Thursday, September 22, 2016

AutoSens 2016 Review

Albert Theuwissen publishes a review of the first AutoSens conference held last week in Brussels, Belgium. The review covers Yole, Softkinetic and ST presentations.

9 comments:

  1. About the ST presentation,
    145dB and flicker-free !
    It's a killer pixel if it's mature.
    What is the pixel size? Should be a very big one?
    (storage nodes + several photodiodes + MOS..)

    I don't hear about other flicker free Pixel from the market, but only flicker mitigation?

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    1. I was part of the AutoSens and see ST presentation and stand.
      It is not mitigation and definitively immunity at different duty cycles and LED frequencies using their demo-chip. I challenged them in live!

      Very impressive as ST seems to be able to reach in the same time HDR capabilities, full frame rate /resolution (around 2.2Mpx) and flicker free.

      Need to understand more and I'm definitively waiting for an evaluation kit before end of this year!!

      No more information unfortunately, but Yes should be killer sensor.

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    2. Maybe the idea is to fraction the exposure time into many small slots and distribute them over the frame period. I think that Aptina has a patent on this idea.

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  2. If I recall well, the pixel was around 3um, BSI.

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  3. http://www.freepatentsonline.com/20130155239.pdf

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    1. Thanks for the reference. But I think this is only a very small part of the story (if it is at all). Apparently the patent deals with a kind of exposure control system, while in the sensore presented at AutoSens multiple diodes and storage nodes are used. Moreover, Tarek Lule told me that the idea was written down in a patent application, but the patent was not yet granted, even not yet published. If Tarek's statement is correct, then the pixel is not described by the referenced application. But nevertheless, I appreciate your timeto dive into this.

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    2. Generally speaking, the trick should be distribute the charge collection slots all over the frame time instead of concentrated in a short exposure period. In this case, the LED pulse can be sensed without falling outside the exposure period. But this will generate another problem: the moving object will be imaged over all the frame period, say 20ms for 50Hz, this moving object will suffer from moving blur much more in this case than a single exposure slot. Human eye is stabilized but a ADAS sensor will mounted on the car, so this moving blur will be serious problem, especially when you go to higher resolution.

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    3. Albert, do you know if the presentation will be available from AutoSens?

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    4. All presentation slides will be available for conference delegates in the next week. Video of all presentations will be available the week after free of charge for AutoSens delegates and fir a snall fee for those who did not attend.

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