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Posted by bookofjoe 5 hours ago

MEMS Array Chip Can Project Video the Size of a Grain of Sand(spectrum.ieee.org)
53 points | 24 comments
jmward01 1 hour ago|
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.
volemo 1 hour ago||
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.
jacquesm 31 minutes ago||
And the clean environment as a whole. That's a massive investment and there are a million ways to mess that up.
Joel_Mckay 1 hour ago||
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

antimatter15 1 hour ago||
This 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...).
nomel 5 minutes ago|
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" onto is just what the flopping waveguide head traces.
kylehotchkiss 3 minutes ago||
Sounds like this will have interesting fiber-optic implications?
CoolThings 2 hours ago||
This might be relevant for Augmented Reality headgear.
dmitrygr 3 hours ago||
What is this, a movie theater for ants?
chihuahua 1 hour ago||
It has to be at least 3 times bigger than this!
numpad0 3 hours ago|||
or AR glasses?
m3kw9 3 hours ago||
We can finally say yes to this question
cubefox 1 hour ago||
> 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.

jacquesm 27 minutes ago||
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?
cordwainersmith 2 hours ago||
How do you even fit a video projector onto something that small, the physics feel like they shouldn't cooperate.
cyberax 1 hour ago||
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.

jacquesm 29 minutes ago||
Have I got news for you:

https://www.rp-photonics.com/phase_modulators.html

cyberax 4 minutes ago||
Except that you need that for individual pixels.
volemo 1 hour ago||
Electro-optic modulators already exist — still no StarTrek. :(
darfo 5 hours ago||
Oh wait. It does have the correct title. My fruit flies are cheering.
SilentM68 2 hours ago|
[dead]
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