In the world of imaging technology, there are two dominant types of sensors: charge-coupled devices (CCD) and complementary metal-oxide-semiconductors (CMOS). CCD is the technology that was widely used in the 1980s on to generate high-quality images for space science and later in digital cameras but has since been surpassed by CMOS, thanks mostly to one federal lab’s work. Today, when you get on a virtual meeting, pull our your cell phone to snap a photo, or check your backup camera in your car, chances are you’re utilizing CMOS technology.

When Eric Fossum was hired at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in 1990, he advanced CMOS image sensor technology, kicking off a series of technology transfers and developments that have led to one of the most prolific and widely used commercialization cases in modern federal technology transfer.

When Fossum made that advancement for NASA, several companies seized on the breakthrough and signed agreements to partner with JPL. In 1995, Fossum and his JPL colleague, Sabrina Kemeny, licensed the technology from the California Institute of Technology and founded a company called Photobit to develop CMOS sensors. Their goal was to further refine the technology to get it closer to CCD’s capabilities, improve imaging and detection qualities, reduce power requirements, and reduce manufacturing costs.

It wasn’t long before Photobit succeeded in their quest and was acquired by Micron Technology, a large company that could devote more resources to CMOS development. The cell phone and internet explosion occurred shortly after that purchase, leading to a huge increase in demand for CMOS sensors. By 2013, billions of sensors were being manufactured each year. Today, that number has grown to about 7 billion per year.

Now, CMOS technology, which has lapped CCD technology in the market because of its increased ability to produce high-quality images with less effort, dominates the consumer market. CMOS sensors have been used in space for engineering and science–in engineering cameras to enable entry, descent, and landing of NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover, in onboard cameras in space vehicles, and in satellites and other space-related probes. CMOS imagers are also routinely used in monitoring the launch and deployment of CubeSats and SmallSats such as Pandora and SPARCS launched in January 2026 and like those used in other federal labs’ award-winning weather forecasting technology.

The main difference between CCD and CMOS sensors, besides CMOS being more cost- and energy-efficient, is that the newer technology produces images faster because of having an amplifier in every pixel.

In 2026, the National Academy of Engineering named Fossum the recipient of the Charles Stark Draper Prize for Engineering, given biennially to “honor an engineer whose accomplishment has significantly impacted society by improving the quality of life, providing the ability to live freely and comfortably, and/or permitting access to information.”

Shortly after Fossum’s discovery at JPL, CMOS cameras started being used in smartphone cameras, webcams, pill cams –small, swallowable medical devices that take thousands of high-resolution images of the digestive tract. Three decades later, CMOS technology is used in science, medicine, sports cameras, industrial equipment, cinematography, security, and so much more.

And, for the average user of cell phones or virtual meeting software, it is a technology we have come to rely on in our everyday lives, without even realizing it’s there. That is the true power of federal technology transfer and its silent impact on the world over many generations of innovation