A startup has announced a new kind of high-performance image sensor, which it says will revolutionize “the way light is captured.” InVisage Technologies said its new technology, called QuantumFilm, is the “world’s first commercial quantum dot-based image sensor,” and added that it will replace conventional silicon-based sensors.
The Palm Desert, Calif.-based company said that QuantumFilm offers four times better performance and twice the dynamic range of existing sensors. It is expected to bring professional camera features to high-end mobile handsets and smartphones.
Quantum Dots
The technology was developed under the direction of InVisage Chief Technology Officer Ted Sargent, a professor at the University of Toronto and a leading researcher in nanotechnology. It’s based on “quantum dots,” nanocrystals made of a special kind of highly sensitive semiconductors that capture the light imprint of an image and send the digital signals to the custom silicon underneath.
The company said it spent three years engineering the image sensors so they can be created with standard CMOS manufacturing. That allows QuantumFilm sensors to have high pixel counts in tiny form factors.
During manufacturing, QuantumFilm material is deposited on top of a wafer, which means the cost can be kept low because the process is similar to coating a standard wafer with a layer of photoresist.
“Essentially,” said InVisage President and CEO Jess Less, “silicon has hit a wall.” He noted that silicon-based image sensors, which are used in all current digital cameras, whether professional, security or smartphones, can only capture about one-quarter of the light falling on a surface. By contrast, the company said, QuantumFilm can capture 90 to 95 percent.
In its announcement, InVisage quoted estimates that an average of $1 billion is spent for each new generation of conventional image sensors, which generally results in only a single-digit percent increase in image quality.
‘Augmented Reality’
The company is targeting a…