QuantumFilm: Quantum Dot-Based Image Sensor

[DEMO Spring 2010] Today, InVisage Technologies announced QuantumFilm, touted to be the world’s first commercial quantum dot-based image sensor that delivers 4x higher performance and 2x higher dynamic range than regular sensors for mobile handset cameras. The technology is based on quantum dots, semiconductors with higher light-capture properties: the regular silicon-based image sensors used today for all digital cameras capture on average 25 percent of light, where QuantumFilm captures between 90-95 percent, allowing to shoot better pictures in low light conditions, and enabling higher quality for tiny form factor such as camera phones.

The QuantumFilm sensor capture an imprint of the image and then transmit the image data to the regular silicon-based CMOS sensor that will read out the image and process it (see picture). InVisage, after three years of R&D, succeeded in integrating the quantum dot material with standard CMOS manufacturing processes with limited additional costs: just nanometers in size, the quantum dot-based material is deposited directly on top of the standard wafer during manufacturing, allowing easy integration into standard semiconductor foundries

This looks very good on the paper, but I am eager to compare photos taken with the new sensor with ones shot with a regular CMOS. The first QuantumFilm image sensors, targeting high-end mobile handsets and smartphones, will be introduced in Q4 of 2010. For more information on InVisage Technologies, visit www.invisageinc.com

Eliane Fiolet
Categories: Photo-Video, Top Stories
Tags: camcorder, Camera, cmos, DEMO, demo spring 2010, photography, sensor