Image Sensors World

Tutorials on Average Signal, QE

2012-01-28T21:52:00.001+02:00

Albert Theuwissen's new blog post talks about seemingly simple thing - how to measure average response to light. The simple thing has many caveats though.

DALSA Imaging Blog has a new post on QE basics, with promise to publish more on pixel design.

1M fps CCD Camera

2012-01-27T00:13:00.001+02:00

Photron announced 1M fps fast camera, the FASTCAM IS-1M, based on ISIS-CCD (In-Situ Image Storage-CCD), better known as IS-CCD. The IS-CCD uses an image storage buffer immediately beside the light sensitive portion of the 10-bit pixel to greatly increase the speed achievable by conventional high speed cameras. The 100 frame in-situ image buffer is said to provide an adequate synchronous record duration for the majority of ultra high speed phenomena such as ink jet droplet measurement, micro PIV, combustion, crack propagation or blast dynamics.

The camera resolution is 312 x 260 pixels and it consumes 150W. Its datasheet has nice pictures of various high speed events.

Chipworks Reveals Samsung 1.1um BSI Pixel with RGB-W CFA

2012-01-26T23:40:00.002+02:00

Chipworks reverse engineering report reveals a second 1.12um pixel in the wild - Samsung S5K3L1. "The Samsung S5K3L1YX03 is a 12.1 Mp, 1.1 um pixel pitch back illuminated CMOS Image Sensor and represents only the second company (to date) to ship at this pixel generation".

Another quote:

"The S5K3L1 supports 12Mp full resolution images at 30 frames per second (fps) and 1080p full HD video at 60fps, 720p at 90fps, and VGA resolution images at 120fps. The new image sensor also includes an on-chip pixel correction feature. In addition, the 12Mp imager offers an RGB-white color filter array, which delivers advanced sensitivity while reducing noise, resulting in a 30 percent brighter image over that of a conventional RGB color filter array. The RGB-white filter feature works in conjunction with a ~~complimentary~~ [complementary - thanks to EF] logic chip".

Thanks to EK for the link!

PCMag: Microsoft Develops New Kinect In-House

2012-01-26T10:09:00.000+02:00

PC Magazine: "A tipster tells PCMag.com that Microsoft is developing the new Kinect system in-house instead of relying on PrimeSense".

EETimes: Ilan Spillinger, CVP Hardware and Technology, Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft emphasizes his company role in bringing Kinect technology to the market: "With Kinect, it’s was all about the ability to believe. It was taking the raw technologies in their early stages, building demos, and creating something that no one ever shipped before, something that on paper costs a lot, and is clearly not just a consumer-electronic device. How do you pick technology and put soul into it? How can you effectively work closely with content developers, the creators, to formulate a compelling story about why this technology brings new experiences to the market?"

Albert Theuwissen Elected Electronic Imaging Scientist 2011

2012-01-25T22:56:00.001+02:00

Albert Theuwissen, professor at the Delft University of Technology (Delft, the Netherlands) and CEO of Harvest Imaging (Bree, Belgium) was elected Electronic Imaging Scientist 2011 at the Electronic Imaging conference, one of the world’s largest events in the field of digital image sensors, electronic cameras and their applications, held in San Francisco from January 23rd-26th. Every year academic and industrial researchers from all over the world who are active in this field choose a colleague who has made valuable contributions to it. This year the honor was conferred upon Theuwissen, who has an impressive career in the field of image sensors.

“Theuwissen has demonstrated excellence and commanded the respect of his peers by making significant and substantial contributions to the field of electronic imaging via research, publications, and/or service which led to this award,” Majid Rabbani and Gaurav Sharma, the chairmen of this year's award committee, said.

From 1983 to 2002 Theuwissen worked with Philips Research in Eindhoven, The Netherlands, on charge-coupled devices (CCDs), also called bucket brigade memories, first as a researcher, and later as department head of the research group involved in digital image sensors. When this group ended up being part of the Canadian company DALSA in 2002, Theuwissen as chief technology officer was responsible for all research and technical development in that company.

In the early days of digital image sensors CCDs generated images of better quality than image sensors made with CMOS-technology, the prevailing semiconductor technology. Today most image sensors that are part of video cameras, photo cameras and cameras in mobile communication equipment, are made in CMOS technology. Theuwissen was involved in research concerning all aspects of image sensors: pixel size, speed, sensor size, sensitivity.

In 2007 Theuwissen left DALSA and founded Harvest Imaging, a company involved in consultancy, coaching and training in the field of digital image sensors. Projects range from specification of image sensors for specific applications to forensic research in homicide cases. Furthermore, he is co-founder of ImageSensors Inc, a non-profit public organization serving the R&D-workers in the field of image sensors by investigating their needs and looking after their interests. He has written more than 160 scientific papers and is, amongst other things, an IEEE Fellow.

From 2001 onwards, Theuwissen has been professor at the Delft Technical University where he teaches solid-state image sensors and supervises master students and PhD students in their research work. Unfortunately he was unable to attend the award ceremony in person because one of his students had to defend his PhD thesis on the same day.

Congratulations Albert!

Omnivision Opens Branch in Oslo, Norway

2012-01-25T13:18:00.000+02:00

According to the LinkedIn records (record 1, record 2) Omnivision seems to open a branch in Oslo, Norway. The two ex-Aptina designers started to work there in December 2011.

Imec Demos 100-band Hyperspectral Sensor

2012-01-25T13:02:00.001+02:00

Imec has held demonstration a hyperspectral camera solution with an integrated hyperspectral sensor at SPIE Photonics West on Jan. 24, 2012.

Imec’s hyperspectral sensor consists of a set of spectral filters that are directly post-processed at wafer level on top of CMOSIS CMV4000 sensor (a 4MP sensor with a maximum framerate of 180fps). The hyperspectral filter, developed at imec, has 100 spectral bands between 560nm and 1000nm. The filter bandwidth (Full Width Half Max) ranges from 3nm at 560nm to 20nm at 1000nm, and the transmission efficiency of the filters is around 85%.

The speed of the demonstrated system corresponds to an equivalent speed of 2,000 lines per second, significantly exceeding current state-of-the-art hyperspectral sensors. To match to specific application requirements, the image sensor can be selected (a commercially available sensor or even a custom-designed sensor), determining pixels sizes, maximal frame rate, etc. The hyperspectral filter can be tuned by changing the number of spectral bands and their spectral resolution.

The hyperspectral technology can be very useful in many application domains such as crop screening, food selection, skin cancer detection, target detection, etc.

BAE-Fairchild Re-Announces 1080p sCMOS Sensor for the Second Time

2012-01-25T09:25:00.001+02:00

Business Wire: BAE Systems-Fairchild Imaging repeated its August 2011 announcement on 1080p sCMOS image sensor, the Fairchild Imaging CIS1021. The new PR mostly repeats the statements from the previous one.

“The CIS1021 sensor delivers essential imaging performance parameters without having to make the trade-offs inherent in other sensors available today,” said Colin Earle, deputy general manager of BAE Systems Imaging Solutions. “Scientific applications such as live cell microscopy require imaging at extremely low light levels since too much illumination will lead to cell damage or death. The Fairchild Imaging sCMOS sensor significantly reduces that concern, while at the same time enhancing imaging speed and data collection range.”

BBC on Patent Aspects of Sony "RGBW Coding"

2012-01-24T09:29:00.000+02:00

BBC talks about the similarity of Kodak Truesense W-RGB filter and Sony "RGBW Coding". BBC says:

"When Kodak patented the idea it noted that the technology would be suitable in situations involving "short exposure time, small aperture, or other restriction on light reaching the sensor". It specifically mentioned "non-camera devices such as mobile phones and automotive vehicles" as two examples."

And then: "Neither Sony nor Kodak responded to requests for more detail about the patents involved".

Sony Announces Stacked BSI Sensor

2012-01-23T10:03:00.000+02:00

Sony announces that it has developed a new next-generation BSI sensor placing the BSI pixel array layer onto a signal processing chip serving as a supporting substrate for the thin BSI array layer:

The advantages of stacked structure are:

Adopting pixel array processes specialized for superior image quality
Faster speeds and lower power consumption by adopting the leading process for the processing circuit section

As the first step towards the commercialization of its new CMOS image sensors, Sony has developed a model with built-in signal processing functionality. Samples will be shipped from March, 2012. Accordingly, models have been developed with Sony’s unique "RGBW Coding" function, which facilitates low noise, high quality image capture even in low light condition, and the proprietary "HDR Movie" function improving color when taking pictures against bright light.

Update: JCN Network adds few more words on the "RGBW Coding" and "HDR Movie" features and product launch schedules.

"...while the individual pixels of the newly developed models are extremely minute at 1.12um, the incorporation of the "RBGW Coding" function has realized a SN ratio (signal-to-noise ratio) equivalent to that of a unit pixel size of 1.4um under conventional methods, which in turn has enables the image sensors to achieve a higher resolution at a more compact size.

The new models are also able to output signals through the conventional RGB method, thus there is no need to change the signal processing adopted in existing devices."

"HDR Movie" uses "two different exposure conditions within a single screen shooting and conducts the appropriate signal processing for the captured image information under each optimal exposure condition. This process generates an image with a broad dynamic range and enables shooting of both the background and subject matter with brilliant colors even in a bright environment."

"Upcoming product launches (plan):

Type 1/4 Stacked CMOS Image Sensor with approx. 8.0 effective megapixels (equipped with camera signal processing function) - Sample shipments planned for March, 2012
Type 1/3.06 Stacked CMOS Image Sensor with approx. 13.0 effective megapixels (equipped with "RGBW Coding" and "HDR Movie" functions) - Sample shipments planned for June, 2012
Type 1/4 Stacked CMOS Image Sensor with approx. 8.0 effective megapixels (equipped with "RGBW Coding" and "HDR Movie" functions) - Sample shipments planned for August, 2012"

Update #2: Another Sony PR shows "RGBW Coding" advantage at low light and "HDR Movie" video (Youtube version):

Comparison of Sample pictures in low-light setting (10 lux)

Needham: Omnivision Lost iPad 3 Socket to Samsung

2012-01-20T23:03:00.000+02:00

Street Insider quotes Needham analyst Rajvindra Gill saying "OVTI has lost the image sensor socket on Apple’s next-generation iPad 3 HD to Samsung. We believe the iPad 3 will include a 5MP sensor for the back-camera and will support HD resolution. Our industry checks point to Samsung winning the socket based on price competitiveness rather than better quality/technology. Five megapixel sensors are a relatively mature technology, having existed in the marketplace for over two years, and therefore other competitors, such as Samsung, Aptina and Toshiba, have developed cost competitive sensors. On the iPhone 4S front, we still contend Sony is 100% sourced at Apple. However, OVTI is trying to ramp its BSI-2 yields to 70-80% in order to be qualified as the second source (sometime in C2Q). At this juncture, it’s still uncertain".

The full Needham report can be downloaded here. Needham adds regarding the BSI-2 yield: "Our checks indicate that OVTI’s yields on its BSI-2 8MP sensor are running at 40-50%. We believe OVTI is still trying to become the second source to Sony for the 4S in C2Q. However, we believe OVTI has to increase its yields to 70-80% in order to be considered a viable second source".

Thanks to CA for sending me the news!

Aptina Shows How to Isolate Deep PDs

2012-01-20T14:40:00.000+02:00

Aptina's patent application US20120009723 titled "Range modulated implants for image sensors" talks about deep photodiode process and shows quite impressive PD isolation shape of a 1.1um-pitched PD extending all the way through the 4um-thick epi 66 to a heavy doped substrate 64:

The company describes the challenges in deep photodiode manufacturing: "When conventional methods are used for implanting isolation regions, it can be challenging to form very narrow and deep isolation regions. Isolation regions are typically formed by implanting ions through the openings of patterned photoresist. If very narrow openings are formed in photoresist, the walls of the openings may be unstable. Narrower openings could be formed in thinner photoresist, but thinner photoresist would limit the permissible energies used during ion implantation and resulting implants would be too shallow. Shallow isolation regions are undesirable because they would limit photodiode depth, reducing the quantum efficiency and sensitivity of the pixels."

So, the photodiode isolation implants are implemented by a set of repeating steps with complementary photoresist patterns where the boron implant penetrates through the photoresist:

The resulting deep PD isolation is composed of multiple regions 92 and 94:

SiOnyx Founder Won SPIE Green Photonics Award

2012-01-20T14:21:00.002+02:00

Harvard University: SiOnyx Founder Eric Mazur with four his students won SPIE Green Photonics Award for Laser-assisted Manufacturing and Micro/Nano Fabrication. The winning paper was written by Eric Mazur, the Balanski Professor of Physics and Applied Physics, with graduate students Benjamin Franta (lead author), Meng-Ju Sher, and Katherine C. Phillips in the Harvard Department of Physics, and Yu-Ting Lin at Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.

The group used femtosecond laser pulses to modify and control both the chemical composition and the surface structure of silicon. These modifications affect the optical and electronic properties of the material that they called "black silicon" with a potential for use in novel photosensitive devices.

The award will be presented on January 25, 2012 at SPIE Photonics West in San Francisco.

ST Proposes Bias S&H to Reduce Noise

2012-01-19T16:16:00.001+02:00

ST Micro patent Application US20120006973 proposes to sample bias voltages and currents and hold them between CDS reset sample and signal sample, so that any bias noise does is constant over CDS cycle and, thus, subtracted. For example, in case of pixel current bias it might look like this:

In case of some other generic bias voltage, S&H might look like this:

Teledyne DALSA Started Imaging Blog

2012-01-18T14:49:00.001+02:00

Teledyne DALSA begins its Imaging Blog. So far it has just the first post starting a talk about machine vision interface standards: "It started smoothly with Camera Link more than ten years ago. Then came DCAM for Firewire, followed by GigE Vision which paved the way for GenICam (itself divided into 3 modules: GenAPI, GenTL and SFNC), EMVA1288, and now CoaXPress, Camera Link HS and USB3 Vision." I hope the blog would be updated regularly!

Plessey Image Sensors

2012-01-17T22:44:00.000+02:00

I was slow to realize that recently re-built Plymouth and Swindon, UK-based Plessey Semiconductor started to manufacture CMOS image sensors. The Plessey brand has been re-created by combining the former X-fab and Zarlink UK facilities:

"Over 30 different CMOS Image Sensors are manufactured by Plessey ranging in size from <1MP up to wafer-scale sensors. These products demonstrate very low dark currents, high radiation tolerance and high dynamic range. By working closely with our customers, Plessey ensures leading edge performance across a range of market sectors: Automotive, Medical, Dental X-ray, Professional Digital Photography, Industrial Imaging, Gene Sequencing, Space, Security, HD TV cameras... CMOS Image Sensors manufactured by Plessey feature low dark currents, radiation tolerant processes and a range of pixel sizes from 6.7um to 125um. Sensor sizes range from 1/2” optical format to full wafer scale sensor by using 1D or 2D stitching."

