I don't think so: it's a microscope, not a synchrotron. :D
I meant "drawing" on a photoresist layer with a SEM and then wet-etching it. Also all silicon in a photodiode is doped, so the etched parts would be of little use, I believe.
And the clean environment as a whole. That's a massive investment and there are a million ways to mess that up.
> however, I believe acquiring wafers of sufficient quality and depositing layers to be etched could be the bigger challenge here
Definitely hard for a home fab but how about a community fab? Not necessarily a geographic community.
There's this guy doing clean room in a shed on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Dr.Semiconductor
for making research grade devices you barely need a cleanroom
wafers are the easy bit.
What is this, a movie theater for ants?
It has to be at least 3 times bigger than this!
or AR glasses?
We can finally say yes to this question
This might be relevant for Augmented Reality headgear.
Seems like you could put a few of these on a contact lens and minimally get a small private HUD. Seems like with a few of them (or fast enough scanning speed) you could build effectively a light field to give it depth)
This is actually getting close enough to manipulate the _phase_ of light! And doing that would allow creating true holograms.
Or alternative true augmented reality glasses that are not limited to one focal plane.
Have I got news for you:
Except that you need that for individual pixels.
Electro-optic modulators already exist — still no StarTrek. :(
Sounds like this will have interesting fiber-optic implications?
Happy days at the ant colony.
How do you even fit a video projector onto something that small, the physics feel like they shouldn't cooperate.
Oh wait. It does have the correct title. My fruit flies are cheering.
Cool. Now I can show videos to my fruit flies! /s
Srsly title should be "MEMS Array Chip the Size of a Grain of Sand Can Project Video"
not
"MEMS Array Chip Can Project Video the Size of a Grain of Sand"
It is actually about a 0.125mm projection, not the size of the chip. But more about steering lasers, which is really what they wanted to do.
This is revolutionary. No other way to put it.
It certainly looks like something that will find novel applications.