PhysOrg has a short article about a company called “Imec” that hopes to make holographic TV a reality in 2012 through an interesting nanoscale silicon processes.
In their nanoscale system, they work with chips made by growing a layer of silicon oxide on to silicon wafer. They etch square patches of the silicon oxide. The result is a checkerboard-like pattern where etched-away pixels are nanometers lower than their neighbors. A reflective aluminum coating tops the chip. When laser light shines on the chip, it bounces off of the boundary between adjacent pixels at an angle. Diffracted light interferes constructively and destructively to create a 3-D picture where small mirrored platforms are moving up and down, many times a second, to create a moving projection.
They hope to have their first “proof of concept” designs in 2012, although I imagine a marketable version of the tech is a good 4-5 years away. Check out their demo video from IEEE Spectrum below.
