Best Student Paper Award at SPIE Photonics West 2026

A paper presented at SPIE Photonics West 2026 titled “Fast beam steering by resonant drive operation of a pixelated MEMS spatial light modulator” received the 2026 Best Student Paper Award in the conference track Emerging Digital Micromirror Device Based Systems and Applications XVIII.

The award‑winning research was led by Keyang Wei and Emil Varghese (lead authors), with contributions from Ryan Santos, in collaboration with the Takashima Lab at the Wyant College of Optical Sciences. The team reported a world‑record operational speed of 80 kHz for a Texas Instruments Digital Micromirror Device (DMD), achieved through a newly developed driving method that enables direct access to the signal base of MEMS‑based micromirror pixels.

This breakthrough unlocks a novel and previously unexplored potential for DMD technology in continuous beam steering applications, including frequency‑modulated continuous wave (FMCW) lidar, MHz‑burst‑rate ultra‑high‑speed imaging, and free‑space optical communications. The work demonstrates how resonant drive operation can dramatically extend the performance limits of pixelated MEMS spatial light modulators.

This recognition marks the fourth Best Student Paper Award from the Wyant College of Optical Sciences in lidar and AR display research using MEMS devices, following previous awards in 2020, 2022, and 2025, underscoring the College’s continued leadership in advanced optical engineering and photonics research.