Next Generation 3D Holographic Displays

The Hollywood film industry went to a whole new level after 3-D movies like James Cameron’s “Avatar” to the latest “Underworld Awakening”. The perspective of watching movies through a whole new dimension is believed to have brought movie fans closer to reality. But, people often complain about headaches and other eye problems after watching a movie continuously for 2 to 3 hours.   But, due to the awesome movie effects, most companies are ignoring this problem and are introducing more and more 3D enabled gadgets like 3D televisions and smart phones. Smart phones like LG Optimus 3D and HTC evo 3D give us a glass free 3D effect using auto-stereoscopic technology. Even gadgets like these produce headaches and eye pain after constant viewing for hours. The case is same with the 3D smart TV or watching a 3D movie with glasses in a theater.

These problems can be overcome by the newly developed holographic displays. They produce a 3D display that can be viewed with ease, without pain in our eyes. The technology is in its early stage developments and hence only low quality holographic displays have been shown till now.

A group of researchers from a Belgian firm “Imec” have created a MEMS chip that can be used to make holographic displays. First a wafer of silicon is taken and a layer of silicon dioxide is grown on it. Then the silicon dioxide is etched away such that grid pixels of size 150 nm, which are shallower than the surrounding silicon dioxide layer, are formed. The entire grid is then topped with fine layer of reflective aluminum. Then a beam of laser light is made to fall in this wafer in an angle such that the light is interfaced with itself. Usually, the pixels are moved to make the illusion of image movement. Instead of this method, a chip covered with tiny MEMS is designed to easily create a moving holographic image. The MEMS is made to move up and down on the chip’s surface to produce the image.

If this technique is successful in making high quality holography then the problems associated with 3D viewing will be eliminated and we can get a comfortable 3D vision. This will surely pave way to watching 3D movies with ease.