Japan patent update: vari-angle LCD screen from Olympus and organic sensor from Fujifilm
Olympus filed a patent in Japan (2011-259166) for a vari-angle LCD screen that can be flipped to pretty much any camera side/angle:
In addition to the US patent for an organic sensor, Fujifilm filed a similar patent in Japan (2011-253861). Here are some more details from the Japanese patent application (Google translation):
As a solid state image pickup device, a photoelectric conversion part is arranged in two dimensions in a semiconductor, it is considered as a pixel, and the flat-surface type photo detector which performs charge transfer and read-out by the CCD circuit or a CMOS circuit is widely used in the signal generated by photoelectric conversion in each pixel. That in which the photodiode part to which the PN junction was generally used for the conventional photoelectric conversion part into semiconductors, such as Si, was formed is used.
In recent years, while multi pixel-ization progresses, pixel size is small, the area of a photodiode part becomes small, and the sensitivity lowering which is decline in a numerical aperture, the decline in condensing efficiency, and its result has been problem. The solid state image pickup device which has the organic photoelectric conversion layer using the organic material as the technique of raising a numerical aperture etc. is examined.