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."

Width of which human hair?

[Gefd]

It's interesting to see science using the extremely accurate measurement of 'the width of a human hair' to convey the smallness of <i>really-small-stuff</i>. 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.

Re:Width of which human hair?

[DASHSL0T]

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

What are you thinking?

[Garridan]

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

Cool!

[Steve Cox]

I can now use my TV remote from further away.

Re:Cool!

[mstorer3772]

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.

Correct me if I'm wrong but...

[HotNeedleOfInquiry]

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?

Re:Correct me if I'm wrong but...

[Jammer@CMH]

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.

Re:Correct me if I'm wrong but...

[ArsonPerBuilding]

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