QuantumFilm "to boost cameraphone quality"

 

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By Hani Megerisi

Posted on 22 Mar 2010 at 17:26

New camera sensor technology could significantly improve the quality of pictures captured by the humble smartphone.

According to InVisage, the current generation of silicon-based camera sensors used in smartphones and cameras have a light-absorbing efficiency of around 25%, which is degraded even further by the circuitry laid over the top.

To compensate DSLRs and compact cameras feature larger sensors - a trick smaller smartphones can't employ. However, InVisage could have the answer.

Its QuantumFilm sensor is built on quantum dots – nanocrystal semiconductors suspended in fluid – and the company claims the technology is around 90-95% efficient.

“Silicon is used for two functions," an InVisage spokesperson told PC Pro. "One is to convert light into data, which it is very good at. The second is to capture light, and silicon is inherently a bad system for this as it loses light and sometimes leaks into other pixels."

The new sensors will be made available to phone manufacturers by the end of the year, and according to Lee, they won't be any more expensive than traditional CMOS-based sensors.