George E. Smith ( ~2025 ，享年95歲 )Willard S. Boyle, 電荷耦合器件（英語：Charge-coupled Device，縮寫：CCD），是一種積體電路

 

諾貝爾獎得主、數位眼發明者喬治·E·史密斯逝世，享年95歲

他與威拉德·S·博伊爾共同發明了一種成像裝置，幾乎是當今所有望遠鏡、影印機和數位相機的重要組成部分。

George E. Smith, Nobel Winner Who Created a Digital Eye, Dies at 95

Together with Willard S. Boyle, he invented an imaging device that is an essential part of nearly every telescope, photocopier and digital camera used today.

Dr. Smith, left, and Dr. Boyle in 2009, at a news conference in Stockholm after they won the Nobel Prize in Physics.Credit...Bertil Ericson/Scanpix Sweden, via Associated Press

Dr. Smith and Dr. Boyle’s Nobel win was not without controversy.

Michael F. Tompsett and Eugene I. Gordon, scientists who also worked at Bell Laboratories, claimed that they should receive at least equal credit for developing the CCD, as they were the ones who had demonstrated its implications for imaging. Dr. Smith and Dr. Boyle, they said, had set out to create a memory circuit, not a digital imaging device.

A 1978 article in The New York Times would seem to back up that claim, at least in part, noting that Dr. Tompsett had patented technology that made it possible to build a video camera small enough to fit in the palm of one’s hand. But that was four years after Dr. Smith and Dr. Boyle had patented their device, which is often credited with laying the groundwork for Dr. Tompsett’s research.

Shortly after being awarded the Nobel, Dr. Smith told The Chronicle Herald, a Canadian newspaper, that he had “documentation” that disproved Dr. Tompsett and Dr. Gordon’s claims, adding that “what they are saying is not at all logical.”

電荷耦合器件（英語：Charge-coupled Device，縮寫：CCD），是一種積體電路，上有許多排列整齊的電容，能感應光線，並將影像轉變成數位訊號。經由外部電路的控制，每個小電容能將其所帶的電荷轉給它相鄰的電容。CCD廣泛應用在數位攝影、天文學，尤其是攝影測量學（photometry）、光學與頻譜望遠鏡，和高速攝影技術如幸運成像。

發展史

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CCD是於1969年由美國貝爾實驗室的威拉德·博伊爾（Willard Sterling Boyle）和喬治·埃爾伍德·史密斯（George Elwood Smith）所發明的。當時貝爾實驗室正在發展影像電話和半導體磁泡記憶體^[1]。將這兩種新技術結起來後，博伊爾和史密斯得出一種裝置，他們命名為「Charge 『Bubble’ Devices」。這種裝置的特性就是它能沿著一片半導體的表面傳遞電荷，便嘗試用來做為記憶裝置，當時只能從暫存器用「注入」電荷的方式輸入記憶。但隨即發現光電效應能使此種元件表面產生電荷，而組成數位影像。

1971年，貝爾實驗室的研究員已能用簡單的線性裝置捕捉影像，CCD就此誕生^[2]。有幾家公司接續此一發明，著手進行進一步的研究，包括快捷半導體、美國無線電公司和德州儀器。其中快捷半導體的產品率先上市，於1974年發表500單元的線性裝置和100x100像素的平面裝置。

2006年元月，博伊爾和史密斯獲頒電機電子工程師學會頒發的查爾斯·斯塔克·德雷珀獎^[3]，以表彰他們對CCD發展的貢獻。2009年10月兩人榮獲諾貝爾物理獎^[4]。