MEMS Array Chip Can Project Video the Size of a Grain of Sand

jmward01•about 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•38 minutes 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•6 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•about 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•about 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...).

dmitrygr•about 4 hours ago

What is this, a movie theater for ants?

chihuahua•about 1 hour ago

It has to be at least 3 times bigger than this!

m3kw9•about 3 hours ago

We can finally say yes to this question

numpad0•about 3 hours ago

or AR glasses?

cubefox•about 2 hours 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•2 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•about 3 hours ago

How do you even fit a video projector onto something that small, the physics feel like they shouldn't cooperate.

CoolThings•about 2 hours ago

This might be relevant for Augmented Reality headgear.

cyberax•about 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•5 minutes ago

Have I got news for you:

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

volemo•about 1 hour ago

Electro-optic modulators already exist — still no StarTrek. :(

darfo•about 5 hours ago

Oh wait. It does have the correct title. My fruit flies are cheering.

darfo•about 5 hours ago

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"

projektfu•about 2 hours ago

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.

gurumeditations•about 1 hour ago

This is revolutionary. No other way to put it.

topspin•about 1 hour ago

It certainly looks like something that will find novel applications.

MEMS Array Chip Can Project Video the Size of a Grain of Sand

⚡ Community Insights

Discussion (21 Comments)Read Original on HackerNews