New imager technology
Kodak KAC-05020 1.4 micron Image Sensor
While there are no cameras based on this chip currently in development, this technology has the promise of revolutionizing the camera industry.
The chip is from Kodak and is designed for very small applications like cell phone cameras. The concept has ramifications far beyond the small camera market.
Kodak has developed a method of reading photo sites (pixels) not by counting the photons hitting each site, but by doing the opposite and counting the "holes" instead. This has the impact of reducing "hot" noise, (noise which simulates random image signal), and allows greatly reduced photo site sizes.
They have also used an RGBW sensor pattern (Red, Green, Blue and White/Clear) which allows the white/clear sites, which are unfiltered, to be much more sensitive, similar to the "rods" in human vision.
The clear sites are statistically factored into the Bayer pattern interpolation to again increase overall apparent sensitivity.
Kodak is claiming an overall increase in sensitivity of 1 to 2 stops, with no apparent increase in noise.
If true, these new techniques, based on CMOS fabrication, will allow much greater pixel densities with no apparent increase in signal to noise ratios.
I predict we could see 36 MPixel full-frame imagers with the same noise factor as current 22-24 MPixel imagers. Likewise 16 MPix crop 1.5x/1.6x imagers will also be possible with no more noise than current 10 MPix imagers.
More information here:
http://www.kodak.com/eknec/PageQuerier.jhtml?pq-path=2709&pq-locale=en_GB&gpcid=0900688a80884f89&ignoreLocale=true
While there are no cameras based on this chip currently in development, this technology has the promise of revolutionizing the camera industry.
The chip is from Kodak and is designed for very small applications like cell phone cameras. The concept has ramifications far beyond the small camera market.
Kodak has developed a method of reading photo sites (pixels) not by counting the photons hitting each site, but by doing the opposite and counting the "holes" instead. This has the impact of reducing "hot" noise, (noise which simulates random image signal), and allows greatly reduced photo site sizes.
They have also used an RGBW sensor pattern (Red, Green, Blue and White/Clear) which allows the white/clear sites, which are unfiltered, to be much more sensitive, similar to the "rods" in human vision.
The clear sites are statistically factored into the Bayer pattern interpolation to again increase overall apparent sensitivity.
Kodak is claiming an overall increase in sensitivity of 1 to 2 stops, with no apparent increase in noise.
If true, these new techniques, based on CMOS fabrication, will allow much greater pixel densities with no apparent increase in signal to noise ratios.
I predict we could see 36 MPixel full-frame imagers with the same noise factor as current 22-24 MPixel imagers. Likewise 16 MPix crop 1.5x/1.6x imagers will also be possible with no more noise than current 10 MPix imagers.
More information here:
http://www.kodak.com/eknec/PageQuerier.jhtml?pq-path=2709&pq-locale=en_GB&gpcid=0900688a80884f89&ignoreLocale=true
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Comments
very interesting, thanks for the link!
I guess Kodak still has some R&D juice left
http://www.chrislaudermilkphoto.com/
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Potentially this physical design could provide more dynamic range. Since the non-filtered photo sites would be more sensitive than the RGB filtered sites, the resulting interpolation would provide up to 2 more stops of dynamic range, at the expense of color resolution, to which we humans are less sensitive.
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