Created revolutionary image sensors that can shoot in near total darkness and beyond

Created revolutionary image sensors that can shoot in near total darkness and beyond

Even the appearance on the market of smartphones with image sensors with tens of megapixels cannot be called a revolution. It is rather an evolution – an impressive development in its possibilities, which does not change the basic principles of creating light-sensitive image sensors. A revolution in this area is yet to come. Perhaps it will be brought closer by the efforts of SeeDevice, which announces the development of an extremely sensitive image sensor that works on new principles.

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The proposed SeeDevice image sensor is called PAT-PD (Photon Assisted Tunneling-Photo Detector) or, in Russian, photon tunneling photodetector. The PAT-PD sensor “virtually eliminates photon leakage”, which promises to capture images in the visible area with minimal illumination. Below you can compare the image under lighting conditions of 0.1 lux (moonless night) on a DSLR camera with a 24.2MP sensor and on a PAT-PD sensor. The image from the latter clearly outperforms the image taken with a stock camera.

But PAT-PD sensors can prove themselves not only as a tool for “photos in instu”. The prospect opens before them both in the field of image sensors for autopilots and among medical sensors. PAT-PD sensors are capable of tuning to a given photon detection wavelength. For example, they can detect the composition of blood in blood vessels through the skin and detect levels of cholesterol, glucose, or other substances.

When will the new image sensors appear? service assures that this will happen next year. The Japanese factory less company MegaChips Corporation was named as a partner in preparing PAT-PD sensors for production. She received a license from SeeDevice to produce a new type of sensors and is going to make money from them. This gives hope that the promises will be fulfilled and the new technology will not lie in the dusty boxes of inventors.