{"id":13715,"date":"2017-11-26T08:33:31","date_gmt":"2017-11-26T08:33:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/?p=13715"},"modified":"2017-11-26T08:33:31","modified_gmt":"2017-11-26T08:33:31","slug":"optoelectronics-origami-easy-make-double-duty-curved-image-sensor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/optoelectronics-origami-easy-make-double-duty-curved-image-sensor\/","title":{"rendered":"Optoelectronics origami: An easy-to-make, double-duty curved image sensor"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
A concave version of the digital image sensor (left) bends inward for creating a hemispherical focal plane array. A convex version (right) bends like a soccer ball for mimicking an insect\u2019s compound eye. YEI HWAN JUNG AND KAN ZHANG<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Cellphone users rely on their phone cameras to capture virtually every aspect of their lives. Far too often, however, they end up with photos that are a sub-par reproduction of reality.<\/span><\/p>\n

While operator error sometimes comes into play, the camera\u2019s digital image sensor is the most likely culprit. A flat, silicon surface, it just can\u2019t process images captured by a curved camera lens as well as the similarly curved image sensor \u2014 otherwise known as the retina \u2014 in a human eye.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
Zhenqiang (Jack) Ma<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In an advance that could lead to cameras with features such as infinite depth of field, wider view angle, low aberrations, and vastly increased pixel density, flexible optoelectronics pioneer\u00a0Zhenqiang (Jack) Ma<\/a>\u00a0has devised a method for making curved digital image sensors in shapes that mimic the convex features of an insect\u2019s compound eye and a mammal\u2019s concave \u201cpinhole\u201d eye.<\/span><\/p>\n

Along with his students and collaborators, Ma, the Lynn H. Matthias and Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Wisconsin\u2013Madison, described the technique in a study published today (Nov. 24, 2017) in the journal\u00a0Nature Communications<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Curved image sensors do exist. Yet even though they outperform their flat counterparts, they haven\u2019t made it into the mainstream \u2014 in part, because of the challenges inherent in a manufacturing method that involves pressing a flat, rigid piece of silicon into a hemispherical shape without wrinkling or breaking it or otherwise degrading its quality.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ma\u2019s technique was inspired by traditional Japanese origami, the art of paper folding.<\/span><\/p>\n

To create the curved photodetector, Ma and his students formed pixels by mapping repeating geometric shapes \u2014 somewhat like a soccer ball \u2014 onto a thin, flat flexible sheet of silicon called a nanomembrane, which sits on a flexible substrate. Then, they used a laser to cut away some of those pixels so the remaining silicon formed perfect, gapless seams when they placed it atop a dome shape (for a convex detector) or into a bowl shape (for a concave detector).<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
This image shows how the researchers mapped pixels onto the silicon, then cut some sections away so the resulting silicon drapes over a dome shape, with no wrinkles or gaps at the seams. YEI HWAN JUNG AND KAN ZHANG<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cWe can first divide it into a hexagon and pentagon structure, and each of those can be further divided,\u201d says Ma. \u201cYou can forever divide them, in theory, so that means the pixels can be really, really dense, and there are no empty areas. This is really scalable, and we can bend it into whatever shape we want.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Pixel density is a boon for photographers, as a camera\u2019s ability to take high-resolution photos is determined, in megapixels, by the amount of information its sensor can capture.<\/span><\/p>\n

The researchers\u2019 current prototype is approximately 7 millimeters \u2014 roughly a quarter-inch \u2014 in diameter. That\u2019s still a bit bulky for your cellphone, but Ma says he can make the sensor even smaller.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis membrane is a very big advance in imaging,\u201d he says.<\/span><\/p>\n

Other authors on the paper include Kan Zhang, Yei Hwan Jung, Solomon Mikael, Jung-Hun Seo, Munho Kim, Hongyi Mi, Han Zhou, Zhenyang Xia, Weidong Zhou and Shaoqin Gong. They have patented the advance through the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cellphone users rely on their phone cameras to capture virtually every aspect of their lives. Far too often, however, they end up with photos that are a sub-par reproduction of reality. While operator error sometimes comes into play, the camera\u2019s digital image sensor is the most likely culprit. A flat, silicon surface, it just can\u2019t […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":13716,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-computer-science","category-research"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/optoelectronics-1-775x288.jpg",775,288,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/optoelectronics-1-775x288-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/optoelectronics-1-775x288-300x111.jpg",300,111,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/optoelectronics-1-775x288-768x285.jpg",750,278,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/optoelectronics-1-775x288.jpg",750,279,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/optoelectronics-1-775x288.jpg",775,288,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/optoelectronics-1-775x288.jpg",775,288,false],"ultp_layout_landscape_large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/optoelectronics-1-775x288.jpg",775,288,false],"ultp_layout_landscape":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/optoelectronics-1-775x288.jpg",775,288,false],"ultp_layout_portrait":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/optoelectronics-1-775x288.jpg",600,223,false],"ultp_layout_square":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/optoelectronics-1-775x288.jpg",600,223,false],"newspaper-x-single-post":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/optoelectronics-1-775x288.jpg",760,282,false],"newspaper-x-recent-post-big":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/optoelectronics-1-775x288.jpg",550,204,false],"newspaper-x-recent-post-list-image":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/optoelectronics-1-775x288.jpg",95,35,false],"web-stories-poster-portrait":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/optoelectronics-1-775x288.jpg",640,238,false],"web-stories-publisher-logo":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/optoelectronics-1-775x288.jpg",96,36,false],"web-stories-thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/optoelectronics-1-775x288.jpg",150,56,false]},"author_info":{"info":["Amrita Tuladhar"]},"category_info":"Computer Science<\/a> Research<\/a>","tag_info":"Research","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13715","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13715"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13715\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}