CEA-LETI Presents FF Curved Sensor Prototype

CEA-LETI delivers a full-frame (24x32mm2) 20.4MP curved CMOS sensor prototype for astronomical applications:

"By directly correcting the field curvature in the focal plane, curved detectors help saving about one third of the optics, usually used as field flatteners, and then avoids undesirable distortion effect either in the image and also on the optical properties across the field of view.

After ten years of effort to convince the astronomical community about the benefits offered by curved focal planes, the activity is now ongoing around the world, with academic developments at ESO, Stanford, MIT, but also at the industrial level with recent realizations from Sony and Microsoft."

“Soon to be off-the-shelf components for civil applications (cameras, bio-medical) these breakthrough components will blossom in the focal planes of any telescope in the future,” said Emmanuel Hugot from the Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de Marseille who leads the curved sensor program together with Bernard Delabre from the European Southern Observatory (ESO).

Fully functional prototype 20MP full frame (24x32mm²)
visible sensor by CEA-LETI

An Arxiv.org and OSA Optics Express paper talks about the telescope potential improvements with the curved image sensor.

Thanks to JG for the link!