Black Silicon Used For Surveillance? 56
An anonymous reader writes "For the past decade, 'black silicon' has been touted as a way to make super-sensitive image sensors and ultra-efficient solar cells. That's because the material — silicon wafers treated with sulfur gases and femtosecond laser pulses — is much better at absorbing photons and releasing electrons than conventional silicon, at least over certain wavelengths. In 2008, Harvard spinoff SiOnyx went public with its plans to commercialize black silicon. But what happened to those plans? Today SiOnyx revealed in another exclusive that it has raised new venture financing from Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen and other big investors. It also has formed a key strategic partnership to scale up manufacturing of black silicon — and go after markets in security, surveillance, automotive, consumer devices, and medical imaging."
I don't like black silicon (Score:3, Funny)
I think black silicon is less productive, despite all the effort we've put into giving it a chance based on historical misuse and underuse. Basically, it doesn't have the right bond valency to adequately function in our society, so we really ought to let the markets sort of segregate so that people who prefer white silicon can go there without having to worry about intermixing.
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They also prefer African American Silicon.
It's dope. Literally. (Score:1)
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To be Politically Correct, you must call it African American Silicon.
You should never call prople like Desmond Tutu a Black. He must be called an African American.
So, the color of his skin gives him American citizenship?
If you really want to phrase it this way, he must be called an "African South African" which seems to be the epitome of redundancy...
Also, I had no idea he was a "prople".
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So, the color of his skin gives him American citizenship?
If you really want to phrase it this way, he must be called an "African South African" which seems to be the epitome of redundancy...
Also, I had no idea he was a "prople".
You are definately a racist, according to th PC crowd. Anyone who has extra-dark skin, or is distantly related to someone who might have had such a condition, cannot be called Black, or any other term relating to their skin color, or their ancesters skin color. The only approved term is "African American". Until other terms have been added to the PC lexicon, that is the only term available to us. So nationality is not a barrier. Tutu has been reported to be African American in numerous magazine articles, so
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You are definately a racist, according to th PC crowd.
Who exactly are this "PC crowd" who state that *all* black people (as opposed to American ones) are "African American"?
While there probably *are* some people who genuinely espouse the stereotypical "gone mad"-type political correctness, a lot of it appears to be strawman-type misrepresentation and assumption by those who disagree with it, or just assume that something is going to be the case. Oh, interesting article here [everything2.com], by the way.
Anyone who has extra-dark skin, or is distantly related to someone who might have had such a condition, cannot be called Black, or any other term relating to their skin color, or their ancesters skin color. The only approved term is "African American".
Well, in the US perhaps.
Tutu has been reported to be African American in numerous magazine articles, so that should be considered official canon.
Why does that follow or make it "official"? It co
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Woosh!
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Um, I think they just applied it to your comment.
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"Black Silicon Kills Babies!"
An objective test is required. I suggest a sample of ten babies of the same weight.
Drop a 200KG slug of Black Silicon from a height of two meters on five of them, then drop a 200KG slug of White Silicon on the other five. High-speed video could monitor plastic deformation and splatter.
Re:Misleading summary (Score:4, Funny)
Well, now you're just inducing selection bias. What if all babies who weigh 5 kilos have a splatter radius of only 0.2 meter, and all babies that weigh 7 kilos have a splatter radius of 2 meters? Then your objective test would be inherently flawed as to the predicted result of dropping a 200 kg slug of silicon on a baby.
What we need to do is to take a random sample of babies, of sufficient number compared to the total population of babies to achieve a low margin of error, split them into a control and a test group, and *then* drop the slugs of silicon on them.
Oh, also, for true statistical rigor, make sure to stab the babies with a pencil in both eyes first to ensure the study is double-blind.
Not having RTFA (Score:1, Interesting)
But having some years as lab physicist, could someone add if the S is SF6, and at what lambda? At what W over what area?
Re:Not having RTFA (Score:5, Informative)
What's the significance? (Score:2)
Re:What's the significance? (Score:5, Informative)
Why is black silicon being used in security and surveillance significant? Title should read more like "Paul Allen and others invest in Black Silicon."
