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CCD Image Sensor Inventors Win $500,000 Award

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the the-great-white-north dept.

saskboy writes "CCD inventors were honoured this week. According to CBC News, "Willard Boyle, a Canadian scientist who helped invent the light-sensitive chip, accepted (the prestigious Charles Stark Draper Prize) in the U.S. on Tuesday. Boyle and George Smith will share the $500,000 US award for the invention of the "Charge-Coupled Device (CCD), a light-sensitive component at the heart of digital cameras and other widely used imaging technologies," the U.S. National Academy of Engineering said." Those other devices include the Hubble Space Telescope, and orthoscopic medical instruments. "Boyle and Smith came up with the idea for the device while working at Bell Laboratories in 1969. 'It was after maybe an hour's work,' Boyle recalled. 'We went over to the blackboard and we had some sketching there. We went down to our models lab and made one.'""

5 of 125 comments (clear)

  1. Remember this by SEWilco · · Score: 4, Interesting
    Not bad for some bad computer memory.

    Or maybe you're not aware that light sensitivity was considered a peculiar and irritating characteristic of some semiconductor memory. Not much of a problem inside an opaque case, unless nuclear decay or cosmic rays generate a photon...

  2. Well deserved by Chris6502 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Having worked for a number of years in the optical astronomy field during the transition from photographic plates to CCD imaging I for one truly appreciate the CCD. No more baking plates in nitrogen and choosing the right emulsion for the wavelength of interest.

    Now, the IR sensitivity was a different matter, played hob with the spectrograph we retrofitted with a CCD camera. First order IR overlapping second order blue.....

    --
    UNIX: 'cuz you can tattoo it on your knuckles!
  3. ...not to mention... by rknop · · Score: 4, Interesting

    ...every other optical telescope in the world nowadays.

    CCDs did more to revolutionize astronomy in the 20th century than the Hubble Space Telescope did. They enabled the HST, but also effectively multiplied the size of all ground-based telescopes by a factor of 10-- although it's not so simple as that, as CCDs provide a host of other advantages really making quantitative imaging possible.

    CCDs were huge for astronomy. The "CCD revolution" in the 80's (at least 10 years before most people had really heard of digital cameras) made a big difference.

    1. Re:...not to mention... by Shag · · Score: 4, Interesting

      And as an addendum, "optical" applies of course to not only visible light, but infrared as well. This seems obvious to you and me, but a lot of people don't make the connection right away.

      This is a well-timed story for me, since I'm at the controls of a 2.2-meter optical scope right now, with a 2048x2048 CCD as the main instrument for the first half of the night, and a 512x512 CCD on the guider camera. :)

      CCDs are my friends!

      --
      Village idiot in some extremely smart villages.
  4. Not just for looking out into space... by ChePibe · · Score: 4, Interesting
    But at the earth as well.

    This invention really contributed to keeping the Cold War from heating up - reconnaissance satellites equipped with this technology were very useful to ensuring all sides kept their ends of the bargain during various arms control treaties. Not to mention their usefulness in charting maps and letting us all see from a new perspective.

    It's kind of funny when you think about it, but this little invention has broadened our understanding of the entire universe while helping prevent us from blowing each other up down here on earth at the same time. You just can't say that about many things. Great work, gentlemen. Great work.