Embodiments of the present invention relate to a wavefront imaging sensor (WIS) comprising an aperture layer having an aperture, a light detector having a surface and a transparent layer between the aperture layer and the light detector. The light detector can receive a light projection at the surface from light passing through the aperture. The light detector can also separately measure amplitude and phase information of a wavefront at the aperture based on the received light projection. The transparent layer has a thickness designed to locate the surface of the light detector approximately at a self-focusing plane in a high Fresnel number regime to narrow the light projection.