US Patent 8143685 - Image sensor with nanodot focusing

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/8143685.html

This patent from Samsung teaches the use of metal nanoparticles to focus light into submicron size regions which may be useful to create high density imaging sensors of smaller size. Claim 1 reads:

1. An image sensor, comprising:

a plurality of pixels disposed in an array, each pixel comprising a plurality of sub-pixels, and each sub-pixel comprising a plurality of floating body transistors that receive light, wherein each floating body transistor comprises:

a back gate;

a gate insulating layer disposed on the back gate;

a source region and a drain region disposed on the gate insulating layer;

a semiconductor layer comprising a floating body region disposed between the source region and the drain region; and

at least one metal nanodot focusing the light onto the floating body region.