I didn't read the patents yet, but here is my take on what I did see and read and comprehend.
I used the words "filters" and "color separates" in an earlier post, but that's probably not the best use of terms. The way the Foveon chip works is via the use a natural phenomenon regarding the way photons go through some types of silicon. So, it isn't about filters, although it is about sensors. Unlike silver based film which needs to have a color separation filter to direct the photons so they activate the correct layers of the photosensitive silver grains, silicon does this all by itself. Depending upon the "color" of the photon, it penetrates the silicon to a different depth. This is "picked up" by the sensors, which I believe are imbedded at different depths, and are probably otherwise transparent to photons which need to travel through the sensor to go deeper. As I understand it, there is no need for a "filter" as such. The silicon they use naturally isolates different photons based upon, I assume, the wavelength, which creates different energy levels in the photon, and causes it to penetrate to different levels within the silicon crystalline material. All you would need to do is measure the depth the photon passes through and you know its color. In fact, you don't need to even do that. All you need to do is to have sensors at different levels say one on the surface, one in the middle and one toward the bottom. If the photon was recorded at the top sensor, but no further, it is one color, If it was recorded at the top sensor AND the middle it is another, and if it is recorded at all three sites it is still another (in a tricolor system). Of course the positioning of the depth of these sensors would determine which colors one was "measuring", and I suppose if one wanted to get fancy, one could use even more levels and layers of sensors and use a hex or other system, although I'm not sure there would be any point for photographic white light based images (although I could see several applications for other purposes, like computer "eyes" which could make discrimination of very subtle color differences for manufacturing use. Of getting rid of those pigeons on the pill lines. ;-) From the way I read it, the diagrams are just showing a sensor, and they have been colored them to simplify the explanation. They aren't filters. DISCLAIMER: Of course, I don't know anything, and am just a "parrot". So I'm probably making all of this up. Ask "the engineer". Art [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > Now that I've started reading the patent details, it is obvious those drawings don't exactly paint the full picture :-). > > I didn't notice this before (did they just change the site?) but there is a link to the patent from that site > (http://www.dpreview.com/news/0202/02021102foveonx3tech.asp) > and it makes *very* interesting reading - they use the depth of the 'wells' to create a filter based on the absorption characteristics of doped silicon to the diff wavelengths. (phew!) > > There is a further link to supporting drawings but it's not working for me. > > Anywa, we'll wait and see, but this is certainly pushing the technology in the right direction. > > Austin said: > >>...but magically, in their >>sensor diagram below that, they show a blue filter, that passes both red and >>green...right through, as well as a green filter that passes red. I'm not >>clear on how this works... >> > > > This message was sent through MyMail http://www.mymail.com.au > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Unsubscribe by mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED], with 'unsubscribe filmscanners' > or 'unsubscribe filmscanners_digest' (as appropriate) in the message title or body > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe by mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED], with 'unsubscribe filmscanners' or 'unsubscribe filmscanners_digest' (as appropriate) in the message title or body