ActLight DPD Achieves Single-Photon Sensitivity

PRNewswire: ActLight, a Swiss technology startup developing Dynamic PhotoDiodes (DPDs), announces that the results of its internal tests performed on its most recent technology developments show a device sensitivity that reached the single photon level.

Moreover, the tests confirmed that the sensitivity of the DPD is tunable (i.e. at 2, 3, 5 or 7 photons) with very positive impact on the dynamic range of the device. Important to note is that the brilliant results were achieved at 1.5V bias voltage and with devices manufactured using a standard CMOS 180nm technology.

"It's great that today we are among a selected few innovative technologies to have a talk at the Imaging & Sensors Summit, a great opportunity to present our recent developments in the low voltage single photon sensitivity," said Serguei Okhonin, ActLight Co-Founder and CEO. "And we strongly believe that our DPDs can inspire innovation and enhance user experience in main stream applications such as smartphones and others."

In another presentation, ActLight announces a ToF sensor prototype based on its DPD (see demo video here):

"In current 3D camera sensors, pixel scaling is limited due to complex analog circuits. The DPD's simple digital front-end allows decreasing pixel size below 5 um. Moreover, the DPD and its read-out front-end circuit are implemented on the same substrate in standard low-cost CMOS technology and do not require high voltage for its operation."

GPixel Announces Large and Fast Sensor with Global Shutter

Gpixel announces the GMAX3265, a 65MP image sensor with 3.2µm charge domain global shutter pixel. “GMAX3265 is defined in close collaboration with leading industry partners in inspection vision systems, as such are we confident that the unique features of GMAX3265 will meet the most demanding requirements for industrial inspection, machine vision and metrology applications”, said Wim Wuyts, Chief Commercial Officer of Gpixel.

GMAX3265 offers 9344 (H) x 7000 (V) charge global shutter pixels with read noise of less than 2e-, higher than 70dB DR, and 1e-/p/s dark current at room temperature. Due to the light pipe technology, the sensor exhibits excellent shutter efficiency of 1/30,000 and large angular response.

Consisting of 56 pairs sub-LVDS data output channel and each running at maximum 1.08 Gbit/s, GMAX3265 delivers 85 fps at 10bit output or 53 fps at 12bit output. The high resolution and fast frame rate significantly increases the system throughput for industrial inspection applications, such as semiconductor, PCB, AOI or display inspection.

“We understand short time-to-market is essential in today’s competing environment, and at Gpixel, we put a lot of effort in technical and logistic support to enable customers a fast go to market timing. This combined with our long term commitment and product strategy is essential for the success of our growing customer base and Gpixel.”, said Wim.

GMAX3265 will begin sampling in early Q4 2018, with mass production scheduled in end of Q1 2019 for both color and mono version.

Article about Gigajot

Dartmouth College publishes an article about its spin-off Gigajot:

"Gigajot Technology, based in Pasadena, California, aims to bring a variety of products to market using the Quanta Image Sensor (QIS) which makes it possible to produce sharp images in extremely low light. They intend to target high-end scientific research and medical imaging markets at first, but could eventually compete in much larger consumer markets.

“QIS is a platform technology,” says Gigajot CEO Saleh Masoodian, a 2017 Dartmouth engineering PhD graduate who cofounded the company with Fossum and fellow Thayer alum and Gigajot CTO Jiaju Ma Th'17. “Down the road, there are additional markets we can serve, such as security, automotive, and other niche applications.”

“Not only can our imager capture the photons in a very dim scene, but also it can resolve the number of photons and give you a much better quality picture,” says Masoodian, adding that the sensors can be manufactured using current CMOS processes, which he says translates to a high production yield at lower costs.

Masoodian says he hopes to see the company launch its first product-ready QIS camera for use in these niche markets within the next two to three years."

Quantum Imaging Beyond Diffraction Limit

OSA Optica publishes a paper "Super-resolution quantum imaging at the Heisenberg limit" by Manuel Unternährer, Bänz Bessire, Leonardo Gasparini, Matteo Perenzoni, and André Stefanov from University of Bern and Fondazione Bruno Kessler FBK.

"The Abbe–Rayleigh diffraction limit constrains spatial resolution for classical imaging methods. Quantum imaging exploits correlations between photons to reproduce structures with higher resolution. Quantum-correlated 𝑁-photon states were shown to potentially surpass the classical limit by a factor of 1/𝑁, corresponding to the Heisenberg limit, using a method known as optical centroid measurement (OCM). In this work, the theory of OCM is reformulated for its application in imaging. Using entangled photon pairs and a recently developed integrated time-resolving detector array, OCM is implemented in a proof-of-principle experiment that demonstrates the expected enhancement. Those results show the relevance of entanglement for imaging at the Heisenberg limit."

