Terahertz antenna that's 100 nanometers across

[CorporalCaptain]

From http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/newsandeventspggrp/imperialcollege/newssummary/news_20-1-2012-15-50-15:

Scientists have developed a new way to create electromagnetic Terahertz (THz) waves or T-rays - the technology behind full-body security scanners. The researchers behind the study, published recently in the journal Nature Photonics, say their new stronger and more efficient continuous wave T-rays could be used to make better medical scanning gadgets and may one day lead to innovations similar to the 'tricorder' scanner used in Star Trek.

From http://www.extremetech.com/computing/114975-nano-scale-terahertz-antenna-created-hand-held-tricorders-incoming:

Today, researchers from Imperial College London and A*STAR in Singapore have shown off a terahertz antenna that’s just 100 nanometers across — about 30,000 times smaller than Rohm’s antenna.

(...)

Most importantly, though, due to their nano scale, huge antennae arrays could be fashioned on a single silicon chip. Instead of the large millimeter wave scanners that you see in airports, or the massive medical imaging devices used in hospitals, the T-ray scanner of the future could be hand-held, just like a Star Trek tricorder; maybe someone will win that $10 million tricorder X Prize sooner than we expected.

Also here's a summary at http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/12/01/23/1340231/nano-scale-terahertz-antenna-may-make-tricorders-real.

So, yeah, this is really exciting, and seems like quite a breakthrough. The device can both send and receive T-rays, and it fits on a chip.

Practical tricorders may be invented in our lifetime!

 

[Trekker4747]

To quote Crow from MST3K: "Just because it's futuristic, doesn't mean that it's practical."