Gigajot article in Nature Scientific Reports

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Jiaju Ma et al. of Gigajot Technology, Inc. have published a new article titled "Ultra‑high‑resolution quanta image sensor with reliable photon‑number‑resolving and high dynamic range capabilities" in Nature Scientific Reports.

Abstract:

Superior low‑light and high dynamic range (HDR) imaging performance with ultra‑high pixel resolution are widely sought after in the imaging world. The quanta image sensor (QIS) concept was proposed in 2005 as the next paradigm in solid‑state image sensors after charge coupled devices (CCD)and complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) active pixel sensors. This next‑generation image sensor would contain hundreds of millions to billions of small pixels with photon‑number‑resolving and HDR capabilities, providing superior imaging performance over CCD and conventional CMOS sensors. In this article, we present a 163 megapixel QIS that enables both reliable photon‑number‑resolving and high dynamic range imaging in a single device. This is the highest pixel resolution ever reported among low‑noise image sensors with photon‑number‑resolving capability. This QIS was fabricated with a standard, state‑of‑the‑art CMOS process with 2‑layer wafer stacking and backside illumination. Reliable photon‑number‑resolving is demonstrated with an average read noise of 0.35 e‑ rms at room temperature operation, enabling industry leading low‑light imaging performance. Additionally, a dynamic range of 95 dB is realized due to the extremely low noise floor and an extended full‑well capacity of 20k e‑. The design, operating principles, experimental results, and imaging performance of this QIS device are discussed.








Ma, J., Zhang, D., Robledo, D. et al. Ultra-high-resolution quanta image sensor with reliable photon-number-resolving and high dynamic range capabilities. Sci Rep 12, 13869 (2022).

This is an open access article: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-17952-z.epdf

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Amphibious panoramic bio-inspired camera in Nature Electronics

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M. Lee at al. have published a paper titled "An amphibious artificial vision system with a panoramic visual field" in Nature Electronics. This paper is joint work between researchers in Korea (Institute of Basic Science, Seoul National University, Pusan National University) and USA (UT Austin and MIT).

Abstract: Biological visual systems have inspired the development of various artificial visual systems including those based on human eyes (terrestrial environment), insect eyes (terrestrial environment) and fish eyes (aquatic environment). However, attempts to develop systems for both terrestrial and aquatic environments remain limited, and bioinspired electronic eyes are restricted in their maximum field of view to a hemispherical field of view (around 180°). Here we report the development of an amphibious artificial vision system with a panoramic visual field inspired by the functional and anatomical structure of the compound eyes of a fiddler crab. We integrate a microlens array with a graded refractive index and a flexible comb-shaped silicon photodiode array on a spherical structure. The microlenses have a flat surface and maintain their focal length regardless of changes in the external refractive index between air and water. The comb-shaped image sensor arrays on the spherical substrate exhibit an extremely wide field of view covering almost the entire spherical geometry. We illustrate the capabilities of our system via optical simulations and imaging demonstrations in both air and water.








Full paper text is behind a paywall. I could not find a preprint or author copy. However, the supplementary document and figures are freely accessible.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41928-022-00789-9

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Amphibious panoramic bio-inspired camera in Nature Electronics

Image Sensors World        Go to the original article...

M. Lee at al. have published a paper titled "An amphibious artificial vision system with a panoramic visual field" in Nature Electronics. This paper is joint work between researchers in Korea (Institute of Basic Science, Seoul National University, Pusan National University) and USA (UT Austin and MIT).

Abstract: Biological visual systems have inspired the development of various artificial visual systems including those based on human eyes (terrestrial environment), insect eyes (terrestrial environment) and fish eyes (aquatic environment). However, attempts to develop systems for both terrestrial and aquatic environments remain limited, and bioinspired electronic eyes are restricted in their maximum field of view to a hemispherical field of view (around 180°). Here we report the development of an amphibious artificial vision system with a panoramic visual field inspired by the functional and anatomical structure of the compound eyes of a fiddler crab. We integrate a microlens array with a graded refractive index and a flexible comb-shaped silicon photodiode array on a spherical structure. The microlenses have a flat surface and maintain their focal length regardless of changes in the external refractive index between air and water. The comb-shaped image sensor arrays on the spherical substrate exhibit an extremely wide field of view covering almost the entire spherical geometry. We illustrate the capabilities of our system via optical simulations and imaging demonstrations in both air and water.








Full paper text is behind a paywall. I could not find a preprint or author copy. However, the supplementary document and figures are freely accessible.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41928-022-00789-9

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New 3D Imaging Method for Microscopes

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New method for high resolution three dimension microscopic imaging being explored.


"This method, named bijective illumination collection imaging (BICI), can extend the range of high-resolution imaging by over 12-fold compared to the state-of-the-art imaging techniques," says Pahlevani

Fig. 1 | BICI concept. 
a, The illumination beam is generated by collimated light positioned off the imaging optical axis. 
b, The metasurface bends a ray family (sheet) originating from an arc of radius r by a constant angle β to form a focal point on the z axis. A family of rays originating from the same arc is shown as a ray sheet. 
c, Ray sheets subject to the same bending model constitute a focal line along the z axis. The focal line is continuous even though a finite number of focal points is illustrated for clarity. 
d, The collection metasurface establishes trajectories of collected light in ray sheets, as mirror images of illumination paths with respect to the x–z plane. This configuration enables a one-to-one correspondence, that is, a bijective relation between the focal points of the illumination and collection paths, to eliminate out-of-focus signals. The magnified inset demonstrates the bijective relation. 
e, Top view of the illumination and collection beams. 
f, Schematic of the illumination and collection beams and a snapshot captured using a camera from one of the lateral planes intersecting the focal line, illustrating the actual arrangement of illumination and collection paths. This arrangement allows only the collection of photons originating from the corresponding illumination focal point.


Metasurface-based bijective illumination collection imaging provides high-resolution tomography in three dimensions (Masoud Pahlevaninezhad, Yao-Wei Huang , Majid Pahlevani , Brett Bouma, Melissa J. Suter , Federico Capasso  and Hamid Pahlevaninezhad )

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