Demonstration of Field Curvature Aberration Correction Using Curved CMOS Image Sensors

We fabricated a curved complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) image sensor to demonstrate field curvature aberration correction of lens without the use of multiple lenses. An 11-µm-thick cylindrically curved image sensor with a radius of curvature of 20 mm was realized using a silicon on insulator device structure and thinning techniques based on xenon fluoride etching and packaging technologies. The fabricated curved CMOS image sensor successfully and stably captured video images (320 × 240 pixels). By comparing the output images from a flat CMOS image sensor and curved CMOS image sensors, we demonstrated that blurring at the periphery of the images can be reduced by curving the CMOS image sensor.