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The QWIP Infrared Detector
MagnetarJones writes "This article on space.com reports on a new infrared detector using a chip known as a Quantum Well Infrared Photodetector array (QWIP), capable of resolving images in far infrared wavelengths more than three times better than current detectors. The QWIP uses the semiconductor gallium arsenide, a material with established commercial uses that have led to a simplified, less expensive, manufacturing process. The best detectors in use today -- including other gallium arsenide versions -- have a resolving power of about 300,000 pixels. The new array, a wafer-like chip measuring about 2 centimeters on a side, carries 1 million pixels across its detection surface. Even the pixels themselves are smaller, five of them could fit in the diameter of a human hair, allowing them to detect more light and generate a higher quality image."
It's interesting to see science using the extremely accurate measurement of 'the width of a human hair' to convey the smallness of really-small-stuff. Human hair from where? My pubis is easily twice the thickness, perhaps more, of the hair that grows between the knuckles on my fingers.
Is there a standard somewhere that I'm unaware of that specifies the default width of a folicle?
Do I have a point?
Sadly no. I'll be on my way now.