Plessey PS50480 VGA sensor features 4.2um 5T global shutter pixel made in 0.18um process. The sensor's spec looks quite nice, except of large PRNU and apparent lack of microlens:

5T Pixel Architecture
0.18 µm CMOS
656 x 488 Pixels
4.2 µm x 4.2µm Pixels
1/5” Optical format
1.8V Digital Power Supply
3.3V Analog Power Supply
Global Shutter
120fps at VGA resolution (640 x 480)
Power Consumption: 400mW
Full Well Charge 13500 electrons
Conversion Gain 70 µV/electron
Spectral response 0.16A/W
Peak QE * Fillfactor 30%
Fillfactor 40%
Dynamic Range 70dB
Fixed Pattern Noise (local) <0.20%
PRNU (local) <10%

Aptina Announces VGA SoC for Automotive Applications

2012-01-16T22:46:00.000+02:00

Business Wire: Aptina announces ASX340AT automotive SOC sensor for applications such as rear view cameras, blind spot monitoring and surround view without the need for additional processing chips. The 1/4-inch VGA sensor features 5.6um pixel with operating temperature range of -40ºC to +105ºC.

The ASX340AT also provides notable features such as dynamic overlay capability, which allows camera system designers to add colored graphics to the display to enhance the experience of the driver, and a crop and zoom feature enabling customization to suit a wide range of vehicle body designs. Additionally, there is an on-chip temperature sensor for dynamic system feedback and additional optical pixels to assist lens alignment during camera manufacturing.

The ASX340AT SOC will be sampling starting calendar Q1 2012. It is available in a 7.5mm x 7.5mm, 63-ball iBGA package and is AEC-Q100 qualified.

Automotive rear view with graphical overlay.

Fraunhofer Institute Proposes Ultra-Thin Multi-Apterture Wafer Level Camera

2012-01-16T14:50:00.000+02:00

Fraunhofer Institute offers Multi aperture camera optics on wafer level (ultra-thin camera) services, including optical design, prototyping and characterization of microoptical imaging systems for custom-specific applications. Fraunhofer achieved 1.4mm-thick camera module with F3.7 lens having 700 x 550 pixel resolution. The idea of the camera was presented in SPIE Journal of Micro/Nanolithography, MEMS and MOEMS:

"Multi-aperture optics for wafer-level cameras"
Andreas Bruckner, Robert Leitel, Alexander Oberdorster, Peter Dannberg, Frank Wippermann, Andreas Brauer

Overview of the different types of miniaturized camera modules. A schematic sideview of the optical system is shown on top of each ﬁeld and a view on the image sensor on the bottom.

Visualization of a braided sampling of the object space by multiple optical channels. The different colors illustrate the correlation between patches on the object plane, optical channels, and partial images in the image plane.

Schematic cross section of the electronic cluster eye prototype illustrating the layer structure of the optical module, which is directly attached to an image sensor. Drawing is not to scale.

Size comparison between the fully assembled electronic cluster eye with VGA resolution on the packaged image sensor and a commercial plastic VGA lens.

Forbes: Omnivision Lost its Apple Business

2012-01-14T11:32:00.000+02:00

Forbes looks into the just released Apple Suppliers list that constitutes 97% of Apple's spend. OmniVision is not listed, while Sony is there. Forbs writes: "The reasonable conclusion is that OmniVision has either lost all of its business to Sony or its business with Apple now is just a shadow of what it used to be".

It was reported earlier that iPhone 4S VGA front camera is Omnivision's. Probably it belongs to the non-listed remaining 3% of Apple’s procurement expenditures.

poLight Technology Explained

2012-01-13T20:10:00.000+02:00

poLight published a Vimeo video presentation by Jon Hermarn Ulvensøen, the company's Advance Technology VP, explaining the manufacturing process and advantages of TLens:

poLight Technology from polight on Vimeo.

Image Sensors 2012 Agenda Finalized

2012-01-13T16:12:00.001+02:00

Business Wire: Image Sensors 2012 conference, formerly known as Image Sensors Europe, has officially announced its agenda. It mostly follows the unofficial version presented earlier, with most notable exceptions being the omission of presentations by Eiichi Funatsu, Senior Manager, Sensor Division, Sony and by Koichi Mizobuchi, Deputy General Manager, Imaging Technology Development, Olympus.

Still, the agenda remains pretty impressive, complemented by two workshops:

Sensors Architectures for 3D Time-of-Flight Imaging
by David Stoppa, Lucio Pancheri, Matteo Perenzoni
Fondazione Bruno Kessler, Italy

Workshop content:

General introduction about 3D Imaging Technologies, applications and history
ToF 3D Imaging measurement principle and systems
Sensors based on in-pixel photo-demodulating devices with a real case study example
Sensors based on extensive use of electronics in the pixel with a real case study example
Figure of merits of ToF image sensors

Advanced Solid-State Imaging - Understanding and Improving Light Sensitivity
by Albert Theuwissen
Harvest Imaging, Belgium

Workshop content:

Explaining and understanding the limitations of light sensitivity
Cross-talk: spectral, optical, electrical
Improving light sensitivity
Micro-lenses
Amorphous top-layers
Light guides
Back-side illumination
Binning
Electron Multiplication

The conference is to be held in London, UK on March 20-22, 2012.

Toshiba BSI Roadmap

2012-01-12T18:15:00.001+02:00

A good part of Toshiba CES 2012 presentation is devoted to BSI image sensors. Toshiba presents its BSI roadmap (click to enlarge):

Some other slides from the presentation:

Toshiba BSI CMOS Image Sensors - Highlights

Planning products up to the 24 MP for digital still camera applications and up to 16 MP for smartphones, tablets and new automotive applications
Last announcement was for an 8 MP BSI CMOS image sensor with the industry’s smallest pixel size (1.12 micrometers) as of 7/7/2011
Toshiba makes its BSI images sensors in house on 300mm wafers

Omnivision Launches 1.4um OmniBSI+ Pixel, 8MP Sensor

2012-01-12T17:40:00.000+02:00

PR Newswire: OmniVision announces 8MP 1.4um pixel OV8825 sensor, the first one to use OmniBSI+ technology. OmniBSI+ represents the second-generation of the original OmniBSI technology, said to offer a 60% increase in full-well capacity, a 10% increase in QE and a 10% improvement in low-light sensitivity. This makes the OV8825 an attractive option for smartphone and tablet manufacturers to upgrade their camera from the 1st generation 8MP BSI sensor, the OV8820.

"Industry reports expect tablets to reach 250 million units globally by 2014, with a large portion of those using 8-megapixel cameras. Similarly, industry reports project that smartphones equipped with 8-megapixel cameras will see tremendous growth, with estimates ranging up to more than 500 million units in 2014," said Vinoo Margasahayam, senior product marketing manager at OmniVision, quoting June 2011 TSR report. "Given the low cost and overall performance improvements enabled by our new OmniBSI+ pixel architecture, we feel that the OV8825 is an excellent solution for manufacturers in these booming markets."

The 1/3.2-inch, 8MP OV8825 operates at 24fps in full resolution, and in 1080p video mode at 30 or in 720p mode at 60fps. A high-speed, 4-lane MIPI interface facilitates the required high data transfer rate. The OV8825's integrated scaler offers electronic image stabilization, and enables the sensor to maintain full FOV with improved SNR in 1080p video mode at 30fps. The sensor's 2 x 2 binning functionality with a post-binning re-sampling filter function minimizes spatial artifacts and removes image artifacts around edges.

The OV8825 fits into the industry standard module size of 8.5 x 8.5 mm. It is now available for sampling and is expected to enter mass production in the second quarter of 2012.

Casio Presents "Image Sensor Communication Technology"

2012-01-12T14:39:00.000+02:00

Casio unveils "prototype visible light communication system using smartphones. The system flashes smartphone screens to achieve visible light communication (VLC). When someone takes a photo with a smartphone camera, the subjects simply turn their smartphone screens toward the camera device to display personal information or messages in the photo. The images and information are shared on the spot among everyone’s smartphones":

The same system enables users to receive information from a shop or advertiser, by viewing digital signage or an LED light source placed in front of the shop through a smartphone camera:

The Youtube video shows how the system works:

Omnivision Announces Native 720p/60 Video Sensor

2012-01-11T17:39:00.000+02:00

PR Newswire: OmniVision announces 1/4-inch OV9713, the native 720p/60fps CameraChip sensor that is said to be the first sensor to be built on a new and improved OmniPixel3-HS pixel using a proven 0.11um FSI process. [It sounds like the 3 year old OmniPixel3-HS has been improved but the generation name remains same.]

The sensor's new 3um pixel offers low-light sensitivity of 3300 mV/lux-sec, better SNR and a 5dB improvement in DR compared to the previous generation. Additionally, the OV9713's 12-bit RGB RAW output capability provides optimized HDR, while the embedded sequential line- or frame-based HDR features allow an even higher DR to address high-contrast scenes often encountered indoors. The sensor is also 3D ready, offering frame synchronization functionality for 3D (stereo) camera systems. It comes with a standard 2-lane MIPI interface and fits into an 8 mm x 6 mm x 4.5 mm module size.

The OV9713 is currently available for sampling, and is expected to go into volume production by Q2 2012.

OmniBSI-2 Found inside Asus Tablet

2012-01-11T13:04:00.000+02:00

Chipworks reverse engineering of Asus Transformer Prime tablet revealed that its primary image sensor is Omnivision's 8MP OmniBSI-2 sensor "with die markings AEQGG6 OV2B8B0 and according to the specifications the device is the OmniVision 8830". Features that show it to be BSI2 include the suspected TSVs located on either side of the bond pads (shown below) and the copper metallization found during SEM analysis.

Thanks to EK for pointing me to this!

PMD Ready for Mass Production of the First Commercially Available ToF Chip

2012-01-10T10:58:00.000+02:00

PMD Technologies announces that is 160x120 pixel 3D FoF imager is ready for mass market usage. The PMD PhotonICs 19k-S3 is said to be the first commercially available 3D-ToF chip for camera developers and system integrators.

The read-out clocks of 15MPixel/s are said to be possible. With the integrated SBI (Suppression of Background Illumination) technology the product can be deployed in indoor and outdoor environments. Its 160x120 pixel resolution is optimized for close range human-machine interaction up to 2 meters.

PMD reference design CamBoard nano has 37x30x25mm size and is said to be the smallest depth sensor reference design available worldwide. The board is intended for near range applications, has one infrared LED as an active illumination source and is USB powered.

Providing a frame rate of up to 90fps at full resolution of 160x120 pixel with a 90deg FOV, the CamBoard nano is suitable for gesture detection. It delivers depth maps and gray value image data simultaneously.

"We are convinced that the availability of the 19k-S and the CamBoard nano reference design will initiate a 3D-ToF community, enabling applications, demos and product solutions we all don’t think of so far", says Dr. Bernd Buxbaum, CEO of PMDTechnologies. “The opportunities and use cases are endless as the PMD technology is very scalable in terms of size, performance and cost.”

Update: PMD published a flyer presenting its new small sized solution:

Update #2: PMD published a concise datasheet of its 19k_S3 chip. The table below summarizes the sensor's data:

The CamBoard nano flyer is here. The power for the board seems to be quite high at about 2.5W, considering its short range up to 2m.

Canon Announces Sensor Improvements

2012-01-10T10:53:00.001+02:00

Canon announces a number of improvements in its camcorders image sensors:

"The HD CMOS PRO sensor has evolved for the 2012 range, with refinements to the
micro lens and colour filter to allow light to be collected more effectively. An antireflection film has been added to each micro lens on the sensor whilst the colour filter material has been upgraded to a higher transmission one. The resulting low-light
performance of the sensor is 20% more effective than the HD CMOS PRO sensor
currently deployed in the HF M-series."

The large 14.3MP 1.5-inch PowerShot G1 X sensor is said to utilize on-chip noise reduction technology and has 4 channel read-out for high speed.

Fujifilm Announces X-Trans CMOS Sensor

2012-01-10T10:02:00.000+02:00

Fujifilm announced X-Pro1 interchangeable lens camera featuring 16MP APS-C size X-Trans CMOS sensor. The sensor's color filter array "paves the way for an ideal sensor that does not need an optical low-pass filter. While the optical low-pass filter is indispensable for the reduction of moiré and false color generated by conventional sensors, it also degrades resolution.

Fujifilm has developed a new color filter array that is inspired by the random arrangement of fine film grain, removing the need for an optical low-pass filter to solve moiré and false color issues. In the array, RGB pixels are arranged in 6 × 6 pixel sets with high aperiodicity (randomness). Increasing the degree of randomness eliminates the fundamental cause of moiré and false colors — a problem that occurs in conventional arrays when shooting stripes and other repeating patterns. The presence of an R, G and B pixel in every vertical and horizontal pixel series minimizes the generation of false colors and delivers higher color reproduction".

Bayer patter repeats itself
in 2 x 2 pixel units.

Higher degree of randomness with
an array of 6 x 6 pixel units. Without
using an optical low-pass filter, moire
and false colors are eliminated while
realizing high resolution.

"Moire is tackled at its root cause by the revolutionary X-Trans CMOS sensor's color filter array. By enhancing aperiodicity (randomness) in the array arrangement, the color filter minimizes generation of both moire and false colors, eliminating the necessity for an optical low-pass filter in the lens and enabling X-Trans CMOS sensor to capture full “unfiltered” lens performance."

To process the new color filter data, Fujifilm also developed EXR Processor Pro image processor.

CMOSIS 2nd Patent on Ramp ADC Granted

2012-01-07T12:17:00.000+02:00

CMOSIS announces that its second patent on ramp ADC has been granted. The US8040269 patent proposes to speedup column-level ADC converter by using just one ramp cycle to measure previously sampled column reset and signal levels:

Two counters count the clock cycles between the reference levels and the signal and reset levels, then the final value is calculated as the ratio between the two counters.

Panasonic Finds Use For Polarisation Selective Pixels

2012-01-06T15:12:00.000+02:00

Panasonic patent application US20110316983 proposes to use parallax from polarization split lens to determine the distance to the object. The lens is divided by a polarization filter into two halves:

Then the sensor has some number of pixels which are selective to the polarization, so that they get signal from only the left or the right half of the lens. Here are the examples of polarization selective pixel placement (Wv and Wh stands for white pixel sensitive to vertical and horizontal polarization, respectively):

Then one can determine the distance from seeing the parallax between the image sensed by W, Wh and Wv pixels - a nice way to implement a passive 3D camera.

Single ST Gyro Fits OIS and UI Applications

2012-01-06T14:10:00.001+02:00

PR Newswire: Up to now there were two non-overlapping types of MEMS gyro chips: low sensitivity ones for user interface functions and high-sensitivity gyros used primarily for image stabilization applications. The low sensitivity gyros were intended to recognize coarse movements in range of tens of degrees, but their noise and drift was beyond the requirements of image stabilization systems. The high sensitivity gyros had low noise and drift, but their dynamic range was limited to few degrees, too small for user interface.

Now ST claims to overcome this limitation in its L3G4IS dual-core gyroscope employing separate output paths optimized for the two different functions in a 4x4x1 mm package. The device is said to address, at the same time, motion and gesture recognition and optical image stabilization.

"ST's dual-core gyroscope lights two candles with one flame," said Benedetto Vigna, Corporate Vice President and General Manager of ST's Analog, MEMS and Sensors Group. "Instead of using two dedicated sensors with significantly different specifications, phone and tablet manufacturers can now simply integrate a single gyroscope for both gesture recognition and camera image stabilization, which enables more reliable performance, sleeker form factors, and lower costs."

