The Planar Fourier Capture Array: Two complete cameras shown (the large squares), along with support circuits (at left) COURTESY OF PATRICK GILL, CORNELL UNIVERSITY
THE DEVICE: The Planar Fourier Capture Array (PFCA) is a big name for a tiny camera. At 100th of a millimeter thick and one-half a millimeter on each side, the microscopic device has no lenses or moving parts, but is instead made of 4,000 light sensors—the same thin silicon pixels used in computers and retail cameras. The PFCA costs just pennies to make and could be used in an array of scientific applications, from surgery to cell imaging, the developers say.
WHAT'S NEW: In 2007, Taiwanese electronics company Misumi claimed to have made the smallest camera ever: the “snake camera”—a cylinder measuring 4.4 millimeters by 15 millimeters attached to the end of a bendable wire. In March this year, researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute in ...
