Graphene image sensor. More sensitive, less power consuming and cheaper

maxr

via ScienceDaily

Not only is the graphene sensor 1,000 times more sensitive to light than current imaging sensors found in today's cameras, it also uses 10 times less energy as it operates at lower voltages. When mass produced, graphene sensors are estimated to cost at least five times cheaper.

How the Graphene nanostructure works Asst Prof Wang came up with an innovative idea to create nanostructures on graphene which will "trap" light-generated electron particles for a much longer time, resulting in a much stronger electric signal. Such electric signals can then be processed into an image, such as a photograph captured by a digital camera.

The "trapped electrons" is the key to achieving high photoresponse in graphene, which makes it far more effective than the normal CMOS or CCD (charge-coupled device) image sensors, said Asst Prof Wang. Essentially, the stronger the electric signals generated, the clearer and sharper the photos. "The performance of our graphene sensor can be further improved, such as the response speed, through nanostructure engineering of graphene, and preliminary results already verified the feasibility of our concept," Asst Prof Wang added.

via ScienceDaily

Flaaandeeers

Is Vitaly already working on a hack for this?
Does it look CINEMATIC?!
Where can I pre-order this sensor? I don't care the camera manufacturer, I just want to have the best of the best.
I really need very wide dynamic range. My cat is black and white.

Seriously, thanks for the info @maxr. Sounds interesting.

maxr

yellow neighborino, this comes to confirm my cat's astounding late-night theory "the rawest we get the more transparent" :P

Among many other things, I find truly ironic these two guys father-proudly looking at a apparently transparent (possibly the future in photodetectors) piece of glass.

all good

Vitaliy_Kiselev

It is better read about modern sensors performance, as it looks like desperate startup searching inverstors

karl

I wonder whether image sensors are a good field for searching gullible investors, because it's so easy to verify (or better: falsify) their claims - they will probably be asked to provide a nice colorful image of the milky way, without using a tripod... would be quite possible if their claim was accurate ;-)

Vitaliy_Kiselev

Current sensors achieve better than 50% quantum efficiency. E.g., the K-5 sensor detects between 2.5 and 40000 electrons per sensel within its dynamic range. Which is 5 photons. Even less because much of the noise which limits dynamic range is part of the photon nature of noise.

The remaining progress in light sensitivity will be rather limited, remain below a factor 2 and the biggest progress will come from a different color separation technology, not sensors.

People promising a 1000-fold sensitivity to light appeal to investors who are known to have been smoking the same stuff.

Quote from Falk Lumo, one of the smartest guys with one of the best approaches to scientific testing.

balazer

Quantum efficiency only describes the rate at which a sensor turns captured photons into captured electrons. Also, it's just part of the spectrum for which quantum efficiency is above 50% in some sensors.

There is still a challenge in accurately measuring the charge of those electrons, and that is what this Singaporean invention claims to be about. But I have no idea where they get a figure of one thousand from.

Vitaliy_Kiselev

Quantum efficiency only describes the rate at which a sensor turns captured photons into captured electrons. Also, it's just part of the spectrum for which quantum efficiency is above 50% in some sensors.

Check links above. They have some of this details.

And Falk is right that color sepration is the thing that can make biggest progress.

endotoxic

links above, sweet info. thanks VK

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