NHK Science & Technology Research Laboratories - a division of the Japanese Broadcasting Corporation - has developed an ultra-thin, bendable image sensor. Measuring just 0.01mm thick, the 320 x 240-pixel sensor is the world's first bendable silicon image sensor. This isn't the first time we've heard about curved image sensors - Sony was filing patents for curved sensor tech in 2021 - however this was far from a working prototype.
But why even bother to make a bendable sensor when current flat sensors already do a great job of capturing digital images? The aim here isn't to have a sensor that can be repeatedly bent back and forth like a foldable phone screen, but rather a sensor that can be bent into a fixed concave shape. This then enables the sensor to better capture incoming light from a lens, increasing corner sharpness and reducing chromatic aberration. By curving the sensor, you end up with a set-up far closer to the concave surface of the retina at the back of the human eye, perfectly optimised to capture incoming light from a lens.
