A Better Photodetector
Kirt's Cogitations™ #28

RF Cafe University"Factoids," "Kirt's Cogitations," and "Tech Topics Smorgasbord" are all manifestations of my ranting on various subjects relevant (usually) to the overall RF Cafe theme. All may be accessed on these pages:

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A Better Photodetector

Foveon™ is now producing a new genre of photodetector arrays that will revolutionize digital imagery. Rather than use the red, green and blue planar triad array of sensors for each pixel, the new device employs a 3-dimensional structure that senses blue light at the surface, green about 20 microns down, and finally red at a depth of about 30 microns. This capability to exploit the dispersive property of silicon has never been achieved before. Smaller, faster arrays are the result, that need no software to generate a single, 3-color pixel from three, single-color pixels. Moiré effects and other artifacts of the averaging calculations of the archaic CCD sensors will be history. Look for the new cameras as early as Fall of 2003.