🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <2507@phri.UUCP> roy@phri.UUCP (Roy Smith) writes:
>	I suppose this is a bit off the wall, but how about using a phased
>array to steer a laser beam over the face of a stationary data surface.
>I'm not 100% sure how you would read the data, and my field theory is so
>rusty that I have no idea if this is even plausable, but it sure could be
>fast.  No moving parts either.
>
>	I remember reading an article about phased-array radars sometime in
>the past year or two.  Probably either IEEE Spectrum or Sci. Am. (How's
>that for a precise reference :-)).  I'll have to go re-read the article.


Maybe not a phased array  alone (yes,  normally used  in radar constuction,
atmosphereic research etc.), but *with* a piezoelectric device  used in the
driving of fast mirrors ( I worked on a proposal for  a starwars laser/fast
mirror  combo)  Although  I  know  something  about phased  array radar (my
father's thesis) I'm not sure how well they work at short  distances and to
what accuracy/resolution they operate.  If this combonation was an implicit
assumption, my apologies...  I just started watching this discussion.  


-- 
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Scott Presnell  Eidgnoessische Technische Hochschule, Zuerich (ETH-Zentrum)
		Labor Fuer Organische Chemie
		Universitaetsstrasse 16
		CH-8092 Zuerich Switzerland.

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