ST's L3G4IS dual-core gyroscope is sampling now and volume production is scheduled for Q2 2012, with unit pricing at $3.9 for volumes in the range of 1,000 pieces.

Fujifilm DSLR Uses New Color Filter Pattern

2012-01-05T21:25:00.001+02:00

A number of sources in DSLR community discuss prematurely leaked Fujifilm PR on its new DSLR. The PR says that the camera "features a custom-developed 16-megapixel APS-CMOS sensor incorporating a new filter array and the company's proprietary EXR processor technology". The French magazine Reponses Foto gives few more details on the new color filter and claims that the new sensor uses a ~~random 6-pixel color filter pattern~~ randomized pattern with 6 pixels that eliminates Moire patterns, so no anti-aliasing filter is needed.

The new X-PRO 1 camera is supposed to be officially presented at CES next week. I hope more details on color filter would be released.

Thanks to SH for sending me the link!

Lattice Merges Two Video Streams from Aptina Sensors

2012-01-05T14:15:00.000+02:00

Marketwire: Lattice Semiconductor, in collaboration with Aptina, announced that it will be demonstrating a low cost, dual image sensor refence design at the CES.

The dual image sensor design utilizes two Aptina MT9M024/MT9M034, 720P image sensors and combines the image into a single bus on which an ISP can operate. The output stream can be used to implement 3D stereoscopic video or for other multi-camera applications. The low cost of the solution enables other consumer applications such as automotive black box drive recorders and surround view cameras. The low cost, low power Lattice MachXO2 PLD and a small SDRAM chip implement the necessary logic and frame buffering that allow the two image sensors to be merged into one ISP bus.

"We are pleased to offer this dual image sensor design, which allows ISP vendors to quickly offer multiple camera solutions for the consumer market," said Ted Marena, Director of Business Development for Lattice. "By leveraging the Aptina HiSPi (High speed Serial Pixel interface) bus of the MT9M024/MT9M034, we were able to select a smaller I/O package for the Lattice MachXO2 device, which helped lower the cost."

Dongbu Discloses Its Medical Sensor Projects

2012-01-05T12:59:00.000+02:00

Business Wire: Dongbu HiTek announced that it has been certified to meet all quality management criteria set forth in the ISO13485 standard for the medical devices. Dongbu reports that it has partnered with fabless companies to implement CMOS image sensors for endoscope and x-ray systems as well as for computed tomography (CT) scanners.

Tessera CEO on MEMS AF Bright Future

2012-01-04T18:52:00.001+02:00

Business Wire: Tessera CEO and President Robert A. Young sent a letter to shareholders talking about bright future of its Digital Optics division (DOC):

"Growth Opportunity: Digital Optics

It may surprise those who have tracked the success of our Micro-electronics business to learn that our largest growth opportunity today is in our Digital Optics business (formerly known as Imaging & Optics).

The most bulky component in today’s mobile phones is the camera module. Some of today’s Android phones even feature a “bump” made necessary by the nearly obsolete technology now found in all mobile phone camera modules, built around magnetic coil technology that is over 100 years old and has reached its effective limits of miniaturization.

We will introduce camera modules based on silicon rather than magnetic coils to move the lenses for focusing and zoom. This breakthrough MEMS technology is disruptive because it obsoletes the magnetic coils in use today by enabling cameras that are thinner, much faster, have more accurate lens positioning, and use far less battery power. When combined with the other software and technologies that we have already have developed and marketed, it means better quality images and video from miniature mobile phone cameras. Our technologies will enable mobile phone cameras to perform as well as standalone digital still cameras and to compete with video cameras on quality. We are discussing our offerings with Tier One OEM manufacturers of wireless handsets, and expect to ship our game-changing products in late 2012.

Milestones Ahead

In short, we have positioned our Digital Optics business with the right technologies and people to exploit a large and growing market that has yet to see the kind of transformative innovation that’s been common in other consumer electronics businesses.

The major milestones that you can expect this coming year:

First half of 2012: We will sign our first design win for the use of our transformational MEMS optical imaging technology in a new cell phone.
Second half of 2012: We will announce major steps toward high-volume manufacturing of devices using this MEMS technology."

CEVA Announces ISP IP

2012-01-04T18:29:00.001+02:00

CEVA announced the availability of its first imaging and vision platform based on its CEVA-MM3000 architecture framework. CEVA-MM3101 is a programmable, low power platform targeting image and video processing in camera-enabled devices, including smartphones, tablets and smart TVs.
The CEVA-MM3101 platform integrates image and video pipeline, image enhancement, embedded vision applications and image encoding functions. Instead of using fixed-function engines or running these functions on the main application processor, the CEVA-MM3101 is specifically architected to support all of these functions on a single processor, resulting in a 20X reduction in power consumption when compared to CPU-based solutions.

The CEVA-MM3101 is capable of processing video streams of 1080p, or 8MP images at 12 fps, with video stabilization, color correction, wide dynamic range (WDR), face detection and gesture recognition.

CEVA has collaborated with eyeSight to deliver a comprehensive offering for Human Machine Interface (HMI), based on the CEVA-MM3101 platform. eyeSight's offering includes hand gesture recognition and virtual mouse user interface technology using finger tracking for multiple users in various conditions. CEVA and eyeSight will demonstrate a range of real-world applications for this technology at CES 2012.

At the heart of the CEVA-MM3101 is a programmable Vector Processing (VP) engine. The Vector Processor performs filtering and the vector-type operations required for pixel processing. It is based on a dedicated pixel-processing VLIW/SIMD architecture with 10-stage pipeline. It contains 7 different units that can work in parallel enabling flexible combination for different type of instructions. All instructions are conditional execution using predication optimized to save code size. The VP can handle 32 byte operations in one cycle and contains special instructions that can be configured in order to create proprietary filters for video and imaging processing. This strong processor is optimized for multimedia operations, capable of 64 SAD calculations in one cycle as well as producing 8 results for 6 Tap filters – which make it ideal for image signal processing algorithms.

poLight Video Presentation

2012-01-03T17:33:00.000+02:00

poLight published Youtube company presentation delivered by its CEO, Christian Dupont:

Fraunhofer Announces Lateral Drift Photodetector

2012-01-03T17:16:00.003+02:00

Electronics Weekly, Physorg: Fraunhofer January 2012 News Magazine announced a lateral drift photodetector (LDPD) which boosts the speed of traditional CMOS sensors so removing the drawbacks of Pinned Photodiodes (PPD) using pixel size 10 µm or above.

"...when the pixels exceed a certain size, the PPDs have a speed problem", explains Werner Brockherde, head of department at the Fraunhofer Institute for Microelectronic Circuits and Systems IMS. Low-light applications tend to call for high image rates. "But the readout speed using PPD is too low", says Brockherde.

The Fraunhofer researchers have developed a new photodiode, the lateral drift ﬁeld photodetector (LDPD), that is said to be unique and has already been patented. "In this component, the charge carriers generated by the incident light move at high speed to the readout node," explains the researcher. With the PPD the electrons are said to diffuse to the exit; a comparatively slow process but which is sufﬁcient for many applications. "But by integrating an internal electric ﬁ eld into the photoactive region of the component, we have managed to accelerate this process by a factor of up to a hundred."

To produce the new LDPD, the Fraunhofer researchers improved upon the currently available CMOS chip manufacturing process based on the 0.35 μm standard: "The additional LDPD component must not be allowed to impair the properties of the other components," says Brockherde. The prototype of the new high-speed CMOS image sensors is already available. "We expect to get approval for series production next year," says Brockherde.

Max Collet Passed Away

2012-01-02T15:12:00.000+02:00

Albert Theuwissen published that Max Collet, the head of Image Sensor R&D group of Philips Research in the 80’s passed away at the age of 70.

Superpix Announces New Sensors

2012-01-02T12:03:00.000+02:00

Contrary to the previously published rumors, Beijing, China-based Superpix announced a bunch of new sensors targeting consumer market.

The company information page says it has "developed a board range of high performance image sensor and relative image process chip, and most of them achieved domestic advanced level. Up to now, there are over 50 million chips had been sold. And based on customers’ comments, the products are stable and reliable. The latest 12MP CMOS image sensor is the very first domestic product beyond 10MP, which represents the highest level of that field in China. The company has been appraised “100 Innovative Experiment Enterprises” by ministry of science and technology, and won the honor of “A Level Credit Outstanding Corporation”".

The company product range spans from 1/15-inch 0.08MP to APS-C 12MP sensors. The pixel size range is from 1.75um used in 2MP sensor to 6um in APS-C DSLR one. The package options include TSV:

The 2MP 1/5-inch SP2518 is said to be "based on the 3rd generation 1.75um CMOS image sensor pixel architecture designed by SuperPix". With Integrated ISP it consumes 220mW power. The reported dark current is 40e/s at 60C. The maximum SNR is 38dB, quite in line with other sensors with similar pixel size. The summary table above says SP2518 is able to work at 15fps speed, the product page claims 13fps at full 1600 x 1200 resolution, while the product flyer says the speed is "up to 12fps" at full resolution.

Another interesting product is SP8AC08 12MP APS-C DSLR sensor. "The SP8AC08 is a high quality and low power consumption 12 mega pixel image sensor capable of capturing color digital images. 4260(V) x 2840(H) active pixels are incorporated in and each pixel size is 6 um. High Sensitivity, High SNR, and Low dark current also are the advantages can’t be ignored. These particularities will result in extremely visual impression. SP8AC08 is the first homemade CMOS image sensor which has resolution up to 12 mega pixel." Here is the sensor's spec:

Canon Super-35mm Cinema Sensor Explained

2011-12-31T22:25:00.001+02:00

Canon published few whitepapers talking about design considerations of its Super-35mm sized CMOS sensor for recently announced EOS C300 video camera. The first one "New 35mm CMOS Image Sensor for Digital Cine Motion Imaging" gives the sensor spec:

The color filter array is the classic Bayer. Canon explains the resolution choice:

Illustrating the separate CFA array and the CMOS imager while also
showing the CFA separated into its component color filters to better expose
the structure of their respective sparsely sampled lattices

"The image sensor readout strategy radically departs from the customary “De-Bayer” deployment of quincunx sampling of the green photosites to maximize the green video resolution (and hence the matriced Luma resolution). The design strategy of this new sensor is to not to seek any form of “4K” resolution — but rather to specifically confine the reconstruction of each of the R,G, and B video components to a full digital sampling structure of 1920 (H) x 1080 (V) — according to the SMPTE 274M HDTV Production Standard."

Showing the concept of structuring the final Green video component within the
pre-processing LSI from the two dual video readouts from the CMOS image sensor

"The dual Green process offers the following significant technical advantages:

Doubles the effective saturation level of the summed Green output video

Increases the noise of the final Green output only by a factor of square root of two
Combination of 1) and 2) increases the effective dynamic range of the green signal — and as a consequence, that of the matriced Luma signal
Increases the effective output green video bit depth
The half-pixel offset between the two separate green sampling lattices — both horizontally and vertically — virtually eliminates the first order sideband spectra associated with the sensor sampling process. This eliminates green aliasing.
Creates an effective FIR* filter within the readout process that aids the optimization of the horizontal MTF and the progressive vertical MTF and associated aliasing."

The summation of two greens is said to increase the DR from 70dB to 73.5dB in green (in fact, from 70.5 to 73.5) or to 72dB in luma (12 stops).

Although the camera frame rate is 24p fps, the readout speed is 1/60s to reduce rolling shutter effects:

In 60i mode each half-frame is read at 1/120s - same per-row speed as in 24p mode.

The low read noise is achieved by limiting the readout amplifier bandwidth, as shown below:

Another Canon whitepaper "RGB Resolution Considerations in a New CMOS Sensor for Cine Motion Imaging" shows advantages of the proposed green processing in resolution extension:

Showing the two separate green 1920 (H) x 1080 (V) photosite lattices
and the horizontal and vertical timing offsets between each of the
two “diagonal” pixels that are summed during the readout process

The resulting horizontal and vertical MTFs of the whole system are improved:

The summary says: "A new CMOS image sensor has been described. It represents a definitive decision by Canon to enter the global field of digital cinematic motion imaging. It is anticipated that there will be many progressive advances in the years ahead. Accordingly, a priority was assigned to taking a first step into this important field of imaging by placing an initial focus on originating a very high quality RGB video component set specifically intended for high-performance High definition video production."

Another whitepaper is titled "Sensitometric Characteristics of EOS C300 Digital Cine Camera" and mainly focused on system processing of the video signal, introduces "Canon-Log" response.

Samsung IEDM 2011 Paper

2011-12-31T12:16:00.000+02:00

Eric Fossum put his Samsung IEDM 2011 paper on-line:

"A 192×108 pixel ToF-3D image sensor with single-tap concentric-gate demodulation pixels in 0.13 μm technology"
T.Y. Lee, Y.J. Lee, D.K. Min, S.H. Lee, W.H. Kim, S.H. Kim, J.K. Jung, I. Ovsiannikov,
Y.G. Jin, Y.D. Park, E.R. Fossum, and C.H. Chung

"A 3D-ToF FSI image sensor using novel concentric photogate [CG] pixels with single-tap operation is described. Through the use of CG structure, we are able to achieve high DC at larger pixel pitches. The new CG pixel structure substantially improves DC [demodulation contrast] to 53% at 20MHz at 28 μm pixel pitch. Recent initial results from a backside-illuminated (BSI) implementation of the same sensor show further improved performance and will be reported elsewhere."

Truesense Imaging Inc. and Digital Optics Corp.

2011-12-30T09:59:00.000+02:00

As written in comments, the recently acquired Kodak Image Sensor Solutions has been quietly renamed to Truesense Imaging, Inc. Kodak has first used Truesense name for its W-RGB color filter products almost 3 years ago. I wonder if the new company name meant to emphasize the W-RGB products importance.

Meanwhile, Tessera renamed its imaging and optics division into Digital Optics Corporation. The new entity is responsible for wafer-scale optics (former Shellcase), EDoF (former Eyesquad and Dblur), MEMS AF motors (former Siimpel), micro-optics (the original bearer of Digital Optics Corporation name, acquired by Tessera in 2006) and image enhancement software (former Fotonation). It appears that the division has been renamed and separated into the wholly owned subsidiary in June 2011.

Another part of Tessera dealing with chip packaging is separated and renamed too. Its new name is Invensas. In Nov. 2011 Invensas acquired patent assets of California-based TSV foundry ALLVIA. It does not seem to target image sensor applications though.

1.8 Gigapixel Camera Deployed on Helicopter Drones

2011-12-30T09:50:00.000+02:00

BBC, US Army: The A160 Hummingbird helicopter-style drones with 1.8 Gigapixel color cameras are being developed by the US Army promising "an unprecedented capability to track and monitor activity on the ground".

A statement added that three of the sensor-equipped drones were due to go into 1-year trial service in Afghanistan in either May or June 2012 as a part of a Quick Reaction Capability, an acquisition approach aimed at delivering cutting-edge and emerging technologies to theater. The army developers and engineers are now finishing up some wiring work on the A160 aircraft and performing ground tests with the ARGUS sensor suite.

