SBIR-STTR Award

Several 3-dimensional visual display technologies exist, but there is currently no satisfactory 3-D hardcopy technology available. There is a clear need for archival 3-D hardcopy printers in a wide range of fields including medicine, engineering, architecture, and modeling. This effort is directed at proving the feasibility of a dot-matrix printer which can record a 3-D hologram pixel-by-pixel at a speed comparable to high-resolution laser printing.Commercial Applications:There is a clear need for a 3-D hardcopy printer in medical imaging. Similarly, there are applications in education, CAD, architecture, scientific imaging, and graphical data display. A dot-matrix 3-D printer will also find wide Applications in advertising and packaging, for making low-cost hologram masters.

The goal of this research is to construct a working prototype holographic printer, employing an acousto-optic modulator, a 652 nm diode laser and a special silver halide holographic film whose sensitivity peaks at 652 nm. Phase I efforts have demonstrated technical feasibility in which a three-dimensional image is recorded as an array of dot holograms, each of which requires only an extrememly brief exposure. Because of this brief period (about 50 nanoseconds), none of the vibration equipment normally required for holography will be required. The technology should find applications in medical imaging, seismological imaging, architecture, CAD, and other fields in which three dimensional information must be visualized and is worth archiving or communicating in the form of a visible three-dimensional holographic image