Call for Papers for Special Issue of 2022 IEEE TED on Solid-State Image Sensors

Over the last decade, solid-state image sensors have sustained impressive technological developments as well as growth in existing markets such as camera phones, automotive cameras, security and industrial cameras and medical/scientific cameras. This has included:

• sub-micron pixels,
• high dynamic range sensors for automotive and machine vision,
• time-of- flight sensors for 3D imaging,
• 3-dimensional integration (wafer level stacking) for small and efficient imaging systems on a chip,
• sub-electron read noise pixels and avalanche photodetectors for single-photon imaging,
• detector structures for non-cooled infrared imaging,
• and many others.

Solid-state image sensors are also taking off into new applications and markets (IoT, 3D imaging, medical, biometrics and others). Solid-state image sensors are now key components in a vast array of consumer and industrial products. This special issue will provide a focal point for reporting these advancements in an archival journal and serve as an educational tool for the solid-state image sensor community. Previous special issues on solid-state image sensors were published in 1968, 1976, 1985, 1991, 1997, 2003, 2009 and 2016.

• Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:
• Pixel device physics (New devices and structures, Advanced materials, Improved models and scaling, Advanced pixel circuits, Performance enhancement for QE, Dark current, Noise, Charge Multiplication Devices, etc.)
• Image sensor design and performance (New architectures, Small pixels and Large format arrays, High dynamic range, 3D range capture, Low voltage, Low power, High frame rate readout, Scientific-grade, Single-Photon Sensitivity)
• Image-sensor-specific peripheral circuits (ADCs and readout electronics, Color and image processing, Smart sensors and computational sensors, System on a chip)
• Non-visible “image” sensors (Enhanced spectral response e.g., UV, NIR, High energy photon and particle detectors e.g., electrons, X-rays, Ions, Hybrid detectors, THz imagers)
• Stacked image sensor architectures, fabrication, packaging and manufacturing (two or more tiers, back-side illuminated devices)
• Miscellaneous topics related to image sensor technology

Submission deadline: July 30, 2021

Publication date: June 2022

GEO Semi Reports the 250 Automotive OEM Design Win Milestone

BusinessWire: GEO Semiconductor announces surpassing a major milestone for the company, 250 Automotive OEM design wins. These camera video processor (CVP) design wins represent engagements with over 30 different Tier 1 suppliers, and over a dozen of the world’s top automotive OEMs. 

“GEO released it’s first automotive product in 2015 and made the strategic decision to exclusively develop CVPs for automotive from that point forward. In the past 5 years we leveraged our world class team, our focused product strategy, and our customers to propel us to grow to the position of market leadership.” said Dave Orton, GEO Semiconductor CEO. “The world’s leading automotive companies chose GEO due to our camera, video, and computer vision expertise, and our ability to provide timely cutting edge solutions for these complex applications.”

 

Bucket-Brigade Device Inventor Kees Teer Passed Away at the Age of 95

ED: A former Philips Research Labs head Kees Teer passed away at the age of 95. Kees was the inventor of a bucket-brigate device, the predecessor of the CCD.

Smartsens Claims #1 Spot in CIS Volume for Machine Vision Applications

Smartsens publishes a promotional video on global shutter advantages where it claims to be #1 in terms of machine vision image sensors shipment volume:

Samsung Aims to Take a Lead on Automotive CIS Market

PulseNews reports that, currently, Samsung market share in automotive image sensors is only 2%, after ON Semi, Omnivision, and Sony. Samsung intends to increase it and take a lead in automotive sensors.

ams’ NanEye Endoscopic Camera Reverse Engineering

SystemPlus publishes a reverse engineering of ams’ NanEye endoscopic camera:

"To achieve an exceedingly small size and minimal cost, the NanEye relegates memory and image processing functionality off-chip and uses low-voltage differential signaling to stream image data at 38 Mbps. The NanEye includes a wafer-level packaged (WLP) 1 x 1 mm2 249 x 250-pixel front-side illuminated CMOS image sensor designed by AWAIBA (acquired by ams in 2015) and WLO technology developed by Heptagon (acquired by ams in 2016). Through-silicon via technology connects the sensor to the 4-pad solder-masked ball grid array package on the backside, facilitating integration into novel imaging products. The camera can be ordered with several preset optical configurations with an F-stop range of F2.4 – 6.0 and a field of view (FOV) range of 90° – 160°. The version analyzed in this report has an F-stop of F#4.0 and FOV of 120°."

