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An article in EETimes Europe from August 24, 2022 argues that huge changes are happening in the consumer and automotive SWIR imaging industry. Some excerpts below. https://www.eetimes.eu/how-smartphones-will-disrupt-the-swir-imaging-industry How Smartphones Will Disrupt the SWIR Imaging Industry August 24, 2022 Axel Clouet and Eric Mounier Sensing SWIR radiation requires imagers based on other materials, making them orders of magnitude more expensive than silicon-based imagers. Therefore, SWIR’s use today is limited to specific applications in defense, industry, or research. ... [A] pull from the consumer market is inspiring unprecedented changes in the SWIR industry, with the emergence of new technologies and the entrance of game-changing players who may enable market and technology disruption. A newer technology, based on quantum dots (QDs), is emerging as a lower-cost alternative to InGaAs. ... with a manufacturing process that is compatible with CMOS, allowing cost reductions by or...

Press release from II-VI Inc. announces joint effort with Artilux on a SWIR 3D camera for the "metaverse". https://ii-vi.com/news/ii-vi-incorporated-and-artilux-demonstrate-a-3d-camera-for-enhanced-user-experience-in-the-metaverse/   PITTSBURGH and HSINCHU, TAIWAN, July 18, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) – II‐VI Incorporated (Nasdaq: IIVI), a leader in semiconductor lasers, and Artilux, a leader in germanium silicon (GeSi) photonics and CMOS SWIR sensing technology, today announced a joint demonstration of a next-generation 3D camera with much longer range and higher image resolution to greatly enhance user experience in the metaverse. Investments in the metaverse infrastructure are accelerating and driving the demand for sensors that enable more realistic and immersive virtual experiences. II-VI and Artilux combined their proprietary technologies in indium phosphide (InP) semiconductor lasers and GeSi sensor arrays, respectively, to demonstrate a miniature 3D camera that operates in ...

The Institute of Nano Sciences from CNRS-Sorbonne University is currently researching and producing quantum dot materials of HgTe, sensitive in the extended SWIR wavelength range. Through a partnership with NIT, a first sensor-camera was produced. This technology is promising to design low-cost and small pixel pitch focal plane array, as well as to expand the spectral range of the SWIR camera up to 2.5 µm. This collaborative program is funded by the French National Research Agency. This video  presents the technology of quantum cascade detector (QCD) deposition with response up to 2um on NIT ROIC’s, and sample results images in various conditions. A related paper titled "Photoconductive focal plane array based on HgTe quantum dots for fast and cost-effective short-wave infrared imaging" is in the June 2022 issue of Nanoscale journal. Abstract:  HgTe nanocrystals, thanks to quantum confinement, present a broadly tunable band gap all over the infrared spectral range. In additio...