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Spinoff story
CMOS Sensors Enable Phone Cameras, HD Video
A real-world story of NASA technology finding a life beyond the mission.
About this technology
Overview
In the 1990s, Jet Propulsion Laboratory engineer Eric Fossum invented what would become NASA_s most ubiquitous spinoff_digital image sensors based on complementary metal oxide semiconductors (CMOS). These were significantly smaller and more efficient than the charge-coupled-device imagers of the day and eventually enabled tiny, battery-friendly cell phone cameras, high-definition video cameras_ such as those offered by San Mateo, California-based GoPro_and social media as we know it. By 2015, the CMOS market reached nearly $10 billion.