Nikons Sensor Patent

Wow, didn't this thing explode. I first posted it on FredMiranda.com (see link if it still exists) on the 8th August, 2007 and a forum member re-posted it the next day on dpreview.

Yesterday (9th August 2007) Dpreview ran with it on their front news page, and now every photography web page is running this.

How cool, I was almost famous, haha. It did get just a touch nasty for a moment, but that was all sorted very quickly before anyone asks. It's all good fun. Would love to see this technology coming to our cameras soon. I can't imagine it would be in the D3 though it would be nice. Maybe the model after that.

Nikon Full Colour Sensor

Background: We all like to Google our own names. Type mine and nothing comes up (Australia's Most Wanted doesn't count), but type in someone of importance and you may find some good stuff.

His name is Hideo Hoshuyama, the head designer of the D2x.
The link later, but its to do with a new type of CCD. This patent was lodged on Dec 11, 2003. Its technical and somewhat repetitive, but it has to do with having 3 light receiving sensors in the one pixel (similar but different to foveon).

Just to break down the main points:
+There is no bayer pattern coloured filters on the microlenses, so more light passes through.

+The light effectively reflect within the pixel and the three primary colours are caught by three 'light recieving surfaces", first blue light is collected, then green, then red, and then IR is absorbed". So effectively, all the light is first caught by the microlens.

+This has the ability to provide the highest level of photon catching (thats a Nik'ism) and the lowest level of false colour.

Below is the actual abstract:
A microlens condenses incident light to an opening. Light passed through the opening reaches a first dichroic mirror. The first dichroic mirror passes blue light and reflects green and red light. Only the blue light is incident on a first light receiving surface. The first dichroic mirror leads the green and red light to a second dichroic mirror. The second dichroic mirror passes the green light and reflects the red light. Only the green light is incident on a second light receiving surface. The second dichroic mirror leads the red light to a third dichroic mirror. The third dichroic mirror reflects the red light. Therefore, the red light is incident on a third light receiving surface.

The diagrams in are the links below. Inside the link, you can download the pdf version. The patent issue is dated Nov 21, 2006.

http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=7138663.PN.&OS=PN/7138663&RS=PN/7138663
or the google version which is well formatted

http://www.google.com/patents?id=vSp9AAAAEBAJ&dq=7,138,663