The integration platforms also suffer limitations like low optical power handling, high propagation losses, slow tuning response, and narrow transparency windows.1,3 no single substrate or technology can integrate the full range of photonic devices required in various applications on a single chip.1

But even as manufactured cameras spread, homemade cameras, or pinhole cameras, modeled after photography’s ancestor, the camera obscura, remained popular. All it required was a small container, like a shoebox, and some photographic paper. In fact, more than a century ago, Popular Science started offering do-it-yourself instructions for homemade pinhole cameras. A 1918 story recommended a cardboard box with “a sheet of tinfoil and pillbox” for the lens. A needle was used to poke a hole in the tinfoil to allow light into the chamber.

Camera obscura homemadekit

The use of light for data transmission and processing in PICs offers multiple advantages over electronic ICs, including reduced size, weight, power consumption, and cost, along with higher bandwidth and speed.

Photonics research is also largely impacted by limited access to PIC fabrication facilities, the increased costs associated with PIC fabrication processes, and the prolonged device-to-design turnaround time.2 Most of the manufacturers and researchers work on an individual level, which makes processes like light source integration, fiber coupling, and alignment more tedious. Thus, significant upfront investments are required in PIC foundries to enable multi-project wafer runs.1

PICs have also been used in portable biosensors and lab-on-chip devices to monitor health vitals, including body temperature, glucose levels, heart rate, and blood pressure.3

DIYcamera obscurafor drawing

Recent breakthroughs in material sciences, particularly with 2D materials (2DMs) such as graphene, black phosphorous, transition metal dichalcogenides, and ternary compounds, have opened new avenues for 2DM-PICs. These devices exhibit unique features like ultrafast carrier mobility, broadband absorption, strong nonlinear effects, and compatible monolithic integration.4

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There are several companies that still make photographic paper for film, such as Ilford. Remember, though, that whenever you work with photographic film, darkness is essential, which means cutting the paper down to size and inserting it in the camera in a dark room. If you’re working with black and white film, red light is okay to help you see what you’re doing. Otherwise, you’ll need a darkroom safelight.

2. Wu, C., Deng, H., Huang, Y., Yu, H., Takeuchi, I., Rı́osC., Li, M. (2024). Freeform direct-write and rewritable photonic integrated circuits in phase-change thin films. Science Advances. doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adk1361

Bill Gourgey is a Popular Science contributor and unofficial digital archeologist who enjoys excavating PopSci’s vast archives to update noteworthy stories (yes, merry-go-rounds are noteworthy).

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1. Bozovich, A. (2020). Photonic Integrated Circuits (PICs) for Next Generation Space Applications. [Online] NASA. Available at: https://nepp.nasa.gov/docs/etw/2020/16-JUN-TUE/1345-Bozovich-NEPP%20ETW-CL20-2424-Photonics-v2.pdf

3. Yang, J., Tang, M., Chen, S., Liu, H. (2023). From past to future: on-chip laser sources for photonic integrated circuits. Light-Science & Applications. doi.org/10.1038/s41377-022-01006-0

Programmable PICs are becoming increasingly recognized for their potential to develop flexible photonics for emerging technologies like optical computing, quantum computing, artificial intelligence, and neuromorphic photonics.2,3

How to make acamera obscurawith a box

Reuven Silverman of Ophir discusses the critical role of M2 measurements in laser technology for optimization and quality control in various industries.

Hybrid PICs have also been developed to overcome the limitations of individual materials. A silicon PIC with bonded InP lasers and amplifiers can reduce costs and maximize the scalability of silicon photonics.1

The basic components of PICs are modulators, switches, filters, attenuators, optical fibers, lenses, planar optical waveguides, photodetectors, light-emitting diodes, lasers, and optical amplifiers.1 These components are integrated on a single substrate through a top-down nanofabrication process that involves lithography, etching, and deposition systems installed in cleanroom facilities.2

5. Hänsel, A., Heck, R. (2020). Opportunities for photonic integrated circuits in optical gas sensors. J Phys Photonics. doi.org/10.1088/2515-7647/ab6742

4. Wu, J., Ma, H., Yin, P., Ge, Y., Zhang, Y., Li, L., Zhang, H., Lin, H. (2021). Two‐Dimensional Materials for Integrated Photonics: Recent Advances and Future Challenges. Small Science. doi.org/10.1002/smsc.202000053

The most prominent application of PICs is data communication, facilitated by the heterogeneous integration of on-chip laser sources. Si photonics-based light detection and ranging (LiDAR) systems have been developed for autonomous vehicles.

