By Daryl Lang
© Alcatel-Lucent/Bell Labs
Bell Labs researchers Willard Boyle (left) and George Smith in 1974, demonstrating their CCD.
Next time you take a digital photo, thank
Willard S. Boyle
and
George E. Smith.
On Tuesday the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences jointly awarded
the Nobel Prize in Physics to three inventors who worked with
light, including Boyle and Smith, the two Americans who developed a
digital sensor that revolutionized photography.
Boyle and Smith created the first successful Charge-Coupled Device
(CCD) in 1969 while working at Bell Laboratories in Murray Hill,
New Jersey.
Boyle is a Canadian and U.S. citizen and retired in 1979. Smith is
a U.S. citizen who retired in 1986. The two of them will share half
of the 10 million Krona (U.S. $1.4 million) prize.
The other half of the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physics is going to
Charles Kuen Kao, a British and American citizen who made a
breakthrough discovery in how to transmit light over long distances
via fiber optics.
Boyle and Smith did not set out to reinvent photography; they were
trying to develop better electronic memory. To that end, they
developed a silicon plate with millions of light-sensitive
photocells. The CCD accumulated light-induced charges over its
surface, and transported them to be read out at the edge of the
light-sensitive area. The process makes use of an effect theorized
by
Albert Einstein, who won the 1921 Nobel Prize for the
idea.
Within a year of Boyle and Smith’s invention, they were able to
demonstrate a video camera that used a CCD. By 1972, the first CCDs
were being manufactured with a resolution of just 100 x 100
pixels.
The technology progressed through the 1980s, and by 1986 the first
1.4-megapixel image sensor had been developed. The first fully
digital photographic cameras appeared on the market in the
mid-1990s.
Digital cameras today use CCD or a competing technology, the CMOS
(or Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor) sensor. CCD sensors
even helped advance other fields of science due to their
suitability in medical devices, satellite cameras and astronomy and
astrophysics instruments.
More information:
The 2009 Nobel Prize in Physics Announcement
Digital Photo Pioneers Win Nobel Prize
Oct 6, 2009
By Daryl Lang
Bell Labs researchers Willard Boyle (left) and George Smith in 1974, demonstrating their CCD.
Next time you take a digital photo, thank
Willard S. Boyle and
George E. Smith.
On Tuesday the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics to three inventors who worked with light, including Boyle and Smith, the two Americans who developed a digital sensor that revolutionized photography.
Boyle and Smith created the first successful Charge-Coupled Device (CCD) in 1969 while working at Bell Laboratories in Murray Hill, New Jersey.
Boyle is a Canadian and U.S. citizen and retired in 1979. Smith is a U.S. citizen who retired in 1986. The two of them will share half of the 10 million Krona (U.S. $1.4 million) prize.
The other half of the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physics is going to
Charles Kuen Kao, a British and American citizen who made a breakthrough discovery in how to transmit light over long distances via fiber optics.
Boyle and Smith did not set out to reinvent photography; they were trying to develop better electronic memory. To that end, they developed a silicon plate with millions of light-sensitive photocells. The CCD accumulated light-induced charges over its surface, and transported them to be read out at the edge of the light-sensitive area. The process makes use of an effect theorized by
Albert Einstein, who won the 1921 Nobel Prize for the idea.
Within a year of Boyle and Smith’s invention, they were able to demonstrate a video camera that used a CCD. By 1972, the first CCDs were being manufactured with a resolution of just 100 x 100 pixels.
The technology progressed through the 1980s, and by 1986 the first 1.4-megapixel image sensor had been developed. The first fully digital photographic cameras appeared on the market in the mid-1990s.
Digital cameras today use CCD or a competing technology, the CMOS (or Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor) sensor. CCD sensors even helped advance other fields of science due to their suitability in medical devices, satellite cameras and astronomy and astrophysics instruments.
More information:
The 2009 Nobel Prize in Physics Announcement
