A big move for Sigma, the company has purchased Foveon, Inc, which developed the Foveon sensor.  The Foveon is a 3-layer sensor, which detects the three primary colors in each pixel.  Expect more from the Foveon in Sigma’s cameras next year and the years to come.  The full press release follows.

Press Release

Sigma Corporation Acquires Three-layer Image Sensor Developer Foveon, Inc.

Kawasaki, Japan, November 11th, 2008 – Sigma Corporation (Location: Kawasaki, Japan) has acquired 100% of the stock of the company that developed the original three-layer image sensor, Foveon Inc. Foveon will continue its sensor development operations in San Jose, CA, USA.

Foveon made history when it developed and patented the world’s first three-layer image capture technology, placing a stack of RGB pixels in each pixel location. As a result, Foveon sensors detect all three primary colors in every pixel location, producing images that are sharper and have significantly reduced image artifacts compared to competing image sensor technologies. [Read more…]