Samsung CIS Capacity Expansion Chart

IFNews quotes HSBC report showing Samsung CIS capacity expanison chart:

SPAD Super-Resolution Sensing

Nature publishes a joint paper of Bonn University, Germany, and Glasgow University, UK, "Super-resolution time-resolved imaging using computational sensor fusion" by C. Callenberg, A. Lyons, D. den Brok, A. Fatima, A. Turpin, V. Zickus, L. Machesky, J. Whitelaw, D. Faccio, and M. B. Hullin.

"Imaging across both the full transverse spatial and temporal dimensions of a scene with high precision in all three coordinates is key to applications ranging from LIDAR to fluorescence lifetime imaging. However, compromises that sacrifice, for example, spatial resolution at the expense of temporal resolution are often required, in particular when the full 3-dimensional data cube is required in short acquisition times. We introduce a sensor fusion approach that combines data having low-spatial resolution but high temporal precision gathered with a single-photon-avalanche-diode (SPAD) array with data that has high spatial but no temporal resolution, such as that acquired with a standard CMOS camera. Our method, based on blurring the image on the SPAD array and computational sensor fusion, reconstructs time-resolved images at significantly higher spatial resolution than the SPAD input, upsampling numerical data by a factor 12×12, and demonstrating up to 4×4 upsampling of experimental data. We demonstrate the technique for both LIDAR applications and FLIM of fluorescent cancer cells. This technique paves the way to high spatial resolution SPAD imaging or, equivalently, FLIM imaging with conventional microscopes at frame rates accelerated by more than an order of magnitude."

Brigates Prepares $207M IPO at Shanghai Stock Exchange

EastMoney, CapitalWhale, ElecFans: Yet another China-based image sensor company prepares an IPO at Shanghai Stock Exchange - Brigates (Chinese name - Ruixinwei or Ruixin Micro-Tech Innovation or Kunshan Ruixin.)

"The IPO of the Science and Technology Innovation Board intends to raise 1.347 billion yuan for the R&D and industrialization projects of high-end image sensor chips and movement, as well as development and technology reserve funds.

So, what is the advantage of Ruixinwei?

The prospectus declares that: the company’s technologies and products in the field of high-end image chip customization and high-sensitivity camera cores have reached the domestic leading and internationally advanced level; “has a number of domestic leading and internationally advanced core technologies” and “breaks through foreign countries. "The technology monopoly of giants", "The company has become one of the few companies in the world that master ECCD technology", "It has replaced and surpassed similar foreign products, and filled many gaps in the field of domestic image sensors", "A few global suppliers Business One", "in a dominant position."

The Shanghai Stock Exchange took note of the company's above statement and requested the company to list the basis for its described market position.

In the reply letter, Ruixin Micro stated that it has revised "replacement and surpasses similar foreign products" in the prospectus to "partially replace similar foreign products", and at the same time, it will "achieve a subversive replacement of vacuum analog signal device technology." "Modified to "Realize the renewal of vacuum analog signal device technology".

For other statements, Ruixinwei believes that the statement is well-founded. In particular, the company mentioned that it is "the few companies in the world that master ECCD technology."

“The MCCD and ECCD technology independently developed by Ruixin Micro is helpful to improve the imaging quality of the image sensor.”

“At present, CMOS image sensor is the mainstream technology route, accounting for nearly 90% of the image sensor market. Ruixin Micro is equivalent to taking a new technological path. Ruixin Micro has developed a high-sensitivity camera core with MCCD technology as its core, has achieved industrialization. However, ECCD process development is very difficult, and currently there are relatively few publicly available materials."

Luminar CES Presentation Compares LiDAR Approaches

Luminar publishes its presentations at CES2021. The first one done by Matt Weed compares the LiDAR technologies:

In its investor presentation, Luminar also shows its single-pixel InGaAs sensor integrated onto a Si ROIC and costing $3:

Modeling of Current-Assisted Photonic Demodulator for ToF Sensor

Hong Kong University publishes a video presentation "Compact Modeling of Current-Assisted Photonic Demodulator for Time-of-Flight CMOS Image Sensor" by Cristine Jin Delos Santos. The work has won Best Student Paper Award at IEEE Student Symposium on Electron Devices and Solid-State Circuits (s-EDSSC) in October 2020.