A photo sensor 1,000 more sensitive than current

[Paul Russell]

The bright sparks at Singapore's Nanyang Technological University have announced a new ultra light-sensitive sensor made from Graphene. Not sure if it'll do 6K yet

http://news.asiaone.com/News/Latest+News/Science+and+Tech/Story/A1Story20130530-426161.html

"SINGAPORE - Taking clear and sharp photos under dim conditions will soon be possible, thanks to a revolutionary image sensor developed by a team at Nanyang Technological University (NTU).

The new sensor is made from graphene. It is believed to be the first to be able to detect broad spectrum light - from the visible to mid-infrared - with high photoresponse or sensitivity. It is suitable for use in all types of cameras, including DSLRs, compact cameras, and traffic speed cameras.
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. It is expected to be much cheaper to mass produce as well.
"We have shown that it is now possible to create cheap, sensitive and flexible photo sensors from graphene alone. We expect our innovation to have great impact not only on the consumer imaging industry, but also in satellite imaging and communication industries, as well as the mid-infrared applications," said Assistant Professor Wang Qijie, who invented the product.
His team took two years to develop the sensor, and a patent has been filed for the innovation.
NTU said the next step is to work with industry collaborators to develop it into a commercial product."

 

[Peter Proniewicz-Brooks]

Seems like a double edged sword. To much light is bad, just as to little, and what such a sensor will consider to much is likely much less than current cameras, this will likely lead to a need for very high quality ND filters. I suspect the camera will also be much more prone to stray light artefacts etc.

 

[David Kuhn]

I tend to fall back on the old adage - "If it sounds too good to be true"... ESPECIALLY true when we're talking about Academics. There's a lot of interest in Graphene at the moment... but a professor with a $200k budget isn't likely to produce a sensor that has all those amazing properties - and if he DID (not totally impossible), his results wouldn't be getting published in an online only journal.

 

[Gavin Greenwalt]

Sensitivity is just one dimension. There are plenty of extremely high sensitivity sensors out there (Gen IV NV anyone?) the trick is to pair it with minimal artifacts and high dynamic range. This isn't terribly surprising of a development. I'm sure it'll take 5-6 years before commercialization. I remember most video cameras had about 8 stops of dynamic range 10 years ago. We're now up to 16-17. That's a 1,000x increase in 10 years.

It's easy for outsiders and academics to get really excited about what is theoretically possible--but it often takes so long to take theory and make it into practice that by the time they ship they are only marginally if at all better than the competition. It's why big companies don't make announcements like this; it's not necessarily that they don't have similar R&D lab work, it's just that they know they won't be shipping anything within a few years with it and that their competition probably is also on the same track. Moore's law hasn't happened by magic, there have been endless breakthroughs like this one to keep progress moving. I'm sure 7-8 years ago some university had made a "Breakthrough" which would offer 2,000 ISO and 17 stops of dynamic range... and then down the road a ways comes Dragon.

We'll probably all be using graphene sensors in the not too distant future but like the transition to OLED (remember when OLED was being pitched as the future of displays) it'll just sort of happen quietly and suddenly your smartphone has that amazing tech they were showing in labs.

 

[Vadim Bobkovsky]

Interesting. To me, with digital sensors there's never too much sensitivity (especailly at decent S/N ratio), so I for one welcome our next-gen super-sensitive Overlords. You could always dial the ISO down or tweak the image in post if you're after contrasty or crushed look.