Boeing built the first drones, but other firms can bid to manufacture others. The 1.8 Gigapixel ARGUS-IS camera is developed and manufactured by BAE Systems.

The army said that was enough to track people and vehicles from altitudes above 20,000 feet (6.1km) across almost 65 square miles (168 sq km). In addition, operators on the ground can select up to 65 steerable "windows" following separate targets to be "stared at".

DARPA is also working with the UK-based division of BAE Systems to develop a more advanced version of the Argus-IS sensor that will offer night vision. It said the infrared imaging sensors would be sensitive enough to follow "dismounted personnel at night". In addition, the upgrade promises to be able to follow up to 130 "windows" at the same time. The system's first test flight has been scheduled to take place by June 2012.

Thanks to CDM for the link!

Digitimes: Samsung and Sony to Supply Sensors for Next Generation iPads

2011-12-29T09:28:00.000+02:00

Digitimes quotes its sources saying that next generation iPad 3 would be released in two versions. The high end version will feature 8MP camera with Sony sensor. As for the mid-range model, Samsung is said to be among the suppliers of its 5MP sensor.

The new iPad 3 tablets are to be announced at iWorld on Jan. 26, 2012, according to the newspaper. The original version of iPad was announced on Jan. 27, 2010, while the iPad 2 was first shown on March 2, 2011.

Microsoft Proposes Double Helix PSF for Depth Sensing

2011-12-29T09:14:00.000+02:00

Microsoft patent application US20110310226 "Use of wavefront coding to create a depth image" by Scott McEldowney proposes a fresh idea to acquire image depth information.

Here is the original description:

"[A] 3-D depth camera system includes an illuminator and an imaging sensor. The illuminator creates at least one collimated light beam, and a diffractive optical element receives the light beam, and creates diffracted light beams which illuminate a field of view including a human target. The image sensor provides a detected image of the human target using light from the field of view but also includes a phase element which adjusts the image so that the point spread function of each diffractive beam which illuminated the target will be imaged as a double helix. [A] ...processor ...determines depth information of the human target based on the rotation of the double helix of each diffractive order of the detected image, and in response to the depth information, distinguishes motion of the human target in the field of view."

Actually, it's much easier to understand this idea in pictures. Below is the illuminator with a diffractive mask 908:

There is another mask 1002 on the sensor side:

Below is the proposed double-helix PSF as a function of distance. One can see that the two points line angle changes as a function of depth:

The orientation angle of the PSF points depends on wavelength (not shown here, see in the application) and the distance (shown below):

From this angle the object distance can be calculated - this is the idea. Microfoft gives an image example and how it changes with the distance in what looks like Wide-VGA sensor plane:

Update: As written in comments, University of Colorado, Denver has been granted a patent US7705970 on a very similar idea. A figure in the patent looks very similar:

1/f and RTS Noise Reduction

2011-12-27T15:28:00.000+02:00

As mentioned in Theses post, Oregon State University published Drake A. Miller's PhD Thesis "Random Dopants and Low-Frequency Noise Reduction in Deep-Submicron MOSFET Technology". The thesis is quite rich in experimental data os pixel source follower noise. The figure below shows more than order of magnitude variations in 1/f noise across the wafer:

Noise spectral power plots of 10 devices taken from
10 different locations across the wafer (see inset).

Any channel doping, such as Vth adjust, significantly increases 1/f and RTS noise:

Box plots of source follower noise power spectrum plots.
Red (Dark) boxes are doped devices.
Green (Light) boxes are undoped “native” transistors.

Few Vth adjust splits were measured:

It's not clear why S4 and S7 are not shown, but S1-S3 clearly show noise improvement:

The total read noise histogram clearly demonstrates the advantage of lightly doped source follower:

RTS Statistics shows the same:

Photons to Bits and Beyond Presentation On-Line

2011-12-27T11:09:00.001+02:00

Eric Fossum published the pdf notes of his lecture "Photons to Bits and Beyond. The Science and Technology of Digital Imaging".

Recent Image Sensor Theses

2011-12-26T23:15:00.002+02:00

There are few recently published image sensor theses:

"Pixel and Readout Circuit of a Wide Dynamic Range Linear-Logarithmic Current-Mode Image Sensor"
MS Thesis by Elham Khamsehashari, Aug. 2011
ÉCOLE POLYTECHNIQUE DE MONTRÉAL

"This thesis presents a current-mode CMOS image sensor operating in linear-logarithmic response. The objective of this design is to improve the dynamic range of the image sensor, and to provide a method for mode detection of the image sensor response. One of the motivations of using current-mode has been the shrinking feature size of CMOS devices. This leads to the reduction of supply voltage which causes the degradation of circuit performance in term of dynamic range. Such problem can be alleviated by operating in current-mode. The column readout circuits are designed in current-mode in order to be compatible with the image sensor. The readout circuit is composed of a firstgeneration current conveyor, an improved current memory is employed as a delta reset sampling unit, a differential amplifier as an integrator and a dynamic comparator."

"Single Shot High Dynamic Range and Multispectral Imaging Based on Properties of Color Filter Arrays"
MS Thesis by Paul M. Simon
UNIVERSITY OF DAYTON, May 2011

"This paper addresses the difﬁculty of generating High Dynamic Range (HDR) images using current Low Dynamic Range (LDR) camera technology. Typically, several LDR images must be acquired using various camera f-stops and then the images must be blended using one of several exposure bracketing techniques to generate HDR images. Based on Fourier analysis of typical Color Filter Array (CFA) sampled images, we demonstrate that the the existing CFA sampled images provide information that is currently underutilized. This thesis presents an approach to generating HDR images that uses only one input image while exploiting that underutilized CFA data. We propose that information stored in unsaturated color channels is used it to enhance or estimate details lost in saturated regions."

One must note that the DR extension is not that big and is based on the assumption that not all colors saturate simultaneously.

"Analysis, Modeling and Dynamic Optimization of 3D Time-of-Flight Imaging Systems"
PhD Thesis by Mirko Schmidt
Ruperto-Carola University of Heidelberg, Germany, July 2011

"This thesis covers four main contributions: A physical sensor model is presented which enables the analysis and optimization of the process of raw image acquisition. This model supports the proposal of a new ToF sensor design which employs a logarithmic photo response.
Due to asymmetries of the two read-out paths current systems need to acquire the raw images in multiple instances. This allows the correction of systematic errors. The present thesis proposes a method for dynamic calibration and compensation of these asymmetries. It facilitates the computation of two depth maps from a single set of raw images and thus increases the frame rate by a factor of two.
Since not all required raw images are captured simultaneously motion artifacts can occur. The present thesis proposes a robust method for detection and correction of such artifacts.
All proposed algorithms have a computational complexity which allows real-time execution even on systems with limited resources (e.g. embedded systems). The algorithms are demonstrated by use of a commercial ToF camera."

"Random Dopants and Low-Frequency Noise Reduction in Deep-Submicron MOSFET Technology"
PhD Thesis by Drake A. Miller
Oregon State University, March 2011

Quite significant RTS and 1/f noise reduction in image sensors has been reported:
"In the case of this research it was shown that once the noise source and mechanism was understood necessary steps could be taken to reduce the source of the noise. Two examples shown here are the impact of substrate bias and modification of the doping levels. Substrate biasing is a relatively straight forward approach to reducing the noise and has been show here to have this repeatable effect. With additional understanding of the percolation currents modification of the channel dopant profile can serve as an additional means for device noise improvement. Once understood, these relatively easy steps, as in the case of reducing the implant dose in the channel, verified the theory and model developed during this research and resulted in a superior performing CMOS image sensor
product."

e2v Applies for Electron Multiplying CMOS Sensor

2011-12-22T11:18:00.001+02:00

e2v applies for a patent extending its EMCCD technology to the realm of CMOS sensors: "Electron multiplication image sensor and corresponding method" by Frédéric Mayer (France). Fig. 1 of the US20110303822 application shows a prior art 4T pixel having a pinned photodiode PHD:

e2v proposes to split the PHD into two with the "accelerating gate" GA in between, as on Fig. 2. By applying multiple voltage pulses on GA the electrons can be moved in and out of it, as shown on Fig. 3.

"The electron multiplication takes place during the charge integration and in the photodiode itself in the sense that the electrons (photogenerated or resulting already from the impacts of carriers with atoms) are accelerated in turn from the photodiode towards the accelerating gate and from the accelerating gate towards the photodiode. During these movements, impacts with atoms of the semiconductor layer of the photodiode region or of the region located beneath the accelerating gate make other electrons in the valence band pass into the conduction band. These electrons lose energy during these impacts but they are again accelerated by the electric field that is present.

The number of alternations in potential applied to the accelerating gate defines the overall multiplication coefficient obtained at the end of an integration period T, i.e. between two successive pulses for transferring charge from the photodiode to the charge storage region."

Fig. 4 shows one of the possible pixel layouts with GA located in the middle of PHD.

Update: As said in comments, in 2009 Sanyo published a different idea of electron multiplying CMOS pixel. The idea is shown on the figure below:

Update #2: As EF said in comments, Sanyo presented its electron multiplying sensor at ISSCC 2009 (paper, presentation). The pixel structure and the gain non-uniformity are taken from the presentation slides:

Fujifilm Organic Sensor Article

2011-12-21T23:10:00.003+02:00

DPReview published an article on Fujifilm's organic image sensor patents. The article also quotes Eric Fossum on Fujifilm pixel and other new thin film pixel approaches.

Blocked Holes Can Enhance Light, Rather than Stop it

2011-12-21T16:47:00.001+02:00

Physorg.com, Optics InfoBase: "Many optical systems today, such as those in sensing, nanolithography, and many others, are built on a general belief: An optically opaque metal film would block light transmission even if the film has small holes, as long as the holes are covered with opaque metals which geometrically block the light path through the holes. For example, light transmission from one side of a glass to the other side is assumed to be blocked, when an opaque metal film is coated on one surface of the glass, even if the surface unavoidably has tiny dusts. This is because the coated metal covers the dust completely, hence blocking the light geometric path through the dust. Here, we report our experimental and theoretical study that demonstrates otherwise: Not only the light can transmit, but also the transmission is greatly enhanced, which is much better than an open hole. Furthermore, we found the transmission can be tuned by the metal blocker’s geometry and by the gap between the blockers and the metal film."

These electron microscope images show an experiment in which Princeton Professor of Engineering Stephen Chou showed that blocking a hole in a thin metal film could cause more light to pass through the hole than leaving the hole unblocked. The top image shows an array of 60nm holes spaced 200nm apart with gold caps, each of which is 40 percent bigger than the hole on which it sits. The bottom image shows a cross-section view of one hole with the cap sitting on top of SiO2 pillar. The gold film in the experiment was 40nm thick. The hole covered with the cap surprisingly allows 70% more light to be transmitted through the film than a hole without the cap, Chou's research team found.

"We did not expect more light to get through," Chou said. "We expected the metal to block the light completely."

Chou said the metal disk acts as a sort of "antenna" that picks up and radiates electromagnetic waves. In this case, the metal disks pick up light from one side of the hole and radiate it to the opposite side. The waves travel along the surface of the metal and leap from the hole to the cap, or vice versa depending on which way the light is traveling. Chou's research group is continuing to investigate the effect and how it could be applied to enhance the performance of ultrasensitive detectors.

Comparison of transmittance measurements showing 70% transmission enhancement by the blocked hole array than the open hole array.

(a) Experimental transmittance spectra measured on a periodic gold hole array blocked by Au nanodisks and the same gold hole array after removal of the nanodisks. The hole array has a hole diameter of 70 nm and a gold thickness of 40 nm, the gold nanodisks have a diameter of 85 nm, and the SiO2 pillar height is 52 nm.

(b) Plot of transmission enhancement ratio calculated by dividing the optical transmission of blocked and open gold hole arrays. A maximum enhancement of 1.7x is observed at 680 nm.

Thanks to JM for sending me the link!

FPN Measurements Wrap Up

2011-12-16T10:03:00.001+02:00

Albert Theuwissen wraps up FPN measurement series of posts. The concluding post adds all the previously discussed numbers and graphs together.

Eedoo Game Console Postponed Again

2011-12-16T09:54:00.000+02:00

Penn Olson reports that China Eedoo iSec console release is pushed back again. Eedoo’s CEO tells Sina Tech there’s no scheduled release date now. The console is featuring by Softkinetic ToF 3D sensor and supposed to compete with Xbox Kinect.

Eedoo is now negotiating its 3rd round of financing. The company's CEO said that next year the company's total investment in the iSec project will reach 100M yuan ($15M).

Update: PC World: Eedoo has pushed back its launch date again to some time later in 2012, said Eedoo spokesman Victor Wang on Monday. A source close to the situation however said on condition of anonymity that the launch of the product may be delayed further as the product was not found to be robust enough.

ST Pixel Simulation Paper

2011-12-15T12:32:00.000+02:00

ST presented "3D TCAD Simulation of Advanced CMOS Image Sensors" paper at 2011 International Conference on Simulation of Semiconductor Processes and Devices (SISPAD 2011) held in Osaka, Japan, in Sept. 2011. The paper is written by Z. Essa, P. Boulenc, C. Tavernier, F. Hirigoyen, A. Crocherie, J. Michelot, D. Rideau.

The 2.5D vs 3D process and device simulations are compared based on Synopsys Sentaurus simulator. Also Lumerical FDTD simulator was used for the optical part. The 1.4um FSI pixel simulations show 3D Qsat of 4200e- while it is 5800e- in both measurements and 2.5D simulations.

The discrepancy exists also between the simulated and measured QE:

The paper conclusion is that "further simulations calibration adjustments are required to match experimental Qsat and QE".

Another interesting paper is "Modeling Statistical Distribution of Random Telegraph Noise Magnitude" by Ken’ichiro Sonoda, Motoaki Tanizawa, Kiyoshi Ishikawa, and Yasuo Inoue from
Renesas.

MIT Camera Capable of 1.71ps Exposure

2011-12-14T18:39:00.001+02:00

The device has been developed by the MIT Media Lab’s Camera Culture group in collaboration with Bawendi Lab in the Department of Chemistry at MIT. A laser pulse that lasts less than one trillionth of a second is used as a flash and the light returning from the scene is collected by a camera at a rate equivalent to roughly half a trillion frames per second. However, due to very short exposure times (roughly two trillionth of a second) and a narrow field of view of the camera, the video is captured over several minutes by repeated and periodic sampling. The new technique is able to compose a single 2D movie of roughly 480 frames each with an effective exposure time of 1.71 picoseconds.

MIT's Youtube video shows the camera in work:

Thanks to RC and CDM for sending me the link!

ISAE Publications On-Line

2011-12-14T17:54:00.001+02:00

Institut Supérieur de l’aéronautique et de l’espace (ISAE) Image Sensor Research Team (CIMI) kindly made its publications available on-line.

Thanks to VG for sending me the link!

