Barron's: Wedbush analyst Betsy Van Hees writes in her report:
“Our industry checks indicate that OmniVision’s 8MP image sensor is likely in the DROID X set to be released on July 15. We view this design win as a significant positive for OmniVision, further validating the company’s leading image quality and technology position, particularly given that our checks indicate several years ago OmniVision was designed out of Motorola due to image quality issues.”
To be good enough to win customers back is quite an accomplishment. The BSI produced images must be exceptional.
ReplyDeleteWhere are the other sensor manufacturers on BSI?
actually, the 1.4um omnibsi-1 pixel is not that impressive. the 680mv/lux-sec is not much better than the 550mv/lux-sec associated with the equivalent fsi pixel.
ReplyDeletethe 1.75um bsi pixel used for the 5mp sensor in the iphone i believe has a 860 mv/lux-sec sensitivity that allows it to take better low light pics than the 8mp in the droid (assuming it is the same sensor as in the htc evo). i would not doubt that this is why apple is supposedly going to use the sony 8mp bsi camera in the next iphone. this is the same sensor chosen by microsoft for the expensive Kin which has already been taken off the market. i believe sony said that it was able to obtain twice the sensitivity as in their equivalent fsi pixel.
i wonder why motorola is not advertising that it is a bsi sensor like apple did. maybe they would like to leave open the option of using either a fsi or bsi 8mp sensor if multisourcing is a concern (as i think it should be).
as far as where are other vendors with their bsi, samsung, toshiba and aptina (as reported on ISW in the past year) are all suppose to have bsi product out for sampling or mass production (in the case of toshiba) in the second half of 2010. it should get real interesting in terms of price competition when this happens. it can only benefit the consumer at the cost of margins to the vendors but that's how it is in a commodity business.
The 1.75u BSI pixel has a sensitivity spec of 1300V/lux-sec.
ReplyDeleteI have it on good authority that the Omnivision 8MP sensor is sole sourced in the DroidX. The BSI feature will promoted when the phone is actually available.
Mot is certain that Omnivision can supoort their requirements.
How do these sensitivity ratings compare to that of CCDs of equivalent cost / pixel size? Is there any chance of seeing better picture quality in phone cameras of future with CCDs, once their ease of integration comes close to that of CMOS sensors?
ReplyDeleteH gives up OVT's 8MP and chose Samsung as the next 8M supplier. A also has the similiar decision but with Sony's 8M. Thus, Mot may be regret to its current decision in near future.
ReplyDeleteAnyone have a link to information on the Sony 8mp BSI for comparison?
ReplyDeleteWedbush analyst Betsy Van Hees writes in her report: OmniVision’s 8MP image sensor is likely in the DROID X
ReplyDeleteI'll wait for the teardown.
It is surprising that Aptina is not in the new Droid from Motorola. If I remember correctly the first motrola droid had 5MP from them. I've not heard about their 1.4um pixel in any of the big profile handsets. Are they just lagging behind because of FSI?
ReplyDelete