World's first organic CMOS image sensor with electrically controllable NIR light sensitivity

Panasonic Corporation on February 9 announced that it has developed a new technology, electrical control of the near infrared (NIR) light sensitivity of the same pixel in an organic CMOS image sensor. The sensitivity of all the pixels in the image sensor, which has directly stacked organic films, is simultaneously controlled by changing the applied voltage to the organic films.
This technology enables to switch between modes of colour imaging and NIR imaging frame by frame without a mechanical IR cut filter required for conventional image sensors. This contributes to miniaturizing a camera system and improving the robustness. This technology also enables global shutter operation. Therefore, it can be suitable for applications in various fields of industry such as machine vision or intelligent transportation system, in which fast and accurate inspection or recognition are necessary.
The new technology has the following advantage. Frame by frame switching between colour imaging mode and NIR imaging mode without the loss of resolution.
The development is based on the following technologies.
Panasonic holds 94 Japanese patents and 68 overseas patents (including pending) related to these technologies.