How your next smartphone camera might be able to ‘see-through’ solid objects.

New research has opened the door for handheld devices able to scan and 'see-through’ solid objects, by building a Schottky Diode into a standard CMOS imaging chip.

CMOS image sensors have long been used in web cams and cellphone cameras, as a cheaper alternative to CCD sensors. Now the Semiconductor Research Corp (SRC) has shown it can make those same CMOS sensors operate at terahertz speeds, allowing a cellphone sized camera module which can see through objects.

Terahertz cameras have previously been used to see through luggage and clothing at airport security points, but until now the technology has meant the devices needed to be bulky and expensive. The image above shows the inside of an old floppy disk (right), and was taken with a one-pixel CMOS terahertz image chip. Considering even cheap smartphone cameras today are at least one MegaPixel, the image is remarkably clear, and can only improve from here.

This new development is likely to revolutionise not just cameras and scanners, but will also allow cheaper and safer medical scanners, and will have high-speed telecommunications applications.

The technology will be available to all of the companies who currently fund the SRC, which includes AMD, IBM, Intel, Texas Instruments, and other semiconductor companies.

Last month I wrote about how this technology could soon be used by Police to scan for weapons, or to build a real life Tricorder - read that story here.