Sony Granted Curved Sensor Patent

Sony applied for a patent in late 2019 – just granted today – showing one way to make a curved sensor, and in particular, how to set up the substrates beneath the sensor for manufacturing at a reasonable cost. The new patent was first dredge up by the Japanese blog An Image on a Sensor. The surface on which the surface sits is set up as a few layers of resin and glass on top of a stepped “pedestal,” which together form a quite thin backing to the sensor, which might be most applicable to camera phones.

The details of the patent go into a very lengthy set of manufacturing steps, indicating that Sony isn’t just conceptualizing curved sensors, but has gone completely down the path to anticipate – and resolve – the hundreds of practical gotchas that come from bringing a concept to real physical form at scale.