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New Sensor a Thousand Times More Sensitive Than Current Camera Sensors

49 points by morphics 13y ago

yummybear 13y ago
I wonder how this will impact astronomy. I assume more energy efficient also means less need for cooling, possibly leading to cheaper low-noise sensors?
- jacquesm 13y ago
  I don't think that's a given. Just like more energy efficient transistors (smaller, fewer atoms) are more susceptible to noise.
  - ygra 13y ago
    Certain types of image sensor noise is quite directly affected by temperature. An increase of 5–10 K usually doubles the dark current, for example.
    - jacquesm 13y ago
      Yes, of course it is affected by temperature. But the thinner the substrate could upset the signal/noise ratio faster than the gain in cooling capacity would correct for it. The same happens in most sensors on the extremes of sensitivity, and cooling is actually a way to correct for some of that. For space based sensor pods cooling is usually the limiting factor for long term deployment.
Filligree 13y ago
I wonder how this translates to ISO sensitivity at a given quality level. Certainly a 1000x improvement seems unlikely, most of the noise is electrical, but even the 10x improvement you'd expect from lower voltages would be amazing.
arunitc 13y ago
Does this mean I'll be able to get the same image, which I currently shoot at a shutter speed of 1 second, at 1/1000 of a second?
Gravityloss 13y ago
Interesting but the signal to noise ratio might be a more important metric? Maybe it's too early to say much about that?
tlarkworthy 13y ago
Wow that was developed cheap ($200k)
e12e 13y ago
Apparently this is a 1000x improvement over previous graphene sensors -- not ccds and such in general: http://www.nature.com/ncomms/journal/v4/n5/full/ncomms2830.html http://www.nature.com/ncomms/journal/v4/n5/full/ncomms2830.h... "Graphene has attracted large interest in photonic applications owing to its promising optical properties, especially its ability to absorb light over a broad wavelength range, which has lead to several studies on pure monolayer graphene-based photodetectors. However, the maximum responsivity of these photodetectors is below 10 mA W−1, which significantly limits their potential for applications. Here we report high photoresponsivity (with high photoconductive gain) of 8.61 A W−1 in pure monolayer graphene photodetectors, about three orders of magnitude higher than those reported in the literature, by introducing electron trapping centres and by creating a bandgap in graphene through band structure engineering. In addition, broadband photoresponse with high photoresponsivity from the visible to the mid-infrared is experimentally demonstrated. To the best of our knowledge, this work demonstrates the broadest photoresponse with high photoresponsivity from pure monolayer graphene photodetectors, proving the potential of graphene as a promising material for efficient optoelectronic devices." (My emphasis) With thanks to these comments which helped point me in the right direction: http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=3809257&cid=43888645 http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=3809257&cid=438... http://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/1fefup/graphene_camera_sensors_said_to_be_1000_times/ca9hra8 http://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/1fefup/graphene_... I was also under the (apparently correct) assumptions that current digital sensors are close to the theoretical limits (because of the number of photons available for sampling).
- secabeen 13y ago
  Yep. Current digital sensors at maximum sensitivity are measuring in the single-digit numbers of photons per photosite. They can't get much better.
Bud 13y ago
Given that existing high-end CCD sensors already have sensitivity to individual photons, I very much doubt that this new graphene sensor can beat that technology by three orders of magnitude. I don't think the laws of physics will allow for three orders of magnitude more improvement in this area.
- mtrimpe 13y ago
  Are we seriously there already? We really are living in amazing times. Do you happen to have a link to some sources about this?
  - Bud 13y ago
    Sure, here are a few: http://www.princetoninstruments.com/cms/index.php/news/8-top-stories/222-emiccd http://www.princetoninstruments.com/cms/index.php/news/8-top... http://iopscience.iop.org/0953-4075/42/11/114011 http://iopscience.iop.org/0953-4075/42/11/114011 http://www.andor.com/learning-academy/astronomy-an-overview-of-andors-solutions-for-astronomy http://www.andor.com/learning-academy/astronomy-an-overview-...
  - eru 13y ago
    Your eyes can actually be sensitive to single photons, if you accustom them to the dark. (It should work better for higher energy photons, i.e. blue light, than lower energy ones.)
- 3rd3 13y ago
  I guess with Current Camera Sensors they mean sensors in consumer products.
zamalek 13y ago
This is awesome. Why doesn't it surprise me at all? I can't see what they can use graphene for next. Does anyone know if graphene photo-sensors carry residual charge (the reason CCDs and CMOSs capture noise)?