TI Promotes its ToF Solution

TI video promotes its ToF solution:

Two CNES Workshops

French Space Agency (CNES) announces Call for Abstracts for 2 workshops to be held in Toulouse:

Radiation effects on solid state optoelectronic detectors on November 27-28, 2018
Ultra-Violet Detectors and Instruments on November 28-29, 2018

"The goal is to bring together all the community to discuss the challenges to develop such sensors and instruments, to discuss previous mission lessons and to share about future projects.

Although the workshop is mostly oriented to space applications, this event is fully open to researchers/user working within other applications. Developers working on non-space applications dealing with the same topics (e;g; Astronomy, Medical Imaging, photolithography…) are equally welcome to participate to this Workshop."

The workshops also features 45min tutorials.

Active Alignment Demo

Trioptics publishes a Youtube video showing its ProCam active alighnemt system:

ON Semi Unveils its First SiPM for LiDARs

ON Semi publishes its first sensor for LiDARs, possibly coming from SensL acquisition:

"The RA−Series 16−pixel linear array from ON Semiconductor has been designed for automotive LiDAR applications. The array is a single monolithic sensor featuring 16 of ON Semicondcutor’s industry−leading silicon photomultiplier (SiPM) pixels. The SiPM is a single−photon sensitive, high internal gain sensor that has a responsivity of >30 kA/W at 905 nm and operates at a low bias of  less than 50 V."

Image Sensors Americas Final Agenda

Image Sensors Americas 2018 is to be held on October 11-12 in San Francisco, CA. The final agenda includes much many image sensor presentations than has been announced initially:

• Key Challenges of Image Sensors for ADAS and ADS
  Ronald Mueller | CEO of Vision Markets of Associate Consultant of Smithers Apex
• NASA Keynote Presentation | Image Sensors for Aerospace
  Shouleh Nikzad | Senior Research Scientist of NASA
• The M&A and Funding Landscape for Image Sensor Companies
  Rudy Burger | Managing Partner of Woodside Capital Partners
• State of the Art Uncooled InGaAs Short Wave Infrared Sensors
  Martin H. Ettenberg | President of Princeton Infrared Technologies
• Super-Wide-Angle Cameras- The Next Smartphone Frontier Enabled by Miniature Lens Design and the Latest Sensors
  Patrice Roulet Fontani | Vice President,Technology and Co-Founder of ImmerVision
• Integrated Photonics Technology: Driving the Evolution of Novel Image Sensors for LiDAR and THz imaging
  Bert Gyselinckx | Vice President & General Manager of Imec
• SPAD vs. CMOS Image Sensor Design Challenges – Jitter vs. Noise
  Daniel Van Blerkom | CTO & Co-Founder of Forza Silicon
• sCMOS Technology: The Most Versatile Imaging Tool in Science
  Scott Metzler | PCO Tech
• Toward Monolithic Image Perception Devices (MIPD).
  Guy Paillet | co-Founder & CEO of General Vision Inc.
• From The Outside In
  Richard Neumann | CEO of Sub2R
• Using Depth Sensing Cameras for 3D Eye Tracking Sensing
  Kenneth Funes Mora | CEO and Co-founder of Eyeware
• SPAD Arrays for LiDAR Applications
  Wade Appelman | VP of Sales and Marketing of SensL Technologies
• Super High Sensitivity CMOS Image Sensors Technologies
  Eiichi Funatsu | Senior Director of OmniVision
• Future Image Sensors for SLAM and Indoor 3D Mapping
  Vitaliy Goncharuk | CEO/Founder of Augmented Pixels
• How to Keep Your Next Winning Sensor Design From Being Stifled By Your Test Strategy: Bench Testing v Automated Test Equipment
  Lauren Guajardo | Field Applications Engineering Leader of Teradyne
• Future Trends in Imaging Beyond the Mobile Market
  Amos Fenigstein | Senior Director of R&D for Image Sensors of TowerJazz
• Photon-Counting Imaging with Quanta Image Sensor for Scientific and Consumer Applications
  Jiaju Ma | CTO of Gigajot

First Camera Module Factory in India

FranchiseIndia, IndiaTimes, BusinessStandard: SYSKA Group (India), Biometronic Pte. (Singapore), and Suyin Optronics Corp. (Taiwan) partner to set up India’s first camera module factory in Noida. The total investment for the facility is $30m. The factory will have a clean room for production capacity of 5 million pieces per month.

The new factory will manufacture camera modules for mobile phones, automotive industry (Rear view camera), medical, security industry, and defense industry (Drones). Syska Group has 49% stake in the company whereas Biometronic has 41% stake and Suyin Optronics has 10% stake in the new entity.