PICs are a next-generation disruptive technology with the potential to meet the power, size, weight, and performance goals of several sectors. These fields include telecommunications for faster internet, quantum computing for energy-efficient processors, healthcare for advanced diagnostic equipment, and aerospace for improved navigation systems.1,2

Through continuous research, investment, and collaboration, the current challenges facing PIC technology can be surmounted, unlocking its full potential across various sectors.

Integrated quantum photonics and quantum computing require compact PICs with high integration densities. Similarly, optical computing requires ultra-dense comb lasers for high-speed information processing with low latency and power consumption. The successful application of PICs in these areas requires the integration of on-chip light sources, achievable through advancements in nanofabrication techniques.3

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Despite its potential to revolutionize various industries, PIC technology is not expected to achieve the same component density level observed in CMOS electronics, primarily due to constraints like optical component size, electrical connectivity, and thermal management.

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The VINCI series of ultrafast fiber lasers has a central emission wavelength of 1064 nm and features a unique combination of short pulse durations.

These F-theta lenses by Avantier are designed for consistent spot size and uniform field curvature correction, ideal for high-resolution imaging applications.

Si and III-V semiconductors (InP, GaAs, InGaAs) form the backbone of communication technology.4 With the incorporation of small and pluggable transceivers, silicon photonics has the potential to support data transmission rates exceeding 100 Gb/s over distances of more than 10 km..1

Dhull, Nidhi. (2024, March 29). Illuminating the Future: The Evolution and Impact of Photonic Integrated Circuits. AZoOptics. Retrieved on November 25, 2024 from https://www.azooptics.com/Article.aspx?ArticleID=2570.

LIS Technologies is on the road to transforming nuclear fuel enrichment through advanced laser techniques, ensuring a sustainable and cost-effective approach to energy production.

Shopping for, well, anyone? Our best birthday and holiday gift recommendations mean you’ll never need to buy another gift card.

PICs are aperture-independent due to fiber-coupling, transparent to modulation format, versatile, and scalable. PICs can overcome the limitations of electronic communication systems and discrete optical designs to provide a simpler, more reliable, and cost-effective solution for greater bandwidth communication.1

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The heat dissipation of photonic circuits is much larger than transistors, making resistive heaters a necessary component in PICs.1

Alternatively, photonic ICs (PICs) contain over 100 optical components on a single chip, offering greater functionality, reliability, and scalability. PICs represent the present and future technology for data centers and cloud computing, holding the potential to revolutionize telecommunications, computing, and medical diagnostics.1 This article explores the recent advancements, challenges, and prospects of PICs.

Dhull, Nidhi. "Illuminating the Future: The Evolution and Impact of Photonic Integrated Circuits". AZoOptics. 25 November 2024. .

For a true Renaissance experience, take your coffee-can camera down to your local café or coffeehouse and set it up. No one will get the connection, but you’ll be in good company, sipping coffee, exchanging heady ideas with friends, and snapping their portraits on your replica of a camera obscura—traditions that date back more than half a millennium.