ISORG Demos Magic Pad

2011-12-14T17:48:00.000+02:00

Printed organic sensor company ISORG demos its first product in these Youtube videos:

This bar graph applet illustrates what the ISORG organic sensors "sees" on top of the tablet, it estimates a relative distance to the object on top the pad by the amount of light each pixel receives:

Virtual disc with a touch-less interface:

Thanks to SG for the link!

Update: Here is Photonics 21, Sept. 2011 presentation by ISORG.

Caeleste Presents its 0.5e- Noise Pixel and More

2011-12-13T18:23:00.000+02:00

As BD pointed in comments, Caeleste publications page has been updated to include the latest CNES Workshop 2011 presentations. The most interesting one is "A 0.5 noise electrons CMOS pixel" by Bart Dierickx, Nayera Ahmed, and Benoit Dupont. The presentation explains the 1/f and RTS noise reduction principle by cycling the pMOSFET between accumulation and inversion:

150 inversion-accumulation cycles are averaged to reduce pixel noise down to 0.5e level:

The result was measured on the technology demonstrator based on 100um standalone test structure, ~7μm MOSFET area, pixel is used in CTIA mode with >1000μV/e- conversion gain:

Another new CNES Caeleste presentation is "High QE, Thinned Backside-Illuminated, 3e- RoN, Fast 700fps, 1760×1760 Pixels Wave-Front Sensor Imager with Highly Parallel Readout."

Sensors and Space

2011-12-13T17:33:00.000+02:00

Teledyne DALSA announces the NASA-designed, DALSA-manufactured CCDs are embedded in the Engineering Cameras of the Mars Curiosity Rover, launched on Saturday, November 26, 2011. The Engineering Cameras, known as the Navcam and Hazcam cameras, are located on the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Rover and are used for navigation on the surface of Mars. The Rover will use 4 Navcam cameras and 8 Hazcam cameras.

Navcams (Navigation Cameras) are B&W stereo cameras using visible light to gather panoramic, 3D imagery for ground navigation planning by scientists and engineers. Hazcams (Hazard Avoidance Cameras) are B&W cameras using visible light to capture 3D imagery to safeguards against the rover getting lost or inadvertently crashing into unexpected obstacles, and works in tandem with software that allows the rover to make its own safety choices and to "think on its own."

Teledyne DALSA also announced it will partner with Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (SSTL) to develop a new multispectral sensor for an advanced earth observation application. The multimillion dollar development project is expected to begin delivering high resolution images during 2014 for applications such as urban planning and environment and disaster monitoring. Custom multispectral sensors to be designed and manufactured by 2013:

Monolithic multispectral imagers--3, 4, 5 or more different imaging areas on one chip

e2v has signed a multi-million dollar contract for a 2 year program to supply the complete 1.2 Giga-pixel camera system for the Javalambre Physics-of-the-Accelerating-Universe Astrophysical Survey (J-PAS) project funded by a consortium of Spanish and Brazilian astronomy institutes. J-PAS will be dedicated to creating a map of the observable Universe in 56 continuous wavebands from 350nm to 1000nm. The e2v cryogenic camera system has a 1.2 gigapixel mosaic array capable of being read out in 10 seconds.

The camera will be designed and built by e2v, will use 14 newly developed CCD290-99 sensors and includes a guarantee of the camera’s performance levels and a commercial warranty. The 85MP CCDs will be back-thinned and given a multi-layer, anti-reflection coating. They are a 9k x 9k pixel format, with multiple outputs for rapid readout times, and are mounted in a precision package to allow them to be assembled into a mosaic, providing an image area that is nearly 0.5m in diameter. The focal plane assembly will also include the telescope guide and wavefront sensors. The whole focal plane will then be contained in a custom cryogenic camera, with vacuum and cooling components and integrated electronics which will provide state-of-the-art low noise for maximum sensitivity.

e2v has also signed a multi-million Euro contract with Thales Alenia Space for the design, development and manufacture of a space qualified CMOS imaging sensor for use in the Flexible Combined Imager (FCI) instrument of the Meteosat Third Generation (MTG), an ESA and the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT) program. The first MTG-I satellite is expected to be launched in 2017, with the first MTG-S following in early 2019.

Image Sensor 2012 Program

2011-12-12T16:47:00.000+02:00

Formerly known as Image Sensors Europe, please see below a preliminary program of Image Sensors 2012 Conference which will take place in London, UK in March 20-22, 2012:

KEYNOTE
Quanta Image Sensor (~~QIA~~ QIS) – a possible paradigm shift for the future
Dr Eric R. Fossum, Solid-State Image Sensor Device Physicist and Engineer, and Professor of Engineering, THAYER SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING AT DARTMOUTH, US

Review of 1st and 2nd generation solid-state image sensors
Issues with physics limitations – shot noise, diffraction limit, electronics noise
Issues with future sensor implementation – pixel size, pixel count, read noise, full well, QE, color separation
The Quanta Image Sensor concept and technical challenges
New paradigm for image formation from QIS

KEYNOTE
Dark Current and White Blemish
Dr Nobukazu Teranishi, General Manager Image Sensor Technology, Image Sensor Business Unit, Semiconductor Company, PANASONIC CORPORATION, Japan

Why are they always important?
Stresses
Getterings
Effect and limitation of the pinned photodiode
Recent approaches

KEYNOTE
High performance imaging detectors for space astrophysics
Dr Samuel Harvey Moseley, Senior Astrophysicist, Laboratory for Observational Cosmology, NASA/GODDARD SPACE FLIGHT CENTER, US

Science goals of space astrophysics
Performance requirements for detectors in space applications
Unique problems for operating detectors in the space environment
Calibration requirements for detectors in space astrophysics
Detection systems required by future astrophysics missions

Next generation camera phones - trends and technologies
Mats Wernersson, Master Engineer - Camera Research, SONY ERICSSON, Denmark

Trends in the usage of cameras in mobile phones
Consumer needs and technology deliverables
What direction would we like to see taking shape?
Disruptive technologies and innovations which may alter future sensor usage
Challenges for the image sensor industry

Overview of Pixel Development for Mobile, Automotive, Industrial, and high-end DSC Applications
Dr Gennadiy Agranov, VP Imaging Technology, APTINA IMAGING, US

Small pixel development including latest results on BSI pixel development
Global shutter pixel development
Large pixel development for automotive, industrial, and high DSC markets
Pixel development for 3D and depth sensing

The impact of LED lighting on colour rendition in TV and other cameras
Richard Salmon, Lead Research Engineer, BBC RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT, UK

How the camera sensor is different from the human eye
Why new LED lighting is so different from traditional studio lighting
Why the Colour Rendering Index, hitherto used to assess the quality of lighting, is unsuitable for quantifying lighting to be used with cameras
Recommendations for a TV Lighting Consistency Index
What factors camera sensor manufacturers might need to consider

Development of 33Mpixel 120fps CMOS image sensor for full-spec Super Hi-vision
Dr Hiroshi Shimamoto, Senior Research Engineer, NHK (JAPAN BROADCASTING CORPORATION) Science & Technology Research Laboratories, Japan

World’s first image sensor that covers spec requirements for “full-spec” Super Hi-vision
High output data rate as more than 51Gbps
Low power consumption as less than 2.5W
Newly developed on-chip ADC technology
Experimental image acquisition system for this sensor is under development

Trends in gesture recognition technology
Daniel Van Nieuwenhove, CTO, SOFTKINETIC, Belgium

Recent developments in gesture recognition technology: a review of progress to date
Trends in 3D time of flight cameras and gesture recognition middleware
A review of current and potential future applications
Challenges and opportunities

To Be Announced
Dr Eiichi Funatsu, Senior Manager - Sensor Division, Semiconductor Business Group, SONY CORPORATION, Japan

Challenges and opportunities in medical endoscopic imaging
Dr Koichi Mizobuchi, Deputy General Manager, Imaging Technology Development, OLYMPUS MEDICAL SYSTEMS CORPORATION, Japan

History of medical endoscopy
Application of medical endoscopy
Optical light filtering technologies
Capsule endoscope
Requirements for future image sensors

Defence / military sector & future challenges for image sensors
Oscar d’Almeida, Director, Detectors Technology, R&T/Optronics and Defence Division, SAFRAN SAGEM, France

Main objectives for military capabilities
Military/defence equipments needs and requirements
State of the art of imaging sensors
Main challenges
Equipment: Integration and trade-off

A plenoptic image sensor for monocular 3D cameras
Dr Christian Perwass, Managing Director, RAYTRIX GmbH, Germany

Introduction to the image generation concept behind plenoptic cameras
Image generation and depth calculation from plenoptic images
Microlens array design for high effective spatial and depth resolution
Measurements and theoretical capabilities of Raytrix plenoptic cameras
Application examples

CMOS image sensors for non-visible applications: seeing the invisible
Dr Renato Turchetta, CMOS Sensor Design Group Leader, RUTHERFORD APPLETON LABORATORY – STFC, UK

Review of applications in IR, UV, X-ray
What is different from visible light applications:
Sensing
Processing
Enhancing the sensitivity of silicon by coupling it to scintillators
A 16Mpixel sensor for high-resolution X-ray imaging
A wafer-scale sensor for X-ray medical imaging

Image sensors for photogrammetry and orthophoto production
Udo Tempelmann, Manager System Engineering, LEICA GEOSYSTEMS, Aerial Imaging, Switzerland

The challenge of highest resolution and area coverage under natural light conditions
How existing image sensors meet the challenge
Future technology requirements for aerial image sensor
Consumer level photogrammetric products and how they relate to classical photogrammetry
Synergy effects of combinations with other sensors than the classical silicon photo diode

Near- photon counting CMOS pixel
Bart Dierickx, Founder, CAELESTE, Belgium

Photon counting, near photon counting and classic charge integration imaging
How low in noise can one and must one go?
Caeleste’s concept to cancel 1/f and RTS noise
The impact of 1/f noise cancellation on overall read noise
Image sensor specifications

Drivers shaping healthcare imaging
Dr Martin Spahn, Senior Manager Imaging Technologies, SIEMENS, Germany

X-ray image sensor technology currently being used to meet patient's needs within the sector - case studies
Future technology requirements
Research and development work which will shape future applications
Challenges to consider

High QE, Thinned Backside-Illuminated, 3e- RoN, Fast 700fps, 1760x1760 Pixels Wave-Front Sensor Imager with Highly Parallel Readout
Mark Downing, CCD Specialist - Optical Detector Team, EUROPEAN SOUTHERN OBSERVATORY, Germany

The success of the next generation of extremely large ground-based optical telescopes (E-ELT, GMT, and TMT) will depend upon improving the image quality (correcting the distortion caused by atmospheric turbulence) by deploying sophisticated Adaptive Optics (AO) systems
One of the critical components of the AO systems for the E-ELT has been identified as the wavefront sensor detector
The combinations of large array size, 1760x1760 pixels needed to account for the elongation of laser guide stars (LGS), the fast frame rate of 700 (up to 1000) frames per second, the required high QE (90%), and low read out noise of 3e-makes the development of such a device extremely challenging
A CMOS Imager is under development with a highly parallel read out architecture consisting of over 60,000 on-chip ADCs and 88 parallel high speed LVDS ports to achieve the low read out noise at the high pixel rates of ~3 Gpixel/s (~30 GBit/s). The Imager will be thinned and backside illuminated to reach the 90% QE
This talk reports on the development of the full size Imager and results of Technology Demonstrators

Overview of the healthcare sector & its future requirements from image sensors
Dr Dimitra G. Darambara, Team Leader, Multimodality Molecular Imaging, Joint Department of Physics, Radiotherapy and Imaging Division, ROYAL MARSDEN NHS FOUNDATION TRUST & INSTITUTE OF CANCER RESEARCH, UK

Drivers shaping the healthcare sector
Review of state-of-the-art image sensors currently being used within the sector
Challenges, demands and trends for future image sensor technology
Quantitative imaging beyond visual interpretation
New concepts in medical imaging
Innovation vs clinical need: translation from concept to clinical practice

Intelligent video for security and increased operational efficiency
David Dorn, Applied Technologies Manager, PELCO by SCHNEIDER ELECTRIC, US

Video technology advances in sensors, analytics, and networks
State-of-the-art video security applications and systems
Multi-spectral imaging systems
Integration of sensor networks for improved analytics accuracy
Beyond Security - Operational uses of video to improve enterprise efficiency, reduce energy costs, and improve human safety

Imaging technologies and market trends
Dr Valerie Nguyen, Imaging Business Development Manager, CEA-LETI, France

Image sensors today: from image quality to sensing functions
Market trends and pixels everywhere
Multispectral imaging and key technology enablers
Technology perspectives

An image of security – trends and developments in modern security imaging
Ian Crosby MinstP, Head of Product Management, Imaging Competence Centre Eindhoven, BOSCH SECURITY SYSTEMS, Netherlands

The decurity imaging market
Figures
Applications
The challenges associated with security imaging
The early days
Modern imaging and intelligence

Hiroaki Fujita Passed Away

2011-12-12T09:42:00.001+02:00

Albert Theuwissen posted that Hiroaki Fujita passed away. Hiro used to work as pixel and process engineer for Sony, Kodak, Aptina, and, briefly, for Panasonic. He was in the group of Kodak engineers received 2009 Walter Kosonocky Award for RGB-W sensor with 1.4um pixel with p-type photodiode.

Intel to Support Gesture Recognition in its Chipsets

2011-12-10T19:52:00.000+02:00

Reuters: Total Immersion, a pioneer in emerging field of augmented reality (AR), is working with Intel to bring AR features, like gesture recognition, into Intel's chipsets, Total Immersion's marketing chief Antoine Brachet said.

"What we are doing together with Intel is working on their chipset ... so inside the chipset you can have some AR features, like gesture recognition that can be transferred from software to hardware," Brachet said.

Intel Capital has invested in Total Immersion $5.5M in March 2011. The 1999-founded (other sources - 1998-founded) Total Immersion has lately attracted attention of other heavyweights, Google and Qualcomm, according to Reuters.

GSA: Ambarella and Aptina - Most Respected Private Companies

2011-12-09T13:21:00.000+02:00

Venture Beat reports from Global Semiconductor Association’s annual awards dinner today in Santa Clara, CA that the most respected private company award nominees included Ambarella, Aptina, and SandForce. Ambarella won the award.

The GSA awards page explains the award:

"The industry's Most Respected Private Semiconductor Company award is designed to identify the private company garnering the most respect from the industry in terms of its products, vision and future opportunity. GSA's Awards Committee reviews all private semiconductor companies, and the selected nominees and winner are based on the committee's analysis of each company's performance and likelihood of long-term success."

Update: Ambarella: "It is an honor to receive the GSA’s 2011 award for Most Respected Private Semiconductor Company, our fourth GSA award and our second back-to-back award in this category," said Fermi Wang, CEO of Ambarella.

EMCCD Lecture

2011-12-09T08:48:00.000+02:00

RIT Center for Detectors published a nice EMCCD lecture by Craig Mackay, Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge, UK. The lecture covers main principles and applications of EMCCDs, primarily produced by e2v. Some slides from the lecture:

Introduction to EMCCDs: General Characteristics

EMCCDs are standard CCDs plus an electron multiplication stage.
EMCCDs may be read out at high pixel rates (up to 30 MHz for E2V EMCCDs, probably up to 60 MHz for TI EMCCDs).
The gain mechanism increases the variance in the output signal so that the signal-to-noise ratio goes as √(2N) rather than √(N).
Equivalent to halving the detective quantum efficiency.
Photon counting can substantially restore this effective loss in quantum efficiency.
Clock induced charge (CIC) affects all CCDs, but you will only really notice it with high gain EMCCDs.

