US Patent 7488950 - Crosswire photosensor based on nanoparticle/molecular film

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7488950.html

A variety of nanoparticle and molecular films have been found to have photoelectric behavior useful for integration with CMOS and CCD imaging arrays. However to form CCD or CMOS arrays capacitive and/or transistor elements need to be fabricated. This patent teaches a slightly different approach in which the wires forming the sensing pixels are intersecting nanowires which sandwich the nanomaterials. Claim 1 reads:

1. A sensor element comprising:

a first array of substantially parallel wires;

a second array of substantially parallel wires formed at an intersecting angle with the first array of wires;

radiant energy sensitive material between the first array of wires and the second array of wires;

an input unit connected to the first array of wires and constructed to apply a common signal to the first array of wires; and

an output unit connected to the second array of wires and constructed to sum output signals from the second array of wires to produce a summed output, wherein the response of the radiant energy sensitive material to incident radiation determines the summed output.