Other emerging PIC applications, such as flexible photonics, terahertz systems, microwave photonics, and mid-infrared photonics, require more advanced materials and nanofabrication processing.4 Integration of PICs with electronic ICs for drivers and logic in the future is expected to accelerate the adoption of PICs, potentially transforming technology and society.1

The type of optical components that can be integrated into a PIC also depends on the substrate material. For example, an InP-based PIC can accommodate lasers, modulators, amplifiers, and detectors, while a polymer PIC mainly consists of modulators and attenuators.1

How to make acamera obscurawithout a lens

At about the time when coffee gained ground across the Near East in the 16th century—giving rise to coffee houses which quickly became important cultural centers—optical inventions like the compound microscope and telescope were also making their debut. Among these, the camera obscura became an essential tool for artisans to capture relatively detailed real-world images. Much later, in January 1961, Popular Science published instructions that leveraged the physics of the camera obscura to build a homemade coffee-can camera, combining unlikely staples with Renaissance origins.  It was novel then—and still is now—to use a coffee can to make a camera capable of also being a developing tank for the film, oran “instant” photo, just like a Polaroid. Let’s dive into the technique.

The unique feature of the 1961 coffee-can camera is the ability to use the can as the darkroom. Once you’ve taken your photo, you’ll want to pour in some developer solution through the funnel and tube, keeping the lid on tight and bending the tube to prevent light from entering. Let it set for several minutes. Again, you’ll have to find the right interval through trial and error. Pour out the developer solution through the tube then pour in some water to rinse it. After pouring out the water, you’ll want to add the fixer solution and let that sit for several minutes. At this point, it’s safe to open the can. You should see your image on the film. Rinse the can with water, carefully remove your image, and let it dry.

It’s worth noting that even though human eyes work like pinhole cameras—the pupil for the aperture, the retina for the film—fortunately for us, we don’t see the world upside down. That’s because our brain leverages myriad inputs that tell us which direction is up, thereby inverting images before they register. Plus, having two lenses (eyes) slightly separated enables us to see the world in 3D.

Another potential application of PICs is in modern gas sensing systems, with PIC-based optical spectroscopic sensors offering reductions in size and costs.5

These applications require the integration of tuneable components such as phase shifters, interferometers, and directional couplers into PICs. To rapidly realize such rewritable PICs at low costs, novel methods, such as direct laser writing on phase-change material thin films, are being explored.2

The earliest surviving photo was recorded by Niépce in 1826. Soon after, he teamed up with Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre, a Romantic Period painter, to perfect the chemical process of capturing images. In 1839, Daguerre revealed his eponymous daguerreotype, which set in motion decades of photographic innovation. Eastman Kodak introduced its popular Brownie camera in 1900 to anyone who could afford its $1 price tag.

To develop the film, you’ll need developer and fixer solutions, offered by companies like Kodak and Dektol. If they’re too pricey, a video from The Royal Institution explains how to make your own homemade solutions using common household ingredients like mint, baking soda, chewable Vitamin C tablets, and lemon juice.

Bestcamera obscura homemade

PICs are advanced systems-on-a-chip that utilize optical carriers for high-speed data transmission. With the highly scaled integration of various optical components on micron to mm-size chips, they work in the visible and near-infrared (350-1650 nm) electromagnetic spectrum to perform complex functions like electronic ICs.

Once your camera is loaded with film and ready to take pictures, some trial and error will be required to find the right exposure time, which depends on a number of factors like the size of your pinhole and the lighting—the brighter the day, the less exposure time required.

PICs can be fabricated from different materials, such as Silicon (Si), Silicon Nitride (SiN), Lithium Niobate (LiNbO3), and InP.2 The choice of substrate depends on the required functionality. For instance, silicon photonics is compatible with complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) technology, whereas InP is unique in offering direct integration of lasers.1,3

While the scant instructions offered in our 1961 story provide the basic parts and schematic, all of which can be obtained at grocery and hardware stores (or online), you might want to view contemporary videos like a coffee can camera tutorial and written instructions that will take you through the steps for assembling a pinhole camera, while explaining important features. For instance, it’s essential to have a chamber that is black and completely sealed from light—except when the shutter is opened to snap a picture. Note that the 1961 version includes a tube and funnel to pour in the developer and fixer solutions. (Also note that it suggests using black lacquer to coat the interior. Lacquer likely holds up against the solutions, whereas flat paint might not.)