When Should You Use EMCCDs?

Any time that you are really limited by readout noise.
This is more likely to be the case when running with high pixel rates. Conventional CCDs give excellent read noise but only at low read-out rates.
Recent developments in sCMOS technology are changing this by offering low read-out noise (~1-2 electrons) and 100 Hz frame rates, though best in rolling shutter mode.
However, do not forget the equivalent loss in detector quantum efficiency using an EMCCD in analog mode.
At the lowest signal levels, photon counting gives close to the theoretical full DQE at high frame rates.

EMCCD Ageing

Illuminating the image area to saturation and running the device at a gain of 1000x will cause the device to fail within a few hours.
In practice these devices will be used at much lower illumination levels.
With reasonable care in system design, many years of operation will be obtained.
The ageing effect is seen as an increase in the high-voltage (multiplication) clock level needed to achieve a specific gain.
At low gains (gains of a few) no ageing is seen.
Increasing the gain from 100x to 1000x roughly doubles the short-term ageing rate with little effect on the longterm ageing.
The ageing is principally caused by excessive signal levels in the multiplication register.
An increase of 5 V over the life of the device is about the limit before failure occurs.

Sharp Slim 12MP Module Demo

2011-12-08T15:28:00.001+02:00

Wired claims that the recently announced 5.47mm-slim Sharp camera module equippped with 12.1MP BSI sensor is already on the market, embedded inside Sharp AQUOS SH-01D smartphone. Wired shows a nice Youtube demo of OIS in this module:

2nd Day of Image Sensor of High Performance Applications Workshop

2011-12-08T14:32:00.001+02:00

Albert Theuwissen published a report on the 2nd day of CMOS Detector Workshop in Toulouse, France. The report was written by Mukul Sarkar and covers Caeleste 0.5e- noise sensor, among other papers:

CMOS image sensor pixel with 0.5 noise electrons RMS – CAELESTE

The RTS noise and 1/f noise is reduced by cycling the MOSFET between inversion and accumulation to produced un-correlated noise which when sampled become “white”.
A CTIA configuration was used and a very high conversion gain of nearly 1000uV/e- was reported.
When the cycling of the MOSFET was not used a 2e- readout noise was obtained. While when the cycling was performed a 0.5e- readout noise at dark was measured. However it mentioned that the measurements showed variance and it might be due to the CVF. The research institutes and PhDs were invited to do an independent confirmation!

1st Day of CMOS Image Sensors for High Performance Applications Workshop

2011-12-07T12:55:00.000+02:00

Albert Theuwissen published a report from the 1st day of CMOS Detector Workshop being held in Toulouse, France these days. The report was written by M. Sarkar and covers most of the papers presented on the workshop. The workshop is geared toward space and scientific applications. The full list of the workshop papers can be found here.

e2v Sensors Power NASA Curiosity

2011-12-07T12:46:00.000+02:00

e2v: On November 26, e2v sensors were launched into space onboard an Atlas V rocket as part of NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory mission, which plans to land a rover named “Curiosity” on the surface of Mars as part of NASA’s Mars Exploration Programme.

The Mars Science Laboratory is a long-term robotic exploration to assess if Mars is, or ever has been, an environment that can support life. It will be the biggest, most capable robot to ever land on another planet. e2v imaging sensors equip both the rover’s Chemistry and Mineralogy instrument (CheMin) which was developed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and the Chemistry & Camera instrument (ChemCam) which was developed by the Los Alamos National Lab under an agreement with NASA’s JPL. CheMin will identify and measure the minerals on the planet using sophisticated x-ray detection techniques. The ChemCam instrument consists of a laser, which will be used to vaporise rock samples, and a camera which will then use Laser Induced Breakdown (LIB) spectroscopy to analyse the material produced.

CheMin uses the e2v CCD224, a specialised imaging sensor array optimised for the detection of x-rays in a space environment. This high performance imaging sensor is based upon technology originally implemented in the European Space Agency’s XMM-Newton X-Ray observatory, where it has been operating successfully in the EPIC Instrument for the last 10 years. CheMin will expand the use of e2v’s x-ray imaging sensor technology to the Martian surface.

ChemCam uses the e2v CCD42-10 which is part of a standard range of imaging sensors used for various commercial and high performance applications including ground and space borne astronomy, and spectroscopy. The variant used in ChemCam was back-thinned to maximise sensitivity and coated with a custom graded anti-reflection coating to match the spectroscopic requirements of the mission.

Mars Science Laboratory using laser instrument, artist's concept - courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech

Albert Theuwissen Reports from IEDM 2011

2011-12-06T19:14:00.001+02:00

Albert Theuwissen published a very interesting review of IEDM 2011 papers:

Extremely-low noise CMOS image sensor with high saturation capacity, by K. Itonaga (Sony).
High performance 300 mm backside illumination technology for continuous pixel shrinkage, by D. Yaung (TSMC).
"QE values for a 0.9 um pixel were shown : 50 % in blue, 47 % in green and 45 % in red. The pixels were realized in a 65 nm process with a remaining thickness of the silicon equal to 2 um … 4 um. In the case of the 0.9 um pixel, the optical cross-talk is about 4 times as large as in the 1.1 um version."
A 1.4 um front-side illuminate image sensor with novel light-guiding structure consisting of stacked lightpipes, by H. Watanabe (Panasonic).
"QE in green 74 % in comparison with 69 % for the BSI and 43 % for the FSI without stacked lightpipe."
Investigation of dark current random telegraph signal in pinned photodiode CMOS image sensors, by V. Goiffon (ISAE).
A CMOS compatible Ge-on-Si APD operation in proportional and Geiger modes at infrared wavelengths, by. A. Sammak (TU Delft).
Enhanced angle sensitive pixels for light field imaging, by S. Sivaramakrishnan (Cornell University).
A 192×108 pixel ToF-3D image sensor with single-tap concentric-gate demodulation pixels in 0.13 um technology, by T.-Y. Lee (Samsung).

Update: Moving EF's comments to the front page:

1. The Sony paper was an embarrassment for Sony. The presenter who claimed significant noise reduction and increased saturation charge could not answer the question as to what the actual value of noise and saturation signal was, saying he was not knowledgeable about the details. This is shameful in a conference like IEDM.

2. TSMC said that they had a lot of particulate problems in wafer bonding leading many manufacturing issues, including wafer distortion during alignment and "breaking bubbles" etc. They said they were able to now reduce particulates to a lower level. This speaker was good about answering questions so a plus for TSMC. He also called the process "TSMC BSI" and not by his co-authors' company Omnivision. Interesting.

3. A very nicely presented paper although the 74% QE number is somewhat hard to accept. If true, it is remarkable. Reminds me that Aptina has also said lightpipes with FSI makes BSI less necessary. Watanabe says at 1.1 um, FSI might be comparable to BSI using the lightpipe technology. He is not sure about 0.9 um. Personally this is on own my short list for WKA nominations.

4. Interesting investigation of blinking pixels. Location of the traps were not determined but there was a lot of interesting statistical data presented.

5. Very interesting results. Too bad we cannot really work on this in the open in the US.

6. Enthusiastically presented student paper.

7. Well, I found this paper interesting, in as much as it is my device but with a life of its own at Samsung. When AT says "pretty good" performance, I think he means "pretty much SOA" performance. Note also that normal two-tap operation throws away 50% of the light (because you also need the quadrature signals) so losing 75% in single-tap is not as bad as it sounds. It is only a ~30% loss in SNR compared to other techniques, but the reduction in FPN makes up for the SNR loss when it comes to determining depth accuracy.

Pixelplus Reports Q2, Q3 Results, Withdraws Pink Sheets

2011-12-06T19:08:00.000+02:00

PR Newswire: Based on unaudited results of operations in accordance with Korean GAAP on a non-consolidated basis, Pixelplus revenues for Q2 and Q3 2011 were US$10.5M and US$10.4M respectively, compared to US$5.8M and US$5.9M in the Q2 and Q3 a year ago. Net incomes in Q2 and Q3 2011 were US$2.8M and US$2.4M compared to a net income of US$0.6M and US$1.4M a year ago. Gross margins for Q2 and Q3 2011 were 40.1% and 39.4%, compared to 36.8% in Q1 2011.

"We continue to design and introduce cutting-edge products and technologies and release to the market other innovative technologies," said S.K. Lee, CEO and Founder of Pixelplus. "For this purpose, we continue to develop our core strategic business for automobile, security and surveillance applications, and positively collaborate with medical endoscope manufacturers in South Korea as well as key distributors and manufacturers in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Japan. In parallel, we continue to vigorously pursue cost-control measures and are encouraged that we continue to effectively manage our operating expenses on a reliable and consistent basis."

PR Newswire: Pixelplus announces that it will terminate its American Depositary Receipts (ADR) Program. The company's ADRs will continue to trade over the counter (OTC) in the US until the date of termination of the Deposit Agreement on February 29, 2012.

"We are inclined to terminate the Deposit Agreement and ADR Program as we do not envision the ADR Program as positively enabling, effectuating, or contributing to our short-term and long-term business goals and strategies now and into the foreseeable future," said S.K. Lee. "In addition, the Company's financial costs and expenses incurred in connection with sustaining the ADR Program poses an undue and unnecessary economic burden which we would like to eliminate in moving forward. For these reasons, we have no choice but to terminate the Deposit Agreement and ADR Program in a timely and effective manner."

Pixelplus expects to become a part of the "Free Board" in South Korea in due course, which is South Korea's equivalent of the OTC in the US.

Aptina Surveillance Sensor Wins EDN China Award

2011-12-06T09:57:00.001+02:00

Techworks Asia: Aptina has won a Best Product Award in EDN China’s Innovation Awards 2011, for its AR0331 surveillance image sensor, in the Passive Component and Sensor category.

The 3.1MP 1/3-inch AR0331 sensor targets 1080p/60fps HD video surveillance market and is based on 2.2um pixel. The sensor combines full HD video with a WDR capability and built-in adaptive local tone mapping. The binning techniques enable the sensor’s sub 1-lux low light performance.

Applied Materials Targets BSI Sensors Manufacturing

2011-12-06T09:25:00.001+02:00

Applied Materials announces Applied Producer Optiva CVD system aimed to manufacture of BSI sensors. "Emerging BSI image sensor designs present a new opportunity for Applied Materials to provide customers with the technology they need to be successful in this rapidly growing market," said Bill McClintock, VP and GM of Applied’s Dielectric Systems and Modules business unit. "The Optiva low temperature process runs on our lightning-fast Producer platform, which is great news for chipmakers looking to satisfy the demand for an estimated 300 million BSI image sensors expected to be needed by 2014."

Producer Optiva system is capable of depositing low temperature, conformal films that boost the low-light performance of the sensor while improving its durability. The system enhances the performance of the microlens by covering it with a tough, thin, transparent film layer that reduces reflections and scratches, and protects it from the environment. Importantly, the Optiva tool is the first CVD system to enable >95% conformal deposition at temperatures less than 200°C. As typical bonding adhesives have thermal budgets of approximately 200ºC, all subsequent processing on these temporarily bonded wafers must be done below 200ºC.

According to iSuppli, three-quarters of all smartphones will be fitted with BSI sensors in 2014, up from just 14% in 2010.

3D ToF Forum

2011-12-05T17:48:00.001+02:00

MESA Imaging has opened a 3D ToF Forum. It is mainly related to MESA products but also covers general issues of ToF in its nice FAQ and Applications sections. There are quite a few postings there and it's open for general discussion.

Thanks to ML for sending me the link!

Varioptic Electrowetting Demo

2011-12-04T12:20:00.000+02:00

Varioptic published a nice Youtube video of electrowetting effect:

Another video shows Variptic continuous AF in action.

NIT Announces 1.3MP WDR Sensor with Extended IR Resopnse

2011-12-03T10:58:00.001+02:00

New Imaging Technology announces NSC1105, a 1.3MP WDR sensor with a 10.6µm pixel and DR of more than 140 dB in a single frame time. Thanks to its Native Wide Dynamic Range technology, the NSC1105 does not require any setting or exposure time control and always provides a useful image whatever the illumination conditions are.
The NSC1105 also benefits from an extended spectral response in the IR range and good low light sensitivity:

Samsung to Mass Produce "Optical Sensor in Pixel" LCD Panel

2011-12-02T12:24:00.001+02:00

Business Wire: Samsung announces that it began mass production of 40-inch "Optical Sensor in Pixel" LCD panels in November this year.

The Optical Sensor in Pixel LCD panel detects reflected images of an object on the panel using Infrared sensors that are built into the panel. With optical sensor in each pixel of the panel, the new panel can much more accurately assess touch sensitivity compared to existing touch panels. The panel can detect more than 50 touch points simultaneously and can display images with Full HD resolution and wide-angle viewing.

All of the input functions of a keyboard, mouse or scanner can be carried out on the panel itself. The panel can be installed in a variety of applications including table top and wall-mounted types. Its tempered glass is strong enough to withstand external loads over 80 kilograms.

As the panel can perform touch and multi-touch sensing and image display simultaneously, it represents a new paradigm for massively interactive communications, compared to the one-way communication of today’s kiosk touch panels.

The Optical Sensor in Pixel LCD panel has been installed in "Samsung SUR40 for Microsoft Surface", a table-type PC product, co-developed by Samsung and Microsoft. SUR40 has been available for pre-order since last month.

"Our Optical Sensor in Pixel panel has overcome the limitations of touch functionality that have hampered the effectiveness of most interactive displays," said Younghwan Park, SVP sales and marketing team, Samsung Electronics LCD Business. "With the world’s first mass production of an Optical Sensor in Pixel LCD, Samsung Electronics has set its sights on taking the lead in the global interactive display market," he added.

6Sight Panels On Mobile Imaging

2011-12-02T12:03:00.001+02:00

Sept. 2011 issue of 6Sight Report published a transcript of discussion on mobile imaging trends from its June 2011 Summit. Few quotes:

Tony Henning, 6Sight senior analyst:

"In digital still cameras, some are actually backing off the resolution to deliver better results. It’s said some sanity is coming to the megapixel race. But is there sanity coming to the mobile megapixel race? Will that race end soon?"

Robbert Emery, OmniVision:

"That’s a very interesting question. I think about it a different way: What can I do with more data? With more pixels?
We look at digital zoom; could be better. We look at image stabilization; could be better. If we look at what happened in the economic downturn, of course, there’s been some slowing in the adoption of higher resolution. But coming out of the economic downturn, the numbers shipped for lower resolution camera phones is lowering, and that for higher resolution phones is increasing. We’re looking at the adoption of 5-, 8-, 10-megapixel and above.

With applications and other ways of using more data, the race is definitely still on for higher resolution."

