In-memory light sensor provides artificial visual perception
Scene recognition is one of the visual perception capabilities of digital image sensors developed at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST).
Exploiting charge-coupled device (CCD) image sensors found in early digital cameras, Dayanand Kumar, Nazek El-Atab and colleagues have adapted and enhanced the CCD’s core structure to create memory devices that can be programmed by light. In particular, the research team embedded the two-dimensional material MoS2 (molybdenum disulphide) into a semiconductor capacitor (MOSCAP) structure that underpins the charge-storing pixels of a CCD sensor.
The resulting Al/Al2O3/MoS2/Al2O3/Si MOSCAP structures are claimed to function as a charge-trapping ‘in-memory’ sensor that is sensitive to visible light and can be programmed optically and erased electrically.
“The in-memory light sensors are smart multifunctional memory devices that can perform the roles of multiple - traditionally discrete - devices at once, including optical sensing, storage and computation,” El-Atab said in a statement. “Our long-term goal is to be able to demonstrate in-memory sensors that can detect different stimuli and compute.”
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