Integrated Photonic Circuits Could Help Close the 'Terahertz Gap'

Towards improved chip Fabrication.

Integrated Photonic Circuits Could Help Close the 'Terahertz Gap'

EPFL News (Switzerland),Celia Luterbacher, December 1, 2023

Scientists at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne (EPFL), ETH Zurich, and Harvard University created a thin-film circuit that generates custom-tailored terahertz-frequency waves in conjunction with a laser beam. This achievement could help bridge the so-called terahertz (THz) gap situated between approximately 300 gigahertz (GHz) and 30,000 GHz (30 THz) on the electromagnetic spectrum. The chip features an integrated photonic circuit fabricated from lithium niobate. Said EPFL's Cristina Benea-Chelmus, "The fact that our device already makes use of a standard optical signal is really an advantage, because it means that these new chips can be used with traditional lasers, which work very well and are very well understood. It means our device is telecommunications-compatible." ... ' 

A 3-D Printing Factory

More scaled, efficient operations? 

You Know What's Cool? A 3D-Printing Factory,     By Bloomberg, February 9, 2023

Freeform Future co-founder and CEO Erik Palitsch watches one of the company’s 3D printers in operation.

The Freeform Future startup aims to establish automated three-dimensional (3D) printing plants that mass-produce products from metal powders using laser arrays.

The company claims its method could fabricate metal parts 25 to 50 times faster than current techniques at significantly lower cost.

Freeform's current factory in Hawthorne, CA, 3D-prints many items simultaneously by moving metal plates in and out of beams from 18 lasers along two parallel conveyor systems. Computer vision algorithms coordinate the nonstop laser firing based on data from camera images.

Nick Doucette at rocket engine manufacturer Ursa Major Technologies said Freeform's key innovation is its object-monitoring process, which combines sensors, scanners, and artificial intelligence software for quality control during printing.

From Bloomberg   

A Modular Building Platform for the Most Ingenious of Robots

Hmm, musing the use of this.

A Modular Building Platform for the Most Ingenious of Robots

Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems (Germany),  April 29, 2021

Scientists at Germany's Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems (MPI-IS) have developed a system for fabricating soft miniature robots in a modular fashion. MPI-IS's Jiachen Zhang said, "You can put the individual soft parts together in any way you wish, with no limitations on what you can achieve. In this way, each robot has an individual magnetization profile." The process fabricates thousands of voxels (three-dimensional pixels) in one step, and the researchers use tiny mold casts to generate individual blocks no longer than about 100 micrometers. Said MPI-IS's Metin Sitti, "By mixing and matching, we enable tailor-made functionalities and complex robot morphologies."

Designing and Building Reality

Reminds us of our meeting with Neil Gershenfeld at the MIT Center for Bits and Atoms ...  An enlightening experience about the future of fabrication. ...  Taking it beyond 3D Printing.  

In Knowledge@Wharton: Podcast and text.

We are on the threshold of a third digital revolution via computer fabrication, according to a new book.

Designing-RealityThe first two digital revolutions — computing and communications — transformed society. Now comes the third, which is fabrication, argues the new book, Designing Reality: How to Survive and Thrive in the Third Digital Revolution. The authors say that computerized fabrication such as 3-D printing is the beginning of a trend to change data into objects. But like any revolution, not all populations will benefit equally. The book, which is aimed at helping people prepare for the next tech wave, was written by three brothers: Alan Gershenfeld, president of E-Line Media and former chairman of Games for Change; Joel Cutcher-Gershenfeld, a professor at Brandeis University; and Neil Gershenfeld, who heads The Center for Bits and Atoms at MIT. Alan Gerhsenfeld and Cutcher-Gershenfeld talked about their book on the Knowledge@Wharton show, which airs on SiriusXM channel 111. (Listen to the full podcast using the player at the top of this page.)  .... " 

Beetle Blocks

Fun idea,   application to certain kinds of 3D designs, tunneling, extruding, forming?  Reminds me of Turtle progams.  It is inspired by MIT Media Lab Scratch.  Uses Berkeley Snap! language.

Via the CACM Linkedin Group.

Beetle Blocks: Visual Code for 3D Design
Beetle Blocks is a graphical blocks-based programming environment for 3D design and fabrication.
Use code to control a beetle that can place 3D shapes and extrude its path as a tube. Then make a 3D print!Beetle Blocks is a graphical blocks-based programming environment for 3D design and fabrication.

Use code to control a beetle that can place 3D shapes and extrude its path as a tube. Then make a 3D print!

Beetle Blocks is alpha software, currently in development. Only the Chrome browser is currently supported. We'd love to hear your feature requests and bug reports on github.   ..." 

Run demo.  (In Chrome browser only at this time)