NEW CMOS PROCESS INCREASES PIXEL SENSITIVITY - Isis Project No 2651
Dendrimers open up the possibility of designing image detectors with tight spectral responses that allow colour constancy irrespective of illumination.
Marketing Opportunity
Digital cameras are an increasingly important sector with several of the major players withdrawing from the traditional film camera market. IDC’s study, Worldwide 2006-2010 Digital Still Camera (DSC) Forecast, predicts that although the DSC market entered early maturity in 2005 it will continue to grow globally with 111 million units being shipped in 2008 although thereafter the growth is expected to slow.
Cost is a key factor for any consumer product, and is a primary reason for the use of silicon, which absorbs in the near infrared and visible regions, in the manufacture of digital cameras. The ever increasing drive to reduce costs has generated a trend away from specialist CCD processes to CMOS processes that incorporate all the requirements in a single chip. While the quality of images from these single chip cameras is not yet as good as from CCD sensors the improvements in CMOS processes and circuit design are reducing the performance difference whilst retaining the cost benefit from the ability to manufacture integrated components. CMOS cameras are now expected to take an ever increasing share of the market.The Oxford Invention
This invention relates to the use of dendrimers in an image sensor. Dendrimers are macromolecules having a core and several tree-like branches extending from the core. The nature of the core and the branches can be controlled to achieve desired properties. The photo-sensitive properties of a dendrimer can be precisely controlled, and for example the dendrimers can be designed to have similar responses to those of the red, green and blue cones in the human visual system.
Humans can compensate for illuminant variations so that an object’s appearance is almost independent of the illuminant. This colour constancy can be achieved with digital cameras having a narrow spectral response to three or four colours; the use of a logarithmic pixel can enhance this capability.
The use of dendrimers opens up the possibility of developing cameras with designer responses.Patent Status
This work is the subject of patent application, and Isis would like to talk to companies interested in developing the commercial opportunity that this represents. Isis project 2557 on a high dynamic range camera may also be of interest here. Please contact the Isis Project Manager to discuss this further.