- 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.
- 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.
- And the clean environment as a whole. That's a massive investment and there are a million ways to mess that up.
- 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
- 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...).
- 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.
- Sounds like this will have interesting fiber-optic implications?
- This might be relevant for Augmented Reality headgear.
- > 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.
Edit: Given that a is around 1e-20 and b around 1e27 I don't think the average is anywhere near that...
- How do you even fit a video projector onto something that small, the physics feel like they shouldn't cooperate.
- 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. :(
- Oh wait. It does have the correct title. My fruit flies are cheering.
- [dead]
- 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.
56 points by bookofjoe 5 hours ago | 25 comments