Image courtesy: Sony via Spectrum.
What you see here is the first image of the Sony CMOS curved sensor! Sony says they create a unique bending machine to curve it and after that they use ceramic to stabilize the sensor. Interesting: The sensor has the same level of curvature found in the human eye!
On a curved sensor light rays will hit the corner pixels straight on instead of obliquely. The lens doesn’t have to use extra lenses to correct for distortions, vignetting, aberrations in corners and other issues. Therefore you can pair the sensor with flatter and larger aperture lenses. Curved sensors are 1,4 times more sensitive in the center and 2 times more sensitive in the corners.
Sony showed a 43mm (Full Frame) and 11mm (for mobile devices) curved sensor at the 2014 Symposia on VLSI Technology and Circuits. And as we reported earlier on SAR the Full Frame curved sensor is likely to come on the new RX2 paired with a 35mm f/1.8 Zeiss lens! Exciting tech!
