
High-resolution flexible image sensor designed on plastic film
Isorg (Grenoble, France) has created the high-resolution, ultra-thin, 500 dpi flexible image sensor (sensitive from visible to near infrared) to offer system integrators advantages in performance and compactness. Its ability to conform to three-dimensional shapes sets it apart from conventional image sensors. The device provides dual detection: fingerprinting as well as vein matching. Due to its large-area sensing and high-resolution image quality, the device is suited to biometric applications from fingerprint scanners and smartcards to mobile phones, where accuracy and robustness as well as competitiveness are key.
Isorg is planning to launch high-volume production of the flexible image sensor at its new plant in Limoges, France, in order to support its large-scale commercialization in the global biometrics market.
Central to the 500 dpi flexible image sensor is an Organic Photodiode (OPD), a printed structure developed by Isorg, who also developed the readout electronics, the forensics quality processing software and the optics to enable seamless integration in products. FlexEnable, active in developing and industrializing flexible organic electronics, developed the Organic TFT backplane technology, an alternative to amorphous silicon. This partnership between the two companies began in Q4 2013.
Designed on a large area (3” x 3.2”; 7.62 x 8.13cm) plastic substrate, the flexible image sensor is ultra-thin (300 microns), therefore lightweight, compact and highly resistant to shock.
Isorg offers a new generation of high performance imagers with 3D product integration capability recognizing any shapes or form factor. Its flexible image sensors have application in medical devices, ID security and access control, IoT and consumer electronics. Isorg was set up in 2010 and partners with CEA-Liten, a French innovation centre for new energy technologies and nanomaterials; www.isorg.fr
FlexEnable has pioneered a flexible electronics technology platform that allows electronics made of organic materials to be manufactured on flexible plastic film, the thickness of a sheet of paper; www.flexenable.com
