Towards a transparent, flexible, scalable and disposable image sensor using thin-film luminescent concentrators

Most image sensors are planar, opaque, and inflexible. We present a novel image sensor that is based on a luminescent concentrator (LC) film which absorbs light from a specific portion of the spectrum. The absorbed light is re-emitted at a lower frequency and transported to the edges of the LC by total internal reflection. The light transport is measured at the border of the film by line scan cameras. With these measurements, images that are focused onto the LC surface can be reconstructed. Thus, our image sensor is fully transparent, flexible, scalable and, due to its low cost, potentially disposable.