Recently, the research group headed by Song Jinhui, a professor of Chinese at the University of Alabama, developed a new type of image sensor with a pixel size of only 50 nanometers, greatly breaking the current limit of 1,000 nanometers for digital image sensor pixels. The study was recently published in Advanced Materials, the top scientific journal for materials. Since the invention of digital image sensors, researchers have tried every means to reduce the pixel size to improve the resolution of digital image sensors. Currently, the minimum pixel sizes for digital image sensors CCD and CMOS are 1.43 and 1.12 microns, respectively. Due to the physical properties of semiconductor thin film materials and the limitations of the traditional structure of digital image sensors, such pixel sizes are close to the physical limits. If you continue to reduce the size, the pixel will lose the light function. Song Jinhui said that the current digital image sensor resolution breakthrough must be from the sensor material and structure of two aspects of radical innovation, and can not rely on the original device framework and material improvements. To this end, the Song Jinhui scientific research team using three-dimensional semiconductor nanomaterials, completely different from the current digital image sensor device mechanism, the newly developed nano-semiconductor optoelectronic materials and three-dimensional device structure, to achieve the light intensity sensing and amplification dual functions to further reduce Pixel plane area, greatly reducing the sensor noise. According to the current popular full-size camera sensor size as a standard, the new sensor will have amazing 300 billion pixels, is now 10,000 times the sensor. Its super-high resolution will have a huge impact on a range of important technological fields such as image information storage, super-resolution microscopy, light-matter interaction and photonic computers. Next, researchers will study full-color, high-response, ultra-high-precision digital image sensors based on this new sensor to advance its use in basic science and technology.