It's often easier to make a small chip and spin it around on a rotating platform than to make a big chip. For a similar reason, rotating line cameras are a thin

It's often easier to make a small chip and spin it around on a rotating platform than to make a big chip. For a similar reason, rotating line cameras are a thing for panoramic imaging [1]. As the technology matures and become cheaper, we will see more solid state technology, just as bundles of regular area scan cameras with fisheye lenses have displaced rotating line cameras. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotating_line_camera https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotating_line_camera