SiOnyx er et firma som er i ferd med å kommerisalisere en helt ny fremstillingsmåte for silisiumsbrikker. Ikke bare er brikkene langt mer lysfølsomme, mellom 100 og 500 ganger mer sensitiv. Brikkene kan også registrere en langt større del av spekteret, fra 400nm til 2500nm. Dette gjør brikkene svært egnet til bruk i nattkikkerter mm, men en kan jo lett se for seg kameraer med helt nye egenskaper. New York Times skriver blant annet dette om teknologien:
Black silicon has since been found to have extreme sensitivity to light. It is now on the verge of commercialization, most likely first in night vision systems.
"We have seen a 100 to 500 times increase in sensitivity to light compared to conventional silicon detectors," said James Carey, a co-founder of SiOnyx who worked on the original experiments as a Harvard graduate student.
Dr. Mazur is an investor in SiOnyx and chairman of its scientific advisory board. As a result of his research, a number of academic and corporate research groups are still exploring the material, which absorbs about twice as much visible light as normal silicon and has the ability to detect infrared light that is invisible to the current generation of silicon detectors.
SiOnyx is already commercializing sensor-based chips as a technology development platform for other companies and for use in next-generation infrared imaging systems.
The new technology has a tremendous cost advantage in that it is compatible with current semiconductor manufacturing plants, according to Stephen Saylor, SiOnyx's chief executive. It is certain to attract broad attention from a range of industries, including scientific and medical imaging markets.
In the future, the low cost and higher sensitivity of black silicon may also make it a contender in the multibillion-dollar digital camera and video markets, an area currently dominated by silicon and charge-coupled-device sensors.
Slipstream - Intuition Money - An Aha Moment - NYTimes.com
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