New image sensors from California-based InVisage Technologies could deliver up to four times higher performance than today's mobile phone cameras. The company says its new QuantumFilm sensors outperform silicon-based image sensors by capturing between 90% and 95% of available light, as opposed to the 25% captured by the average digital camera.
Its QuantumFilm sensors are the world’s first commercial image sensors to use quantum dots; tiny nanometre-sized semiconductors that capture light.
Jess Lee, President and CEO of InVisage, said "It is becoming increasingly difficult and expensive to develop next-generation image sensors using silicon; essentially, silicon has hit a wall. The fundamental problem is that silicon cannot capture light efficiently, but until now it has been the only option. The disruptive nature of QuantumFilm builds on silicon's success in electronics, and elevates its function using new materials that are engineered from the ground up for light capture."
The first QuantumFilm image sensors are expected towards the end of this year.