For a couple of years, device cameras have gone from facing a war to seeing who offered the highest number of megapixels, to trying to prove who can offer higher image quality with a resolution of between 12 and 14 mpx. In recent years, both Apple and Samsung use 12 mpx sensors, a trend that other manufacturers have been adopting.
To try to further improve the quality of the sensors used in both the iPhone and iPad, Apple has acquired InVisage, a company that manufactures image sensors for cameras, as reported by Image Sensors World. According to Imagen Sensors World some of InVisage's employees are already working at Apple while some are looking for work.
This company has designed an innovative image sensor architecture with a dedicated QuantumFilm layer to maximize light detection capabilities. The QuantumFilm image sensor is based on a new class of materials designed to absorb light. One of these new materials is made up of quantum dots, nanoparticles that can disperse to form a grid once they are synthesized. Night photography on smartphones is still one of the weak points of these devices, however much the manufacturers insist on affirming that each year they improve considerably.
The sensitivity to light using this new material together with QuantumFilm sets the InVisage image sensor apart from traditional CMOS image sensors. Conventional sensors are based on a silicon photosensitive layer that also incorporates the necessary circuits to read the electrical output of the detected photons, as well as the barriers that isolate each pixel to avoid crosstalk, therefore there is less space for light detection and less space for electrical storage.