Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Chipworks Announces Sony BSI Reverse Engineering

Chipworks is quick to announce the reverse engineering report of Sony 12MP 1.75um BSI sensor for camcorder, part number IMX061. The company also quotes Sony saying it is likely to start applying a BSI technology on their CMOS sensors for 5MP camcorders or digital cameras with 1.75um CMOS pixel technology. The IMX061 die size is 8.93mm x 7.93mm:



Thanks to R.F. for sending me the info.

7 comments:

  1. The array size seems mis-match....
    4000x3000x1.75x1.75 ~ 36mm2 almost 50% of chip size. But this pictures show ~30% only...

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  2. The actual number of pixels is just 6.6M - see Chipworks report:

    http://www.chipworks.com/cis-spotlight.aspx

    Since the pixels are 45deg rotates, as shown in the report, Sony considers the resolution to be 12MP - believe it or not. Do the area calculations make sense now?

    The analog blocks are hidden under the light shield, I believe.

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  3. I thought one of the benefits of BSI was that you could fill up the "top" of the chip with pixels and then put everything else under that because its easy to add layers. What's the deal with only 30% of the chip being used for the pixel array? I would think it would be 80%+

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  4. Do you think that Sony's chip might be pad limited?

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  5. Would you please share with me how could 6.6 MP (1:6:1) go to 12MP?
    Thanks!

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  6. > how could 6.6 MP (1:6:1) go to 12MP

    You can see genuine Sony explanation here:

    http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/technology/technology/theme/clearvitcmos_02.html#page04

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