The inventors of the imaging microchip, otherwise known as the CCD, received the 2006 Charles Stark Draper Prize from the National Academy of Engineering, based in Washington. Researchers Willard S. Boyle and George E. Smith invented the chip in 1969 at Bell Labs in Murray Hill, N.J., now a research and development unit of Lucent Technologies. The solid-state imaging device, a basic building block in digital imaging, transforms light patterns into electrical information. It has many applications, among them digital and video cameras, bar-code readers, image scanners, medical imaging devices, space telescopes and remote sensing cameras.

The award honors engineers whose achievements have made a significant impact on society. The $500,000 prize will be shared by the recipients.