The 2006 Charles Stark Draper Prize was awarded "for the invention of the Charge-Coupled Device (CCD), a light-sensitive component at the heart of digital cameras and other widely used imaging technologies." to Dr. George E. Smith and Dr. Willard S. Boyle who invented the CCD while working at Bell Laboratories in the late 1960s.
The first paper on the CCD was published in the Bell System Technical Journal on January 29, 1970. Since then the CCD has had a profound effect not only on astronomy and space science, but also on consumer electronics; the CCD is the key element in digital cameras, scanners, and fax machines.

Seen here: »www.nae.edu/nae/awardscom.nsf/we···ocument