InVisage, better image sensors using QuantumFilm

We’ve all gotten accustomed to having digital cameras in our cell phones, and we’ve also gotton accustomed to the fact that if we want to take descent pictures we’ll need a second camera to do so. Slightly inconvenient, especially when travelling, but there is no easy way around it at this point. Well, according to Jess Lee, the president and CEO of InVisage Technologies, a startup out of Menlo Park, California, a couple years from now even the tiny image sensors in our cell phones will be able to produce fantastic images. The magic ingredient to make this happen is what the company calls QuantumFilm. The current crop of CMOS based image sensors have two major problems that only get worse with process scaling: First, they suffer from a poor fill factor since transistors and wires obstruct the incoming light, resulting in only about 50% of the incoming light reaching the silicon pixel. Second, their quantum efficiency, or in other words the conversion efficiency of the light that reaches the pixel, is only about 50%. As such, only about a quarter of the available light is captured by the image sensor, more often than not leading to less than stellar images.

Conversely, the QuantumFilm is composed of quantum dots, which in this care are semiconductors with light-capture properties, and is deposited on top of traditional CMOS wavers, and as such has a 100% fill factor. The silicon beneath the QuantumFilm is then utilized to convert the captured imprint of a light image into digital signals. InVisage claims that the QuantumFilm technology is capable of capturing of up to 90-95 percent of the light that reaches is. When combined, these two factors ought to yield performance about 4x higher than current image sensors, resulting in significantly higher quality pictures. Initial samples are expected to ship in Q4 of this year, and volume production is expected sometime in the middle of next year. The initial target market will include high-end mobile handsets and smartphones, which are expected to integrate this technology sometime in the 2012 timeframe. Currently, InVisage employs 30 people and has received more than $30 million in funding from RockPort Capital, Charles River Ventures, InterWest Partners and OnPoint Technologies. Below is a short video highlighting the technology from the DEMO Spring 2010 event – enjoy.