Thin-Film Image Sensors: Technology And Applications (IDTechEx Sensors Europe 2016)

Continuous progress of the image sensor technology enables new use cases and new markets. Thin-film photoactive layers (such as polymers, molecules, perovskites and quantum dots) open up previously impossible integration and scaling possibilities. Scaling up, low processing temperatures and TFT backplanes facilitate large-area sensors that can be flexible or rollable, with applications in medical imaging. Scaling down, ultrathin active layers can substitute or complement the silicon photodiode in the next generation CMOS cameras, with applications in infrared and hyperspectral imaging.

In this presentation, Pawel Malinowski will provide an overview of thin-film image sensor activities at imec. We will see how the image sensors can be scaled up in array size and scaled down in pixel pitch. We will take a look at the new form factors and integration possibilities that are enabled by the thin-film technology.

Pawel E. Malinowski was born in Lodz, Poland, in 1982. He received the M.S. degree in electronics and telecommunications (thesis on design of radiation-tolerant integrated circuits) from the Lodz University of Technology, Poland, in 2006. In 2011, he received the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from the KU Leuven, Belgium (thesis on III-nitride-based imagers for space applications).

Since 2011, he is working as a Senior Researcher in the Large Area Electronics Department of imec, where he focuses on thin-film image sensors and on high resolution OLED displays. From 2006 to 2011, he was a Ph.D. Researcher in imec, Leuven, Belgium, working on AlGaN photodetectors and imagers for space applications.

Dr. Malinowski has authored or coauthored more than 30 publications. He was a recipient of the International Display Workshops Best Paper Award in 2014.

Imec is the world-leading research and innovation hub in nanoelectronics and digital technologies. The combination of our widely acclaimed leadership in microchip technology and profound software and ICT expertise is what makes us unique. By leveraging our world-class infrastructure and local and global ecosystem of partners across a multitude of industries, we create groundbreaking innovation in application domains such as healthcare, smart cities and mobility, logistics and manufacturing, and energy. Imec is headquartered in Leuven, Belgium and also has distributed R&D groups at a number of Flemish universities, in the Netherlands, Taiwan, USA, China, and offices in India and Japan.