Triple wavelength superspectral camera focal-plane array (SUPERCAMERA)

光学成像可能是当今使用的最重要的传感器方式。它广泛应用于消费、医疗、商业和国防技术。在过去的20年里，最引人注目的发展是使用互补金属氧化物半导体(CMOS)技术的数字成像的出现。由于cmos是可扩展的，相机技术受益于摩尔定律中晶体管尺寸的减小，因此现在可以购买1000万像素以上的GB 50相机。同样的好处也开始出现在其他成像市场--最明显的是在红外成像领域，64x64像素的热像仪可以在GB 1000以下的价格购买。远红外(FIR)，或太赫兹成像，现已成为一种重要的成像方式，应用于生物医学和安全成像，但早期成像阵列仍然只是我们目前正在研究的少数几个像素研究想法和原型。还没有人尝试将三个不同波长的传感器同轴集成到同一芯片上。传感器融合已经很普遍，来自传统可见光和中红外(MIR)传感器的图像数据被叠加，以提供更具启发性和数据丰富的可视化。图像融合允许识别差异并执行比较处理。我们的目标是创造一种“超光谱”成像芯片。我们所说的超光谱是指在完全不同的波段进行检测，而不是区分一个波段内的许多波长--例如可见光波段中的红、绿和蓝。我们将以“多摩尔”微电子技术为平台。通过这样做，我们将利用广泛可用的低成本CMOS来建立新的具有经济意义的技术，这些技术可以在英国开发和利用。要使这种技术成为可能，还有相当多的挑战需要克服。我们将混合两个半导体系统，以集成高效的光电二极管传感器，用于可见光和MIR检测。我们将把测辐射热学传感集成到FIR成像中。我们将使用设计和封装技术进行隔热，并优化每种类型的传感器的性能。我们将使用混合超材料和表面等离子体共振技术来优化波长分辨，允许物理上很大的(即FIR)传感器与可见光和MIR传感器垂直堆叠。我们最终想展示世界上第一台超光谱相机。

Optical imaging is perhaps the single most important sensor modality in use today. Its use is widespread in consumer, medical, commercial and defence technologies. The most striking development of the last 20 years has been the emergence of digital imaging using complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology. Because CMOS is scalable, camera technology has benefited from Moore's law reduction in transistor size so that it is now possible to buy cameras with more than 10 MegaPixels for £50. The same benefits are beginning to emerge in other imaging markets - most notably in infrared imaging where 64x64 pixel thermal cameras can be bought for under £1000. Far infrared (FIR), or terahertz, imaging is now emerging as a vital modality with application to biomedical and security imaging, but early imaging arrays are still only few pixel research ideas and prototypes that we are currently investigating. There has been no attempt to integrate the three different wavelength sensors coaxially on to the same chip. Sensor fusion is already widespread whereby image data from traditional visible and mid infrared (MIR) sensors is overlaid to provide a more revealing and data rich visualisation. Image fusion permits discrepancies to be identified and comparative processing to be performed. Our aim is to create a "superspectral" imaging chip. By superspectral we mean detection in widely different bands, as opposed to the discrimination of many wavelengths inside a band - e.g. red, green and blue in the visible band. We will use "More than Moore" microelectronic technology as a platform. By doing so, we will leverage widely available low-cost CMOS to build new and economically significant technologies that can be developed and exploited in the UK. There are considerable challenges to be overcome to make such technology possible. We will hybridise two semiconductor systems to integrate efficient photodiode sensors for visible and MIR detection. We will integrate bolometric sensing for FIR imaging. We will use design and packaging technologies for thermal isolation and to optimise the performance of each sensor type. We will use hybridised metamaterial and surface plasmon resonance technologies to optimise wavelength discrimination allowing vertical stacking of physically large (i.e. FIR) sensors with visible and MIR sensors.We ultimate want to demonstrate the world's first ever super-spectral camera.