Description of Image Sensors and Cameras

Both image sensors and cameras are widely used in photography, video recording, surveillance, medical imaging, industrial inspection, and machine vision applications. Image sensors is a sensor that converts light signals into electrical signals, in other words, detects and conveys information used to form an image. Camera is a complete system that includes an image sensor, lens, and related circuits.

Image sensor

Features of Image Sensors

Pixels

Image sensors consist of millions of pixels, which capture light particles and transform them into electrical signals. The more pixels in an image sensor, the greater the detail and resolution of the resulting photograph.

Materials

Image sensors are constructed using metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) transistors and junction photodiodes, using semiconductors such as silicon and germanium as their foundation.

Color detection

Image sensors detect color by directing light through red, green, and blue filters. In addition, they can use thin-film filters that are layered onto the pixel array.

Quantum efficiency

Quantum efficiency (QE) represents the proportion of photons that are successfully converted into electrons. A image sensor with a higher QE is more responsive to light, enabling it to capture more detailed information from the image.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does an image sensor do?

Image sensors convert the variable attenuation of light waves into signals when light waves pass through or reflect off objects.

How many types of image sensors are there?

There are two major types of image sensors:

Complementary Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor (CMOS) and Charge-Coupled Device (CCD).

Where are image sensors used?

Image sensors are widely used in cameras and mobile phones which rely on image sensing gadgets. They are applied in photography, video recording, surveillance, medical imaging, industrial inspection,  thermal imaging, sonar, radar, night vision, machine vision applications and so on.

What are the advantages of image sensor?

The design of image sensor is simple, which leads to smaller sensor size and potentially lower cost. What's more, the speed to read is faster enabling higher frame rates for capturing fast-moving objects.