One way to understand how imec takes an idea from lab to fab and finds a way to get it to market is to zoom in on its approach with image sensors for cameras.
eetimes.eu, Aug. 05, 2024 –
At the recent ITF World 2024, EE Times Europe talked with imec researchers to catch up on what they're doing with high-precision sensors–and more importantly, how they make sure their innovations get into the hands of industrial players.
Imec develops sensors for cameras and displays, and it works with both light and ultrasound–for medical applications, for example. But the Leuven, Belgium–based research institute never takes technology to market itself. It either finds industrial partners–or when conditions are right, imec creates a spinoff. One way to understand how imec takes an idea from lab to fab and finds a way to get it to market is to zoom in on its approach with image sensors for cameras.
"We make image sensors that are at the beating heart of incredible cameras around the world," said Paul Heremans, vice president of future CMOS devices and senior fellow at imec. "Our research starts with material selection and an overall new concept for sensors and goes all the way to development, engineering and low-volume manufacturing within imec's pilot line."
A good example is the Pharsighted E9-100S ultra-high-speed video camera, developed by Pharsighted LLC and marketed by Photron. The camera reaches 326,000 frames per second (full frame: 640 × 480 pixels) and up to 2,720,000 frames per second at a lower frame size (640 × 32 pixels), thanks to a high-speed image sensor developed and manufactured by imec.
Another example is an electron imager used in a cryo-transmission electron microscope (cryo-TEM) marketed by a U.S. company called Thermo Fisher. The instrument produces atomic resolution pictures of DNA strands and other complex molecules. These images help in the drug-discovery process by allowing researchers to understand the structure of the molecules they need to target.
Thermo Fisher uses direct electron detection imagers, developed by imec and built into the company's Falcon direct electron detection imagers, each composed of 4K × 4K pixels. The pixels are very large to get to the ultimate sensitivity. Consequently, the chip is so large (5.7 × 5.7 cm) that only four fit on a 200-mm wafer.
A third example is hyperspectral imagers, with very special filters that detect many more colors than just red, green and blue (RGB). Hyperspectral imagers pick up tens or hundreds of spectral bands. They can achieve this level of performance because imec implements processing filters on each pixel.