A photodiode is a really tiny solar cell. Or a CCD is vaguely like an array of really tiny solar cells with a bunch of glue logic (actually way different but at a simplistic enough level thats a useful mental model of a CCD even if its implementation is different ..)
Anyway the short version is high efficiency works, but apparently failed economically for bulk energy production. Ooops. Time for a new business plan. The purpose of yer low light camera sensor isn't to charge a battery, so its possibly useful regardless of manufacturing dollars per watt delivered.
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Anyway the short version is high efficiency works, but apparently failed economically for bulk energy production. Ooops. Time for a new business plan. The purpose of yer low light camera sensor isn't to charge a battery, so its possibly useful regardless of manufacturing dollars per watt delivered.
Using femtosecond lasers for treating silicon surfaces was never going to be price-competitive for solar panel production. DRIE black silicon [iop.org] on the other hand, could be made competitive, if/when production scale DRIE equipment appears, specifically modified (and simplified) for black silicon forming. The strong plasma that is required, however, limits scalability. Still, not entirely impossible.
Nightvision? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Nightvision? (Score:4, Informative)
Standard night vision uses near-infrared light to 'see'. It requires an infrared emitter to actually 'see' things. Normal human eyes cannot see this light. Military/industrial grade night vision uses sensors that picks infrared light generated from heat. This is the stuff you usually see in movies. (See FLIR entry in wikipedia)
This dark silicone picks up visible light, although it will be far more sensitive than current sensors. As long as it's not pitch black, a tiny amount of light that normal eyes cannot see will be sensed by it.
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Standard night vision uses near-infrared light to 'see'. It requires an infrared emitter to actually 'see' things. Normal human eyes cannot see this light. Military/industrial grade night vision uses sensors that picks infrared light generated from heat. This is the stuff you usually see in movies. (See FLIR entry in wikipedia)
This dark silicone picks up visible light, although it will be far more sensitive than current sensors. As long as it's not pitch black, a tiny amount of light that normal eyes cannot see will be sensed by it.
There are two types of night vision equipment - the cheaper near IR cameras mentioned above, and image intensifier tubes which enormously magnify visible light. The word "tubes" should alert you that IRTs are a vacuum tube technology, using vacuum ion cascades to magnify the image current. Perhaps "black silicon" will enable a solid state device to approach the performance of an IRT.
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OMG! X10 camera pop unders are going to be back (Score:1, Offtopic)
Comment removed (Score:3, Funny)
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I mean, "black" silicone doing surveillance? The conspiracy nuts will have a blast with it!
Why would we care about the color? Guy's like us don't get near fake boobs.
Any questions? (Score:5, Interesting)
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Re:Any questions? (Score:4, Informative)
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Re:Any questions? (Score:5, Informative)
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"...Instead, ordinary silicon is shot with a femtosecond pulsed laser in the presence of a sulfur-containing gas..."
Why sulfur, specifically?
And that leads to another question. Has this same process been used with other combination of base materials and gasses? Is there something unique about silicon that makes the PROCESS possible?
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I'm getting my Ph.D researching black silicon.
How nice - me too! But we tend to call it "silicon nanograss" - it's more sexy, because it has "nano" in the name. Ours is the DRIE kind of black silicon. What's yours?
Re:Any questions? (Score:4, Informative)
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So... you work with laser-formed BS? You didn't really answer my question, so I am guessing only.
The BS symposium looks fun, but unless I can send in an abstract, I won't get funding for a trip to the US. And actually, getting the visa last time was such a major PITA, that I am not really looking forward to it, now that I think of it.
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- What wavelengths does this material respond too/detect? Could it be modified/designed to image UV/Vis/IR?
- How linear is the response function, or perhaps would it require an exotic calibration procedure to translate photons i
Re:Any questions? (Score:5, Informative)
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As an electronics engineer in the remote sensing and scientific imaging field, I'd be interested in seeing some total QE vs wavelength curves for this material, even one that's specific to a particular device. So far my colleagues generally write this off as vaporware and marketing claims. ("Black Silicon is BS," to quote one of my former bosses.)
Re:Any questions? (Score:4, Informative)