Components, hardware, and interconnect webs of optical fiber see in all directions.

EDN, August, 2006

by Matthew Miller Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have fashioned a web of optical fibers into an optical system that boasts potentially useful advantages over conventional 2-D lenses or detectors. The 1-mm-thick fibers feature a glass core that has metal electrodes running along its length and is encased in a transparent, polymer insulator.

When researchers weave these fibers into a spherical shape, they constitute an optical system that--with the help of a computer for interpretation--can detect the direction, intensity, and phase of incoming light. Unlike conventional lenses, which are limited to the view along a certain axis, the fiber spheres can sense light all around them. The researchers cite flexibility,...

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