Create a high sensitivity camera with graphene

2017/05/29 Etxebeste Aduriz, Egoitz - Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Materialak
• Teknologia

At the same time they have created a camera capable of seeing in the ultraviolet, visible light and infrared light using graphene. This device, created by researchers of the Catalan Photon Institute (ICFO) in collaboration with Graphenea, has been published in the journal Nature Photonics.

The integrated circuits type CMOS (Auxiliary Semiconductor Metallic Oxide) have been key in the technological development of the last 40 years, in which many of the microelectronics systems are based However, in the integrated circuits type CMOS until now it was not possible to integrate silica semiconductors, which limited much the applications. For example, image sensors only served for visible light. Now, for the first time, they have managed to overcome this barrier and integrate graphene.

Thus, they have created a high-resolution and sensitive image sensor, with thousands of graphene and nanopunt photodetectors. And this sensor has been applied in a digital camera. The researchers highlighted that the elaboration of the sensor does not require a complex processing, so it is simple and economical. Therefore, they consider that it can be an important step forward in the creation of cheap multi-spectral and high resolution image devices. The applications are eleven: mobile cameras, night surveillance cameras, automotive sensors, medical illustration, food and drug analysis, environmental monitoring, etc.