Low-Cost Infrared Detector Could Give Future Smartphones, Vehicles Serious Computer Vision Smarts

Researchers from Germany and Italy have published a paper detailing a low-cost infrared detector, designed for easy integration into existing camera sensors used in smartphones and autonomous vehicles.

"There are already other cameras that are used for these purposes," explains Dan Buca, PhD, of the team's work on shortwave infrared (SWIR) detection. "The use of materials that are difficult to combine with the standard circuits made of silicon makes their integration in a chip complex and thus expensive. However, their very high cost prohibits their use in daily-life applications."

"Our detector bridges a gap, since it covers a range of the spectrum for which there have been no cost-effective sensors to date. The smart combination of elements and alloys that are well compatible with silicon now enables us to use a straightforward manufacturing process with standard industry tools. Therefore, we are now able to construct very inexpensive camera chips that can be integrated in any smartphone just as in visible cameras currently in use."

Based on materials which have gone through a decade of optimization, and which can be processed in existing semiconductor fabrication facilities and integrated into existing camera chips, the new sensor can switch automatically between near-infrared (NIR) and shortwave infrared (SWIR) on demand — allowing it to automatically distinguish between materials that may be identical to the human eye, such as the colorless liquids isopropanol and toluene.

For autonomous vehicles, another field the researchers are hoping to revolutionize with the new sensor, SWIR support brings with it the ability to see objects through rain, fog, haze, and other atmospheric conditions which ordinarily reduce visibility.

The team's work has been published under open-access terms in the journal ACS Photonics.