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The QWIP Infrared Detector

Posted by michael on from the warmer-warmer...-colder dept.

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."

8 of 14 comments (clear)

  1. Width of which human hair? by Gefd · · Score: 1, Offtopic

    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.

    1. Re:Width of which human hair? by DASHSL0T · · Score: 1, Offtopic

      How is the parent redundant if he is the only post here?

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  2. Cool! by Steve+Cox · · Score: 1

    I can now use my TV remote from further away.

    1. Re:Cool! by mstorer3772 · · Score: 1

      Not necessarily, but those 'look thru clothes' camera lenses should start giving better results... ;)

      That actually raises an interesting question: What ARE the uses for this sort of thing? Where is IR imaging used? I can think of cameras of various sorts, and perhaps night-scopes, but there's got to be more stuff out there.

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      Fooz Meister
  3. Correct me if I'm wrong but... by HotNeedleOfInquiry · · Score: 1
    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."

    Wouldn't making the pixels smaller make the device detect less light?

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    1. Re:Correct me if I'm wrong but... by Jammer@CMH · · Score: 1

      It allows you to ensure that a greater fraction of your photodetector surface is actual detectors, and that a smaller percentage of light falls between pixels and is undetected. Perhaps.

    2. Re:Correct me if I'm wrong but... by ArsonPerBuilding · · Score: 1

      I could only see this being a problem if the photodector is smalled than the wavelength of the light being detected.

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  4. What are you thinking? by Garridan · · Score: 1

    Don't you know? Humor is not accepted here on Slashdot. Off topic AND redundant. My anus.