To record optical images like specialized images to selfies for further processing, the relevant amount of light is absorbed by an image sensor. Such a sensor consists of many sensitive elements -pixels - made of silicon with modern semiconductor nanotechnology. Since nanotechnology is continuously miniaturizing and silicon absorbs light weakly, absorption must be greatly increased to convert light much more efficiently into charge that is detected as a digital image. The innovation of AHEAD is to increase absorption by trapping light in pixels with smart photonic bandgap nanostructures. AHEAD is so flexible that different bands of light can be optimized.