Results 1 to 7 of 7

Thread: A new, but not so new, type of scanner.

  1. #1
    mixedgas's Avatar
    mixedgas is offline Creaky Old Award Winning Bastard Technologist
    Infinitus Excellentia Ion Laser Dominatus
    Join Date
    May 2007
    Location
    A lab with some dripping water on the floor.
    Posts
    9,890

    Default A new, but not so new, type of scanner.

    Dual axis electrop-optical scanners using ADP and KDP have been built, but suffered from a low deflection angle, requiring 5-10 prisms of KDP to be placed in series to get a decent swing for a few applications such as a prototype hud for the f14 tomcat. They were basically abandoned in the mid to late 70s as a crystal that was birefringent and cheap and had a sufficient EO figure of merit did not exsist. On a EO deflector, you just apply a suitiable high voltage which changes the index of refraction in the crystal, resulting in a change of deflection angle.

    Fast forward to 2009. Keep in mind that what normally appears in Laser Focus World is not usually something you can get your hands on. Once I was in the mailroom at UA and one of the professors came in, scornful to find me reading LFW and flirting with a good looking student assistant (yes, you can flirt with paid staff if you are not their direct supervisor, in fact the university was proud of their high inter staff marriage rate)

    What are you doing Steve, he asks? "I'm reading the wishbook of unobtainium that is not in production, that often does not exist, and that we cant afford and will never get our hands on in quanity one..." I answer. Very good he says, "Nowquit flirting with Allie and get back to work.

    Well, once, just this once, something showed up in the dreambook we might get ou hands on.

    Nippon Telephone and Telegraph found a material with a decent EO figure of merit. Something called Potassium Tantalate Niobate. A PTN crystal, with electrodes on four faces around the light path at 90' Can, according to NTT, deflect a beam at +/- 14' for a applied voltage of +/- 250V. see June 2. 2009 LFW for details.

    Since there are no moving parts, this could be damn fast, in fact the limit is how fast you can slew the voltage into a capacitive load. I imagine 100-200 Khz might be possible with care. Its got a slightly nonlinear deflection curve in the low ends, but it could easilybe corrected in software. So start thinking how you get +/- 250V swing into a 10 pf load, as fast as possible.

    The protoype in the picture is a cylendar about .5 mm in diameter and maybe 4 mm long.

    You need 400 V/mm for peak deflection.

    Somebody get a qoute and lets see if we can do a group buy (not holding my breath)

    See: http://www.ntt-at.com/products_e/KTN_scanner/index.html

    Oh, and unlike previous LFW miracles, this one will be displayed to the public at CLEO.

    (only problem might be it could be wavelength sensitive, so what, 4 scan heads for RGBY have proven useful in the past )

    I refuse to install quicktime, so somebody tell me if the movie is interesting/..... Steve



    And watching BB try to figure out how to make a scanner amp with +/- 300V and 3 db down at 500 khz might be interesting, to say the least. It will certainly allow a quadmod redesign, the QM4000, probably...

    Steve
    Last edited by mixedgas; 06-20-2009 at 16:49.
    Qui habet Christos, habet Vitam!
    I should have rented the space under my name for advertising.
    When I still could have...

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Mar 2008
    Location
    Canton, GA USA
    Posts
    384

    Default

    DAMN!!! I *LOVE IT* when he talks that way!!!

    "the limit is how fast you can slew the voltage into a capacitive load. I imagine 100-200 Khz might be possible with care. Its got a slightly nonlinear deflection curve in the low ends, but it could easily be corrected in software. So start thinking how you get +/- 250V swing into a 10 pf load, as fast as possible."

    i'm jiss sayin'...

  3. #3
    Join Date
    May 2007
    Location
    Orlando, FL
    Posts
    1,090

    Default

    • Unprecedented performance : Scan up to 10 degrees deflection at 100kHz, 100x faster than a polygon mirror.
    • Wide operation wavelength 532nm - 4,500nm, high peak and average power handling capabilities with minimal loss.


    Are you kidding me?! This is COOL! What do we do about Blue and BluRay though?

    BTW Steve, the video is somewhat worth it... they're scanning a rotating star at varying speeds...

    --DDL
    I suffer from the Dunning–Kruger effect... daily.

  4. #4
    mixedgas's Avatar
    mixedgas is offline Creaky Old Award Winning Bastard Technologist
    Infinitus Excellentia Ion Laser Dominatus
    Join Date
    May 2007
    Location
    A lab with some dripping water on the floor.
    Posts
    9,890

    Default

    [QUOTE=daedal;103483]
    • Unprecedented performance : Scan up to 10 degrees deflection at 100kHz, 100x faster than a polygon mirror.
    • Wide operation wavelength 532nm - 4,500nm, high peak and average power handling capabilities with minimal loss.


    Are you kidding me?! This is COOL! What do we do about Blue and BluRay though?

    the other data said 410 -4500 ????marketing?????

    Steve
    Qui habet Christos, habet Vitam!
    I should have rented the space under my name for advertising.
    When I still could have...

  5. #5
    Join Date
    May 2007
    Location
    Sydney, Australia
    Posts
    81

    Default

    WooHoo!
    Also does vari-focal lens @ 1us ( 1 MHz )
    (with the right power suply)



  6. #6
    mixedgas's Avatar
    mixedgas is offline Creaky Old Award Winning Bastard Technologist
    Infinitus Excellentia Ion Laser Dominatus
    Join Date
    May 2007
    Location
    A lab with some dripping water on the floor.
    Posts
    9,890

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by fuzcub View Post
    WooHoo!
    Also does vari-focal lens @ 1us ( 1 MHz )
    (with the right power suply)


    If this material has that high a figure of merit, this could be a game changer in the optics business. The high refractive index (2.2 at 633) sister material f is VERY interesting from a high power LED perspective.

    Steve
    Qui habet Christos, habet Vitam!
    I should have rented the space under my name for advertising.
    When I still could have...

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Dec 2008
    Location
    Southport, UK
    Posts
    2,746

    Default

    That seems like it could be a genesis for laser projection, and Steve; take a look at this

    http://www.codecguide.com/about_qt.htm

    I hate Quicktime also.
    http://img62.imageshack.us/img62/3985/laser.gif

    Doc's website

    The Health and Safety Act 1971

    Recklessly interfering with Darwin’s natural selection process, thereby extending the life cycle of dim-witted ignorami; thus perpetuating and magnifying the danger to us all, by enabling them to breed and walk amongst us, our children and loved ones.





Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •