Because of their very high absorption coefficient, organic semiconductors allow extremely thin active layers (10 to 50 nm). Also, given their low processing temperature, they can be processed on foils. As a result, organic imagers can be more robust and light-weight compared to their traditional counterparts and may be used for conformal coating of randomly shaped substrates. Moreover, the wide variety of organic molecules available ensures that the properties of the active layer can be tuned to applications requiring specific wavelength ranges.
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| Fully-organic, flexible imager developed by imec, Holst Centre and Philips Research |
What sorts of applications would you want a flexible image sensor for? Other than correcting for curvature of field, I can't think of any.
ReplyDeleteIndustrial - Almost all aircraft inspection requires that the sensor be rolled up to be placed in access holes or to be cyrved to the shape of wig,s nacelles, fuselages, etc. That means that most aircraft inspection is still done with film. A flexible imager solves the digital imaging problem. There are many other on-site industrial inspections that are better done with curved imagers.
ReplyDeleteMedical - Although there are now portable amorphous silicon panel imagers, they have glass inside and are always at risk of being broken. Flexible imagers remove the risk just because they are not glass.
Ring detectors in CT or microCT for animal imaging.
ReplyDeleteCrystallographic detectors. Spherical would be ideal but cylindrical is a big step in the right direction.
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