Paul Gallagher, Samsung:

"Right now it’s difficult to say. I agree we saw a slowdown during the economic downturn, but coming out of it, we’re seeing very aggressive adoption of 8 megapixel, and aggressive interest in 12MP. I think what we need to start looking at is we are starting to hit some cost barriers. Historically, the image sensor shrunk the pixel as a means to reduce its cost or to increase the pixel count. But now with the adoption of BSI, you saw a reset of market price. And when you move into sub-micron pixels, you’re probably going to see another reset. The consequences, from the economic point of view, will cause a slowdown. When you start looking at 16-megapixel third-inch optical-format products, the cost may break the model enough that the OEMs start rethinking when enough is enough."

Lars Nord, Sony Ericsson:

"I think it’s about what specifications people use to select the phone. Right now we don’t have many, so resolution
is the one they use. If you compare phones: this has five, this has eight… they’ll take the eight because you get more. More is better? Maybe not every time, but that’s how people think. Until we get some other measures of quality, we will see this megapixel race go on, unfortunately."

Other topics covered at the panel discussion are sensors and optics improvements, recent innovations and what's next in mobile imaging.

New Version of Panasonic ToF D-Imager Works Outdoors

2011-12-01T09:22:00.000+02:00

Youtube has a demo video of a new version of Panasonic 3D ToF D-Imager - EKL3106 capable to work outdoors at up to 100,000 lux illumination. The previous D-Imager version EKL3104 was speced up to 20,000 lux.

Sharp Fits OIS, AF, F2.5 Optics and 12MP BSI Sensor into 5.47mm-High Module

2011-12-01T09:11:00.001+02:00

Sharp announces a 12.1MP, 1/3.2-inch CMOS camera module with optical image stabilization and autofocus that features the industry’s thinnest profile - 5.47 mm in height. The new RJ63YC100 is intended for use in mobile devices such as smartphones. Sample shipments will begin from December 2, 2011, volume production from January 10, 2012.

The 11.0 (W) x 11.0 (L) x 5.47 (H) mm module has F2.5 lens with horisontal viewing angle of 61 deg. The module supports 1080p video through 4-lane MIPI interface.

Yole Forecasts WLCSP Sensors Growth

2011-12-01T09:08:00.000+02:00

Yole Developpement report on WLCSP devices forecasts: "All in all, ‘fan-in’ WLCSP shows the first early signs of a maturing market with price pressure process standardization, but it still grows faster than the average semiconductor packaging market due to the fast growth rates of smartphones and tablet PCs in which WLCSP considerably helps save space and reduce costs."

Toshiba Reorgs CIS Production Base

2011-11-30T15:02:00.001+02:00

Toshiba announced a reorganization of its semiconductor production facilities in Japan that affects its discrete, analog and imaging IC businesses. In the analog and imaging IC businesses, Toshiba will continue to promote a shift to production on larger wafers to improve manufacturing efficiency and cost competitiveness. Toshiba has been implementing a series of measures to restructure its discrete and analog and imaging IC businesses, including accelerating the transfer of assembly and test operations to overseas facilities, outsourcing, shifting to larger diameter wafer production lines and halving its product line-up. Regular employees at the affected facilities will, in principle, be redeployed within Toshiba Group.

In addition Toshiba is temporarily cutting production at some of its semiconductor facilities from late November 2011 to early January 2012, including Oita Operations, which produces analog semiconductors and image sensors. The Oita facility will have 6-day shutdown during Year-end and New-Year's Holidays (Dec.30-Jan.4) plus the production will be decreased.

Omnivision Quarterly Earnings Call

2011-11-30T08:32:00.001+02:00

Seeking Alpha published Omnivision Quarterly Earnings Call transcript. Few interesting quotes from it:

Anson Chan, CFO:

"For the second quarter of fiscal 2012, we’re reporting revenues of $217.9 million, down 21.1% sequentially and down 9% on a year-over-year basis."

"Our fiscal 2012 second quarter gross margin was 30.6% compared with the 31.7% that we reported in our prior quarter."

"Our GAAP operating income in the second quarter totaled approximately $19.5 million as compared to $40.6 million the prior quarter."

Shaw Hong, CEO:

"...we encountered an unanticipated cutback in orders from major customers. For sensors that were designed into assist the conventional consumer devices. This event derailed our ability to deliver the financial performance that we had forecasted in August."

"...we acknowledge that a company’s near-term financial performance is disappointing."

"I’d like to express my disappointment in the results for our second fiscal quarter. However, from Q2, OmniVision posted a record revenues in four of its last five quarters. Our focus has always being on executing and technology leadership. The focus remains the heart and soul of the company."

Ray Cisneros, VP Worldwide Marketing:

"Our execution felt short of expectations for our second quarter. This was brought about by a sudden cut back of orders from our largest end used customers of sensors. We also expect further degradation in demand for our third fiscal quarter."

Some quotes from Q&A session:

Harsh Kumar - Morgan Keegan:

"..the order cutbacks, is that primarily related to one customer or are you seeing cutbacks in orders from multiple customers? And is the cutback in orders related to one product or is that multiple products at one or many customers?"

Ray Cisneros:

"The order cutbacks are associated with several customers and they are associated also with several market segments. It's in several products."

Paul Coster - JPMorgan:

"The product cycle leadership that you had a year or so ago seems to have evaporated. Are we correct in assuming that you’re losing market share here?"

Ray Cisneros:

"It’s difficult for us to draw conclusions on market share. If you look at the 2011 calendar year, we are looking at a fairly-fairly still robust number of units OmniVision delivered to the marketplace once 2011 is tallied up."

Betsy Van Hees - Wedbush Securities:

"...I was wondered if we could go back to BSI-2? So the 8830 is shipping in limited volumes. Is it shipping in production to anyone or is it qualified, and so that if there could be a tear down of our product, for example, we would be able to see it?"

Ray Cisneros:

"Yes. It is shipping in production. It is shipping in the customer’s product in production. If you find that product you could tear it down and find our product in there, but obviously due to confidentiality agreements we have we can’t divulge particular names and products, but it is in the marketplace."

Betsy Van Hees - Wedbush Securities:

"And then you talked about ASP pressure... That is something we haven’t heard in a while. So could you talk a little bit more about that ASP pressure, where you are seeing it and if it is broad-based or specific to certain market segments?"

Ray Cisneros:

"...the product mix going from a slant of higher resolution product mix to a lower resolution product mix due to the cut back in orders we experienced in Q3... that’s the big driving factor for the step-down in price. And then, what I mentioned in my prepared commentary is, it's normal quarter-over-quarter price erosion. That was as simple as that. That's common and fair."

Raji Gill - Needham & Company:

"A question on the gross margins. If you look at the guidance, would it be fair to say that the implied guidance of the gross margin would be 28% range?"

Anson Chan:

"...In terms of unit shipments for the BSI-2 products because again these products are still in a very early stage of introduction and the yield is below optimal. So the more we ship the less the margin will be and so that will present itself with a headwind."

Raji Gill - Needham & Company:

"...if I do the math, and it seems like the camera phone business was down about 24% sequentially... And then PCs were down like 53% sequentially... maybe ... you could comment on the competitive landscape coming from other competitors?"

Ray Cisneros:

"...we’ve been in business for 15 years in this space, and we've seen a lot of competitors come and go and this is no different. That said, however, we always respect our competition. Everybody is moving very fast with technology... and we like our chances."

Update: Seeking Alpha posts a post-conference analysis of the results:

"The real blow to the stock price came from the Q3 outlook. The company expects fiscal third quarter 2012 revenues will be in the range of $160 million to $180 million [well below consensus of $201.4M]. This is an indication that the company may have lost more key contracts than merely the originally feared Apple iPhone 4s contract."

"While they took a hit this most recent quarter, Omnivision is still cash rich with $464 million of net cash currently on their balance sheet. They are also unhindered by long term debt with less than $50 million reported on the balance sheet."

Aptina Announces 1/6-inch 1080p Video Sensor

2011-11-29T21:53:00.000+02:00

Business Wire: Aptina announces the AS0260 SOC sensor. The 2MP native 1080p SOC meets strict form factor requirements (z-height less than 3.5mm) for ultra-thin, full HD video applications within the video-centric consumer electronics market. The new SOC has a 1/6-inch optical format and a new 1.4-micron pixel featuring A-Pix technology to improve low-light performance. The new SOC provides HD video at 1080p/30fps or 720p/60fps with image processing capabilities.

The AS0260 provides SOC-specific features including integrated multi-camera synchronization for stereo or 3D cameras, perspective correction for off-axis camera placement, adaptive polynomial lens shading correction, UVC interface support for USB/ISP bridge devices, as well as automatic image correction and enhancement. Additionally, the AS0260 provides OEMs with advantages over many other Full HD (or 1080p) solutions currently on the market with MJPEG formatted data output to enable video streaming with reduced bandwidth; a presence detection feature combined with ambient light sensing for system power savings, and face detection and tracking capability for identity and security applications.

AS0260 is currently being sampled by several tier-1 OEMs. Mass production is scheduled for CYQ1 2012. It is available in Die and CSP packages.

PR Newswire: Talking about other video solutions announced today, proDAD launches a Windows-based software for video stabilization Mercalli Easy that features also rolling-shutter distortions compensation. The software is said to automatically correct/improve rolling-shutter-caused skew and wobble - this seems to be a new feature appearing in more and more video processing software products.

Altasens Adopts Berkeley DA FastSpice

2011-11-29T21:46:00.001+02:00

Business Wire: Berkeley Design Automation announces that AltaSens has selected the company’s AFS Platform for full-circuit post-layout verification, block-level characterization, and device noise analysis of their high-definition (HD) and wide-dynamic-range CMOS image sensors.

"At AltaSens we have significant circuit verification challenges to deliver CMOS image sensors with the highest image quality along with lower noise and lower power in a cost-effective solution," said Manjunath Bhat, VP of Engineering at AltaSens. "With the AFS Platform we can run post-layout verification of our high-performance wide-dynamic-range HD CMOS image sensors with nanometer SPICE accuracy. When running AFS single core we get performance on par with our existing parallel simulator running on 8 cores."

The Analog FastSPICE is said to deliver SPICE accuracy 5x-10x faster than any other simulator on a single core and an additional 2x-4x performance with multithreading. For circuit characterization, the AFS Platform includes the device noise analysis and delivers near-linear performance scaling with the number of cores. For large circuits, it is said to deliver more than 10M-element capacity, the industry’s fastest near-SPICE-accurate simulation, and mixed- analog-digital co-simulation with leading Verilog simulators. Available licenses include AFS circuit simulation, AFS Transient Noise Analysis, AFS RF Analysis, AFS Co-Simulation, and AFS Nano SPICE.

Omnivision Supplies Sensors for Third Eye

2011-11-29T15:25:00.000+02:00

PR Newswire: OmniVision announced that its OV6930 CMOS sensor performed exceptionally well in a recent 448-patient clinical study on Avantis Medical Systems' Third Eye Retroscope. The Third Eye Retroscope is an FDA-cleared, disposable, catheter-based camera for use with a standard colonoscope that provides a continuous backward-looking view while the colonoscope provides the usual forward view. In 2010, Avantis received a Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement code for the Third Eye Retroscope.

The OV6930 is a CMOS sensor designed specifically for use in medical devices. With a packaged footprint of only 1.8 x 1.8 mm, the OV6930 is an ideal solution for endoscopic applications that require a small profile, including bronchoscopy, colonoscopy, gastroscopy, OB-GYN and urology. It has low power consumption and is based on OmniPixel3-HS technology with low-light performance of 3300 mV/lux-sec. Its 1/10-inch array is capable of operating up to 30 fps in 400 x 400 HVGA or 60 fps in 400 x 200 resolution, providing RAW serial output. The low-voltage OV6930 allows cabling up to 14 feet, and is now shipping in volume to multiple medical device customers.

Hamamatsu Sensor Better Than CCD, EMCCD, First-Gen sCMOS

2011-11-29T12:40:00.001+02:00

PR Newswire: Hamamatsu Photonics introduces the ORCA-Flash4.0 scientific CMOS camera. The ORCA-Flash4.0 is said to be the first camera that challenges the performance of all CCD, EM-CCD, and first-generation sCMOS cameras for every fluorescence application.

The 4MP camera sensor is based on 6.5um pixel with full well of 30,000e. The ORCA-Flash4.0 has QE of over 70% at 600 nm and 50% at 750 nm, and has only 1.3e of read noise at 100fps at full-resolution. This unique combination of high QE and low noise, in the absence of EM-CCD multiplicative noise, means that images are no longer limited by the camera.

The new camera datasheet has comparison with competitors:

The uniformity comparison:

A very nice whitepaper explains the comparisons and the new sensor features.

Aptina Announces Sampling of 1.4um-Pixel BSI Sensor

2011-11-28T20:47:00.001+02:00

Aptina announces the production ready AR0832E BSI sensor. The AR0832E is a 1/3.2-inch format, 8MP sensor with a 1.4um BSI pixel aimed to smartphone cameras.

"Aptina's portfolio of BSI sensors is the culmination of several years of research and development refining and improving our BSI technology, which is enabling us to go-to-market with leading performance, manufacturing capacity, and competitive yields," said Aptina CEO Dave Orton. "Early feedback on the AR0832E BSI is that the performance is compelling, confirming the strength of our BSI technology and validating its readiness to address the needs of our customers today."

Aptina used its FSI A-Pix technology to develop a BSI pixel with "industry leading low light performance". The BSI advances include incorporation of deep photo diodes to increase full well capacity and extend DR, precisely engineered pixel architectures to achieve enhanced light sensitivity, and advanced CFA alignment techniques to lower cross-talk and achieve higher QE and color accuracy.

The AR0832E is sampling now, with high volume customer shipments expected in CYQ2 2012. It is available in die form.

In February Aptina announced its intention to sample 1.4um BSI sensor by mid-2011. By that time the part number of 1.4um 8MP sensor was AR0833. Today's announcement names a different part.

Sony Keeps Image Sensor Manufacturing in Japan, Asserts Damage by Thailand Floods, Creates Camera-Module Division

2011-11-28T14:21:00.001+02:00

Wall Street Journal, MarketWatch quote Sony Executive Deputy President Hiroshi Yoshioka telling reporters at the company headquarters in Tokyo: "Even if manufacturing stays in Japan, (our image sensors) are competitive". Sony plans to keep its image sensor manufacturing operations in Japan despite the yen's persistent strength, which is driving electronics makers overseas for better profit margins.

The image senosr business has been affected by the recent flooding in Thailand, where Sony has an assembly plant. The company has said it is temporarily shifting some of its Thai sensor manufacturing operations to Japan. Yoshioka also said the earnings outlook for his Professional, Device and Solutions Group for the current fiscal year "will be tough," due to March 11 natural disasters in Japan, the flooding in Thailand and the strong yen.

Bloomberg reports that Sony will create a division for image-sensor modules used in smartphones and tablet computers on Dec. 1. The image sensors are also named as one of the main focus areas for the company.

After floods in Thailand halted image sensor output at factories in the country, production will be shifted to a plant in Kumamoto, southwestern Japan, in the beginning of next year, Sony spokesman Hiroshi Okubo said. The effect of the floods "wasn’t as bad" as the company estimated three weeks ago, Yoshioka said.

