Fraunhofer has developed a lateral drift photodetector (LDPD) which boosts the speed of traditional CMOS sensors so removing the drawbacks of Pinned Photodiodes using pixel size 10 µm or above.
Problems encountered with dim or no light situations as in astronomy are dealt with by using bigger size pixels. Fraunhofer’s technology allows devices that would make a faster conversion of light to electrical signal.
Earlier attempts were based on improving this speed of response. For example, electronics industry have already seen Pinned Photodiodes built-in the CMOS chips. However, this was also not sufficient to satisfy the growing demand of better quality images.
The new technology improves the speed of conversion by about 100 times.
The LDPD does not let the generated current to diffuse and sends it at an unprecedented speed to the reading device. The technology is patented and the team is now awaiting approval for a series production of the device.
