Assorted News: Sense Photonics, MIPI, Pamtek, CSET, CoreDAR, Samsung

LaserFocusWorld publishes an interview with Shauna McIntyre, the new CEO of Sense Photonics. Few quotes:

"We have core flash lidar technology in the laser emitter, the detector array, and the algorithms and software stack. The proprietary laser emitter is based on a large VCSEL array, which provides high, eye-safe optical output power for long-range detection and wide field-of-view at a low cost point that is game-changing. Because the emitter’s wavelength is centered around 940 nm, our detector array can be based on inexpensive CMOS technology for low cost, and we get the added benefit of lower background light from the sun for a higher signal-to-noise ratio. From an architecture perspective, we intentionally chose a flash architecture because of its simple camera-like global shutter design, scalability to high-volume manufacture, the benefit of having no moving parts, and most importantly, it enables low cost.

Our laser array is a network consisting of thousands of VCSELs interconnected in a way that provides short pulses of high-power light. In keeping with our philosophy of design simplicity and high performance for our customers, we actuate the array to generate a single laser flash rather than adding complexity and cost associated with a multi-flash approach."

MIPI officially releases A-PHY interface for automotive applications. A-PHY v1.0 offers:

• High reliability: Ultra-low packet error rate (PER) of 10-19 for unprecedented performance over the vehicle lifetime
• High resiliency: Ultra-high immunity to EMC effects in demanding automotive conditions
• Long reach: Up to 15 meters
• High performance: Data rate as high as 16 Gbps with a roadmap to 48 Gbps and beyond; v1.1, already in development, will provide a doubling of the high-speed data rate to 32 Gbps and increase the uplink data rate to 200 Mbps

Pamtek publishes a nice video about automated SEM samples preparation. Now, we can see how all these beautiful pixel cross-sections are actually made:

Once we are at reverse engineering matters, CSET publishes its estimations of the wafer cost for different processes (for logic wafers, not including image sensor-specific extensions). RetiredEngineer posts a comparison table from the report:

CoreDAR publishes a video of its ToF device use cases:

AndroidAuthority publishes an interview with Jinhyun Kwon, VP image sensor marketing at Samsung. One of the questions was what is better: a high resolution sensor with small pixels or the same optical format large pixels lower resolution sensor?

“Samsung’s thinking on the matter is simple — both approaches have their own merits and as a semiconductor solutions provider, our goal is to have the best solutions in either, ultra-high resolution with smaller pixels and relatively lower resolution with bigger pixels, available to our customers,” Kwon responds. “Big-pixel image sensors may not offer super-high resolutions of 100+MP, but are able to offer ultra-fast auto-focusing using Dual Pixel technology and brighter results.”

On 8K video: "We expect 8K will take a similar path as 4K did, offering 60fps and HDR. For high resolution videos, at least 60fps is necessary for smooth and seamless motion, and HDR to record scenes in various lighting environments without loss of image information.

Currently FHD 240fps is becoming a common feature on devices and there are products that can support FHD resolution at up to 480fps or 960fps, allowing super slow motion shots. While we may not see 4K featuring 480fps or 960fps any time soon, due to high cost and power consumption, 4K 240fps could be something we can expect for the time being,” Kwon says.