Infineon and PMD Announce 10m Long Range ToF Sensor for Smartphones

BusinessWire: Infineon and pmdtechnologies developed a 3D ToF sensor which is claimed to outperform other solutions in the market and aims for a wider spectrum of consumer applications. The 3D sensor market in smartphones for rear side cameras is expected to grow up to more than 500M units per year until 2024.

“The latest 3D image sensor from Infineon and pmdtechnologies enables a new generation of applications”, says Philipp von Schierstaedt, SVP Infineon. “It aims to create most immersive and smarter AR experiences as well as better photography results with a faster autofocus in low-light conditions or more beautiful night mode portraits based on picture segmentation. This latest chip development is truly setting standards when it comes to improvements of the imager, the driver and processing as well as unprecedented ten meters long range capabilities at lowest power.”

The new chip allows the integration into miniaturized camera modules, accurately measuring depth in short and long range for AR while meeting low power consumption requirements with more than 40% power saving on the imager.

Furthermore seamless augmented reality sensing experiences are being achieved, allowing for high quality 3D depth data capture up to a distance of 10m (at reduced resolution), without losing resolution in the shorter range. Always-on applications such as mobile AR gaming can greatly benefit from the small power budget required by the new sensor. For applications such as the 3D scanning for room and object reconstruction or 3D mapping for furniture planning and other design applications the sensor allows to double the measuring range beyond the current solution in the market.

The volume delivery for this chip starts in Q2 2021, demo kits are already available. The recorded livestream from the official press event is available here: https://livestream.com/infineontechnologies/real3