University of Wisconsin-Madison is doing some really cool stuff with phototransistors. This is one of those developments that will subtly improve all our devices. Phototransistors are ubiquitous in our lives. It’s near impossible to walk anywhere without one collecting some of your photons.

The first obvious advantage of a flexible grid of phototransistors is the ability to fit the sensor array to any desired shape. For example, in a digital camera the optics are designed to focus a “round” picture on a flat sensor. If we had a curved surface, we could capture more light without having to choose between discarding light, compensating with software, or suffering the various optical distortions.

Another advantage of the University’s new manufacturing approach is the “flip-transfer” construction method they came up with. They propound that their method produces a vastly more sensitive device. The sensing silicon sits on the front of the assembly without any obstructing material in front; also the metal substrate it was built on before flipping is reflective; also increasing the sensitivity.

All in all very cool, and we can’t wait for phone cameras, with super flat lenses, infinite focus, have no low light capture issues, and all the other cool stuff coming out of the labs these days.