I walked away with a few key points from that R&D paper. First and foremost, it seemed like it was an easy and cheap process to fabricate the organic layer. If I read correctly, it seemed that there was no real specificity in how the laid the layer over the CMOS which would reduce cost.
If one could produce a new chip without microlens, and retain all of the benefits in an economical fashion... What would the negative tradeoff's be? I am sure there are some at the first prototype level. Intriguing.