ISORG, Plastic Logic Co-Develop World-First Image Sensor on Plastic

ISORG and Plastic Logic have co-developed the first conformable organic image sensor on plastic, with the potential to revolutionize weight/power trade-offs and optical design parameters for any systems with a digital imaging element. First mechanical samples was publicly unveiled at LOPE-C 2013 (ISORG/CEA booth B0-509) from June 12-13 in Munich, Germany.

The collaboration is based on the deposition of organic printed photodetectors (OPD), pioneered by ISORG, onto a plastic organic thin-film transistor (OTFT) backplane, developed by the technology leader, Plastic Logic, to create a flexible sensor with a 4×4 cm active area, 375um pitch (175um pixel size with 200um spacing) and 94 x 95 = 8,930 pixel resolution.

The backplane design, production process and materials were optimised for the application by Plastic Logic to meet ISORG’s requirements. The result, a flexible, transmissive backplane, represents a significant breakthrough in the manufacture of new large area image sensors and demonstrates the potential use of Plastic Logic’s unique flexible transistor technology to also move beyond plastic displays.

Combined with ISORG’s unique organic photodetector technology, it opens up the possibilities for a range of new applications, based around digital image sensing, including smart packaging and sensors for medical equipment and biomedical diagnostics, security and mobile commerce (user identification by fingerprint scanning), environmental, industrial, scanning surfaces and 3D interactive user interfaces for consumer electronics (printers, smartphones, tablets, etc.).

“We are extremely pleased to showcase our disruptive photodiode technology in a concrete application for imaging sensing,” ISORG CEO Jean-Yves Gomez said. “The ability to create conformal and large area image sensors, which are also thinner, lighter and more robust and portable than current equipment is of increasing importance, especially in the medical, industrial and security control sectors.”

“I am delighted that Plastic Logic can now demonstrate the far-reaching potential of the underlying technology,” Indro Mukerjee, CEO Plastic Logic, said. “Our ability to create flexible, transmissive backplanes has led us not only to co-develop a flexible image sensor, but is also key to flexible OLED displays as well as unbreakable LCDs.”