QuantumFilm is a light-sensitive layer on a digital camera image sensor. It captures the light when you take a photograph, and sends it to the electronics underneath. Conventional cameras use silicon chips to absorb light, but these chips (based on complementary metal oxide semiconductors, or CMOS) only capture about 25 percent of the light that hits the surface of the silicon.
QuantumFilm uses tiny nano particles known as quantum dots. The QuantumFilm can absorb eight times more light than silicon, said Jess Lee, president and CEO of InVisage, in an interview with VentureBeat. That translates into a big quality improvement. Since the capture of light is so much more efficient, the entire system can be cheaper.
“It absorbs light eight times faster than silicon,” Lee said. “We’ve replaced silicon with QuantumFilm. That is the heart of our performance advantage.”