Patent shows Panasonic innovative “Micro Color Splitters” Sensor.

As you know Sigma’s Foveon tech uses three vertically aligned layers to capture the full RGB color info on every pixel. But so far the tech has many drawbacks (like noise ISO at medium and high ISO).

But Panasonic proposes a new kind of tech that promises to solve those issues. The three RGB layers are aligned differently. One in “normal” horizontal position and two are aligned vertically on the side of each pixel area. A so-called “Color separation filter array” splits the RGB light and sends it in different direction. Panasonic says that there is almost no loss of information when the light passes through the horizontal layer to get to the two vertical layers.

The patent is a detailed description of the “Micro Color Splitters” Sensor we saw two years ago:

The new technique allows to “approximately double the color sensitivity in comparison with conventional sensors that use color filters.“. The trick to achieve that is the complete removal of the color filters that “usually block 50 – 70% of the incoming light before it even reaches the sensor“. Full description of the tech can be read here: http://panasonic.co.jp/corp/news/official.data/data.dir/2013/02/en130204-6/en130204-6.html

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