Panasonic's Next Generation Image Sensor

[Digigenic]

From DP Review

The new sensor is extremely resistant to weather, heat and UV deterioration
Panasonic has today announced that it has developed a MOS type image sensor which can withstand being exposed to direct sunlight for more than twenty years. The most significant part of this announcement however is the development of a new type of microlens formed by concentric rings and color filters made from inorganic materials (unlike the dyed RGB color filters found on traditional sensors). "The cutting-edge semiconductor process technology can realize the pattering of an array of digital-microlenses made of an inorganic material in subwavelength dimensions. A digital-microlens can be formed by patterning digitally the inorganic material in concentric rings, which works out as a conventional onchip microlens to gather more light onto the photo diode area. "

Pretty interesting news
Obviously its intended for very demanding applications, and if it is implemented in the consumer line of products anytime soon there's a higher probability this new type of sensor will be first featured in their still cameras, where a variation of it may find its way into a commercial camcorder afterwards - hopefully.
To me it seemed Panasonic had been lagging behind in the sensor development department - or at least the marketing of it.
Everybody else was making a shift to CMOS or some variation of it, yet Panny appeared stuck on the traditional CCD.
They also weren't marketing their sensor's unique capabilities like we're now seeing with Sony's Clearvid CMOS and Canon's CMOS sensors with Digic processors.
Sure, Panasonic pushed forward with '3-CCD' and 24P in the consumer division, but people are becoming more aware of the deeper details of their cameras that distinguishes them from the competition, and now Panasonic appears to be pushing forward again with a strong response. It'll be interesting to see where it all leads.

 

[LighthouseMedia]

Interesting indeed!!!!
Love to see new technology develop and we have had both CCD and CMOS for a little while no can't wait to see how this is implemented and what changes it ushers in.

 

[Tzedekh]

. . . and now Panasonic appears to be pushing forward again with a strong response. It'll be interesting to see where it all leads.

No offense, but this technology seems, from the tone of the article, to be geared toward "an increasing number of tough end uses such as security cameras and automotive cameras," not HD cameras. But I agree, Panasonic does appear to be trailing in the HD-sensor area. But who (other than Panasonic) knew about the CCD used in the HVX ahead of time? Even after the camera was announced, it was a while before Panasonic released the specs.