I cannot see how to do it, but one way to beat that limit might be the use of diffraction gratings. It might be possible to have the light from two opposing edges of the solar disk interfere and produce a darker spot, thus allowing one to draw the time in darker text on a light background.<p>If that can work, I guess both the design (I can&#x27;t see how to design one object that shows a number for say 5 seconds; now fit thousands in a single object) and the engineering challenge would be quite a bit higher (at submicrometer scales), and that the resulting contrast of the display would be a lot lower.