Long before social media, American writer and critic Susan Sontag made no secret of her general distaste for photography, predicting that our culture would be consumed by it. In her 1977 essay “The Image-World,” she suggested that “photographs are a way of imprisoning reality,” of subsuming reality itself by packaging the real world into convenient, digestible chunks. In the late 1970s, when digital cameras were still the size of toaster ovens—making coffee-can cameras look sleek—her ideas were provocative. Today with smartphones in more than half the world’s hands, they seem prescient. And yet, even Sontag might have admitted that there’s something very Renaissance about imprisoning reality in a coffee can.

Camera obscura homemadepdf

Since the advent of transistors, integrated circuits (ICs) have primarily relied on electrons for data transmission. These electronic ICs are supplemented by photonic building blocks such as lasers, waveguides, photodetectors, and optical fibers. However, internal interconnects and packaging are major challenges in traditional optical designs, limiting the scalability and integration of optical components in complex systems.

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Packaging constitutes over 60 % of the total production cost for PICs, and standardization in packaging processes remains elusive, leading to high variability in die and assembly processes.

Dhull, Nidhi. 2024. Illuminating the Future: The Evolution and Impact of Photonic Integrated Circuits. AZoOptics, viewed 25 November 2024, https://www.azooptics.com/Article.aspx?ArticleID=2570.

The camera obscura, ancestor of the photographic camera, was typically a wooden box fitted with a lens on one side and an angled mirror inside that projected real-world images onto a frosted plate of glass or drawing paper, which could be traced by artists to capture fine details. It was Joseph Nicéphore Niépce, an inventor from France, who was among the first to transform the manual process of tracing camera obscura projections into an automated process that used chemistry to fix the image on a plate.

“If the room is darkened except for the one light, an inverted image of the lamp filament will appear on the second sheet of cardboard, incidentally proving that light travels in straight lines. From each point on the lamp filament, a light ray passes through the hole, and registers itself on the dark sheet of cardboard. Joining together, these points of light make up the image, its size depending on the distance from the light source, which may be an open gas flame as well as an incandescent lamp.”

Dhull, Nidhi. "Illuminating the Future: The Evolution and Impact of Photonic Integrated Circuits". AZoOptics. https://www.azooptics.com/Article.aspx?ArticleID=2570. (accessed November 25, 2024).

Toward the end of the 20th century, the chemistry of photography gave way to computational photography, simplifying and accelerating the process of capturing images. By coupling cameras with phones, photography became so accessible it sparked photo and video sensations such as Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok, which may be too much of a good thing, according to recent reports.

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The increasing demand for photonic-electronic integration (including electronic drivers, amplifiers, and control circuitry) complicates the packaging process further. Addressing these packaging challenges requires digitalization and the adoption of advanced techniques.1

Nidhi Dhull is a freelance scientific writer, editor, and reviewer with a PhD in Physics. Nidhi has an extensive research experience in material sciences. Her research has been mainly focused on biosensing applications of thin films. During her Ph.D., she developed a noninvasive immunosensor for cortisol hormone and a paper-based biosensor for E. coli bacteria. Her works have been published in reputed journals of publishers like Elsevier and Taylor & Francis. She has also made a significant contribution to some pending patents.

A single, highly sophisticated, monolithic, Indium Phosphide (InP)-based PIC can contain over 1000 optical components.1 Recent advancements in membrane-based photonic technology could enable the integration of over 10,000 components per PIC. This further reduces size and energy requirements for higher-density integration and facilitates combination with electronic ICs.1

No doubt, snapping a photo with your phone beats whipping out your coffee can to capture those important moments, although you might elicit some startled expressions. And yet, like a Polaroid, your coffee-can camera will serve up an on-the-spot physical image (just make sure you’re not in a hurry and have some chemicals handy) that your phone can’t produce. If that notion appeals to you, these steps will liberate your repressed do-it-yourself longings. Although the original instructions date back more than half a century, all of the supplies are still readily available, thanks to—you guessed it—digital media and online shopping.