49 points by morphics 13y ago

I wonder how this will impact astronomy. I assume more energy efficient also means less need for cooling, possibly leading to cheaper low-noise sensors?

jacquesm 13y ago
I don't think that's a given. Just like more energy efficient transistors (smaller, fewer atoms) are more susceptible to noise.
- ygra 13y ago
  Certain types of image sensor noise is quite directly affected by temperature. An increase of 5–10 K usually doubles the dark current, for example.
  - jacquesm 13y ago
    Yes, of course it is affected by temperature. But the thinner the substrate could upset the signal/noise ratio faster than the gain in cooling capacity would correct for it. The same happens in most sensors on the extremes of sensitivity, and cooling is actually a way to correct for some of that. For space based sensor pods cooling is usually the limiting factor for long term deployment.

Filligree 13y ago

I wonder how this translates to ISO sensitivity at a given quality level. Certainly a 1000x improvement seems unlikely, most of the noise is electrical, but even the 10x improvement you'd expect from lower voltages would be amazing.

arunitc 13y ago

Does this mean I'll be able to get the same image, which I currently shoot at a shutter speed of 1 second, at 1/1000 of a second?

Gravityloss 13y ago

Interesting but the signal to noise ratio might be a more important metric? Maybe it's too early to say much about that?

tlarkworthy 13y ago

Wow that was developed cheap ($200k)

e12e 13y ago

Apparently this is a 1000x improvement over previous graphene sensors -- not ccds and such in general: http://www.nature.com/ncomms/journal/v4/n5/full/ncomms2830.html http://www.nature.com/ncomms/journal/v4/n5/full/ncomms2830.h... "Graphene has attracted large interest in photonic applications owing to its promising optical properties, especially its ability to absorb light over a broad wavelength range, which has lead to several studies on pure monolayer graphene-based photodetectors. However, the maximum responsivity of these photodetectors is below 10 mA W−1, which significantly limits their potential for applications. Here we report high photoresponsivity (with high photoconductive gain) of 8.61 A W−1 in pure monolayer graphene photodetectors, about three orders of magnitude higher than those reported in the literature, by introducing electron trapping centres and by creating a bandgap in graphene through band structure engineering. In addition, broadband photoresponse with high photoresponsivity from the visible to the mid-infrared is experimentally demonstrated. To the best of our knowledge, this work demonstrates the broadest photoresponse with high photoresponsivity from pure monolayer graphene photodetectors, proving the potential of graphene as a promising material for efficient optoelectronic devices." (My emphasis) With thanks to these comments which helped point me in the right direction: http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=3809257&cid=43888645 http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=3809257&cid=438... http://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/1fefup/graphene_camera_sensors_said_to_be_1000_times/ca9hra8 http://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/1fefup/graphene_... I was also under the (apparently correct) assumptions that current digital sensors are close to the theoretical limits (because of the number of photons available for sampling).

secabeen 13y ago
Yep. Current digital sensors at maximum sensitivity are measuring in the single-digit numbers of photons per photosite. They can't get much better.

Bud 13y ago

Given that existing high-end CCD sensors already have sensitivity to individual photons, I very much doubt that this new graphene sensor can beat that technology by three orders of magnitude. I don't think the laws of physics will allow for three orders of magnitude more improvement in this area.

mtrimpe 13y ago
Are we seriously there already? We really are living in amazing times. Do you happen to have a link to some sources about this?
- Bud 13y ago
  Sure, here are a few: http://www.princetoninstruments.com/cms/index.php/news/8-top-stories/222-emiccd http://www.princetoninstruments.com/cms/index.php/news/8-top... http://iopscience.iop.org/0953-4075/42/11/114011 http://iopscience.iop.org/0953-4075/42/11/114011 http://www.andor.com/learning-academy/astronomy-an-overview-of-andors-solutions-for-astronomy http://www.andor.com/learning-academy/astronomy-an-overview-...
- eru 13y ago
  Your eyes can actually be sensitive to single photons, if you accustom them to the dark. (It should work better for higher energy photons, i.e. blue light, than lower energy ones.)
3rd3 13y ago
I guess with Current Camera Sensors they mean sensors in consumer products.

zamalek 13y ago

This is awesome. Why doesn't it surprise me at all? I can't see what they can use graphene for next. Does anyone know if graphene photo-sensors carry residual charge (the reason CCDs and CMOSs capture noise)?