The Wall Street Journal’s 2010 Technology Innovation Awards have chosen InVisage’s QuantumFilm as the winner in the Semiconductor category.

The winning product makes vast improvements in capturing light for digital cameras, and especially cell phone cameras. Using semiconductor quantum dots instead of weakly light-absorbing silicon, QuantumFilm image sensors capture more than 90% of available light instead of the 25% in silicon-based sensors.

Professor Ted Sargent, of The Edward S. Rogers Sr. Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, is the founder and Chief Technology Officer for InVisage Technologies Inc. Founded in 2006, the company is based in California, but leverages research and technology from U of T.

“The WSJ award is great news for InVisage. It acknowledges the disruptive innovation this company brings to the image sensor market,” says Professor Sargent, who also holds the Canada Research Chair in Nanotechnology.

“This award also speaks to the vision and leadership of the individuals at U of T who enabled the highly successful transfer of technology to this dynamic start-up.”

InVisage will have the product available in consumer products as early as the end of next year.

“This is an immense accomplishment for Ted Sargent and InVisage, and we congratulate him and his team. The award reaffirms the exceptional quality of research and technology innovation that comes out of University of Toronto Engineering and its spin-off companies,” says Cristina Amon, Dean of the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering.

U of T Engineering has been at the leading edge of entrepreneurship in Canada since 1951, with the establishment of more than 100 successful spin-off companies.

To see the full list of winners of  The Wall Street Journal’s 2010 Technology Innovation Awards, click here.