Update: The full Wall Street Journal article is unlocked now, more content is available:

As part of efforts to improve sales, Sony will try to sell more camera modules, which combine image sensors with optical lenses and other technologies, instead of selling image sensors as individual components, Yoshioka said.

Sony said last month it will increase its output of the sensors at its factory in Nagasaki prefecture, southern Japan.

STA Delivered 444MP Camera to USNO

2011-11-28T13:10:00.001+02:00

Semiconductor Technology Associates has delivered the URAT camera to US Naval Observatory USNO in Washington, D.C. in August of 2011. The USNO Robotic Astrometric Telescope (URAT) camera is a focal plane of four 10,560 by 10,560 pixels 111MP STA1600 CCDs with supporting guider CCDs, a liquid nitrogen cooled dewar, and the supporting camera controllers:

The 111MP STA1600 6"-wafer-scale CCD is based on 9um pixel and has FSI and BSI versions. Its 16 outputs operate at 1 MP/s speed:

Photonis Announced InXite Sensor

2011-11-27T12:16:00.001+02:00

Photonis new fast 1MP xSCELL camera is powered by a proprietary CMOS-based technology named InXite. The 2e- low noise at 1000fps full resolution rate InXite sensor features 14 bits ADC.

The 1024 x 1024 pixels, 15 µm pitch array is said to deliver have than 70% (other source - 65%) peak QE. The sensor has 2x2 binning mode and also non-destructive read mode to reduce noise to less than 1e- at 10fps. The pixel full well is 10Ke-.

Sony Announces Improved 1/3-inch CCD, Camera Processor for Security Applications

2011-11-25T15:11:00.001+02:00

Sony Cx-News vol. 66 has announcements of 0.96MP 1/3-inch CCD and AFE and camera processor for security cameras.

The CXD5148GG AFE, and the CXD4140GG, an "Enhanced Effio-E" for security camera application offer essentially the same feature set with added "IR LED exposure optimization", smaller pin count and lower power. The IR LED optimization function ensures correct exposure and increases visibility by preventing the overexposure that the excessive front lighting of a highly directional infrared LED light source.

The ICX692AQA (primary color filter) and the ICX692AKA (complementary color filter) progressive scan CCDs are capable of rendering 720p HD output at 30fps. A number of technologies used in developing the new 4.08um-pixel based ICX692AQA/AKA have led to significant improvements over the older 3.75um Sony products, the ICX445AQA/AKA. The sensitivity is now 2.1 times (+6.5 dB), saturation signal level (dynamic range) is 1.86 times (+5.4 dB) and smear characteristics have improved by 6 dB compared to the current products.

The vertical register, the readout gate and channel stop regions have been optimized to raise the saturation signal level. These changes have maximized the sensor area that accumulates electric charges produced by photoelectric conversion raising saturation signal level by 1.86 times (+5.4 dB) over the current Sony products. Also, advances in fine fabrication technology have enabled changes in electrode wiring structure that lower the layer of the on-chip microlenses and improve light collecting efficiency. And "photo shielding film" reduces glare from light reflections.
When the lens diaphragm is opened up and a lower f-number is used, it controls the reduction in light collecting efficiency caused by changes in light incident angle.

Also, use of "EXview HAD CCD II" technology has improved high sensitivity in the near infrared light region. In addition, reducing the thickness of the oxide film below the "photo shielding film" has successfully diminished contamination of signals by smearing in the vertical register and raised smear characteristics to -110 dB.

Automotive Camera Market Consolidating

2011-11-25T12:14:00.001+02:00

IMS Research reports that automotive camera module supplier base is consolidating so that not all suppliers are benefiting from the strong market growth. The two leading suppliers of front camera modules, Gentex and Continental, have increased their combined share from 49% in 2010 to 58% in 2011. This has obviously been at the expense of the remaining supplier base, in particular the smaller ones with market share of less than 3%.

Helena Perslow, Senior Analyst at IMS Research is not surprised. "Gentex and Continental have both been active in this market since the very beginning and have managed to carve leading positions in their respective niches. As the market grows, we believe it will become increasingly difficult for smaller suppliers to increase their share of the market. There is a steep learning curve in the automotive camera market and OEMs highly value a strong track record in what is essentially a safety application."

What Perslow is saying is good news for established suppliers who already have long-standing relationships with OEMs and are familiar with the industry. However, those smaller suppliers with a market share under 2-3% may struggle to fully benefit from the strong market growth expected.

Looking ahead, in the coming 12 to 18 months the list of leading suppliers is unlikely to change significantly. However, Gentex and Continental face different challenges. Gentex, the market leader, is currently focused on just one specific front camera application - automatic high beam control. Continental, on the other hand, has several front camera applications and combinations available on the market. As the market develops, the number of applications on mass market vehicles will multiply and different combinations will emerge and grow in popularity. Continental looks well placed to benefit from this trend, whilst Gentex will need to diversify to develop new applications if it is to maintain its share of the overall automotive camera market.

Dark Signal Gradient Discussion

2011-11-24T18:17:00.001+02:00

Albert Theuwissen posted another article in "How to Measure" series: How To Measure The Dark Shading. The post discusses the definitions, the measurement procedure and also the ways to remove the shading from the final image.

Kinect Modified for Windows Applications

2011-11-24T13:52:00.001+02:00

EETimes: Microsoft confirmed it is developing hardware to bring its Kinect gesture interface to Windows. Microsoft's general manager for Kinect, Craig Eisler said "we have optimized certain hardware components and made firmware adjustments which better enable PC-centric scenarios."

Specifically, Microsoft has enabled a "near mode" for Kinect, allowing "the depth camera to see objects as close as 50 centimeters in front of the device without losing accuracy or precision, with graceful degradation down to 40 centimeters, one of the most requested [Kinect] features," he said.

Presumably such a mode could open the door to alternatives for keyboards and mice for navigating PCs, tablets and smartphones. Microsoft said more than 200 companies are already participating in its Kinect for Windows program. In a recent blog post, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates reiterated his long held view that natural user interfaces such as gestures will be crucial in the future of computing.

Image Sensors at ISSCC 2012

2011-11-23T11:57:00.001+02:00

ISSCC 2012 preliminary program has Session 6 named "Medical, Displays and Imagers" and Session 22 named "Image Sensors". Most of the Session 6 papers came from academic world:

A Sampling-Based 128×128 Direct Photon-Counting X-Ray Image Sensor With 3 Energy Bins and Spatial Resolution of 60μm/pixel
H-S. Kim(1), S-W. Han(2), J-H. Yang(1), S. Kim(2), Y. Kim(2), S. Kim(2), D-K. Yoon(2), J-S. Lee(2), J-C. Park(2), Y. Sung(2), S-D. Lee(2), S-T. Ryu(1), G-H. Cho(1)
(1) KAIST, Daejeon, Korea;
(2) Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology, Yongin, Korea

A 1.36μW Adaptive CMOS Image Sensor With Reconfigurable Modes of Operation From Available Energy/Illumination for Distributed Wireless Sensor Network
J. Choi, S. Park, J. Cho, E. Yoon;
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI

A 0.5V 4.95μW 11.8fps PWM CMOS Imager With 82dB Dynamic Range and 0.055% Fixed-Pattern-Noise
M-T. Chung, C-C. Hsieh;
National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan

CMOS Capacitive Biosensor With Enhanced Sensitivity for Label-Free DNA Detection
K-H. Lee, S. Choi, J. Lee, J-B. Yoon, G-H. Cho;
KAIST, Daejeon, Korea

A 100Mphoton/s Time-Resolved Mini-Silicon Photomultiplier With On-Chip Fluorescence Lifetime Estimation in 0.13μm CMOS Imaging Technology
D. Tyndall(1), B. Rae(2), D. Li(3), J. Richardson(4), J. Arlt(1), R. Henderson(1)
(1) University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
(2) STMicroelectronics, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
(3) University of Sussex, Brighton, United Kingdom
(4) Dialog Semiconductor, Edinburgh, United Kingdom

Session 22 has more content from the industry:

An 83dB-Dynamic-Range Single-Exposure Global-Shutter CMOS Image Sensor With In-Pixel Dual Storage
M. Sakakibara(1), Y. Oike(1), T. Takatsuka(1), A. Kato(1), K. Honda(1), T. Taura(1), T. Machida(1), J. Okuno(2), A. Ando(2), T. Fukuro(2), T. Asatsuma(1), S. Endo(2), J. Yamamoto(2), Y. Nakano(2), T. Kaneshige(2), I. Yamamura(1), T. Ezaki(1), T. Hirayama(1)
(1) Sony, Atsugi, Japan;
(2) Sony Semiconductor, Kumamoto, Japan

A Global-Shutter CMOS Image Sensor With Readout Speed of 1Tpixel/s Burst and 780Mpixel/s Continuous
Y. Tochigi(1), K. Hanzawa(1), Y. Kato(1), R. Kuroda(1), H. Mutoh(2), R. Hirose(3), H. Tominaga(3), K. Takubo(3), Y. Kondo(3), S. Sugawa(1)
(1) Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan;
(2) Link Research, Odawara, Japan;
(3) Shimadzu, Kyoto, Japan

A 0.7e- rms Temporal-Readout-Noise CMOS Image Sensor for Low-Light-Level Imaging
Y. Chen(1), Y. Xu(1), Y. Chae(1), A. Mierop(2), X. Wang(3), A. Theuwissen(1,4)
(1) Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands
(2) Teledyne DALSA Semiconductors, Eindhoven, The Netherlands
(3) CMOSIS NV, Antwerp, Belgium;
(4) Harvest Imaging, Bree, Belgium

A 256×256 CMOS Image Sensor With ΔΣ-Based Single-Shot Compressed Sensing
Y. Oike(1,2), A. El Gamal(1);
(1) Stanford University, Stanford, CA;
(2) Sony, Atsugi, Japan

A 33Mpixel 120fps CMOS Image Sensor Using 12b Column-Parallel Pipelined Cyclic ADCs
T. Watabe(1), K. Kitamura(1), T. Sawamoto(2), T. Kosugi(3), T. Akahori(3), T. Iida(3), K. Isobe(3), T. Watanabe(3), H. Shimamoto(1), H. Ohtake(1), S. Aoyama(3), S. Kawahito(2,3), N. Egami(1)
(1) NHK Science & Technology Research Laboratories, Tokyo, Japan
(2) Shizuoka University, Hamamatsu, Japan;
(3) Brookman Technology, Hamamatsu, Japan

A 14b Extended Counting ADC Implemented in a 24MPixel APS-C CMOS Image Sensor
J-H. Kim, W-K. Jung, S-H. Lim, Y-J. Park, W-H. Choi, Y-J. Kim, C-E. Kang, J-H. Shin, K-J. Choo, W-B. Lee, J-K. Heo, B-J. Kim, S-J. Kim, M-H. Kwon, K-S. Yoo, J-H. Seo, S-H. Ham, C-Y. Choi, G-S. Han
Samsung Electronics, Yongin, Korea

A 1.5Mpixel RGBZ CMOS Image Sensor for Simultaneous Color and Range Image Capture
W. Kim(1), W. Yibing(2), I. Ovsiannikov(2), S. Lee(1), Y. Park(1), C. Chung(1), E. Fossum(1,2)
(1) Samsung Electronics, Hwasung, Korea;
(2) Samsung Semiconductor, Pasadena, CA

A QVGA-Range Image Sensor Based on Buried-Channel Demodulator Pixels in 0.18μm CMOS With Extended Dynamic Range
L. Pancheri, N. Massari, M. Perenzoni, M. Malfatti, D. Stoppa
Fondazione Bruno Kessler, Trento, Italy

A 1920×1080 3.65μm-Pixel 2D/3D Image Sensor With Split and Binning Pixel Structure in 0.11μm Standard CMOS
S-J. Kim, B. Kang, J. Kim, K. Lee, C-Y. Kim, Kinam Kim
Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology, Yongin, Korea

Update: As AT wrote in comments, Session 15 on mm-Wave and THz Techiques has a couple of imaging papers:

A 1kPixel CMOS Camera Chip for 25fps Real-Time Terahertz Imaging Applications
H. Sherry(1,2,3), J. Grzyb(2), Y. Zhao(2), R. Al Hadi(2), A. Cathelin(1), A. Kaiser(3), U. Pfeiffer(2)
(1) STMicroelectronics, Crolles, France;
(2) University of Wuppertal, Wuppertal, Germany
(3) IEMN / ISEN, Lille, France

280GHz and 860GHz Image Sensors Using Schottky-Barrier Diodes in 0.13μm Digital CMOS
R. Han(1,2), Y. Zhang(3), Y. Kim(3), D. Kim(3), H. Shichijo(3), E. Afshari(2), K. O(3)
(1) University of Florida, Gainesville, FL;
(2) Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
(3) University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, TX

Session 18 "Innovative Techniques in Emerging Technologies" has a paper:

Towards Ultra-Dense Arrays of VHF NEMS With FDSOI-CMOS Active Pixels for Sensing Applications
G. Arndt, C. Dupré, J. Arcamone, G. Cibrario, O. Rozeau, L. Duraffourg, E. Ollier, E. Colinet
CEA-LETI-MINATEC, Grenoble, France

Forum F4 on Computational Imaging has interesting presentations as well:

Overview of Computational Photography and Imaging
Shinsaku Hiura,
Hiroshima City University, Hiroshima, Japan

Interest Point and Local Descriptor Generation in Silicon
Graham Kirsch, Aptina UK, Berkshire, United Kingdom

Face Detection in Embedded Systems
Petronel Bigioi,
DigitalOptics, San Jose, CA

Light Field Imaging with Regular Arrays of Inexpensive Cameras (RayCam)
Kartik Venkataraman,
Pelican Imaging, Mountain View, CA

Super-Resolution by Multiple Shots: From Myths to Methods
Lucas van Vliet,
Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands

Image and Depth from a Conventional Camera with a Coded Aperture
Bill Freeman,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA

Is Compressed Sensing Relevant to Image Sensors?
Abbas El Gamal,
Stanford University, Stanford, CA

Processing Device Prospectives for Computational Imaging Applications
Yuki Kobayashi,
Renesas Electronics, Kanagawa, Japan

Grass Valley on ToF Challenges

2011-11-22T17:27:00.000+02:00

~~Thomson~~ Grass Valley Chief Scientist of Imaging Peter Centen talked about the ToF cameras research research funded by European 2020 3D Media project. The presentation appears to be a joint work of Grass Valley, Viimagic and TowerJazz:

Time of flight, the 4th dimension in imaging
Juul v.d Heijkant(1), Jeroen Rotte(1), Klaas Jan Damstra(1), Assaf Lahav(2), Adi Birman(2), Steffen Lehr(3), Sabine Roth(3), Ruud van Ree(1)
1) R&D Cameras Grass Valley, Breda, the Netherlands
2) TowerJazz, Haifa, Israel
3) Viimagic, Villingen, Germany

The presented ToF camera is more a work in progress, showing what can be achieved with a simple 5T-like structure based on pinned PD.

Adimec Presentation on 3D in Machine Vision

2011-11-21T15:39:00.001+02:00

Adimec's Chief Scientist, Jochem Herrmann, presented "3D in Machine Vision – both Hype and Reality" talk at Vision Trade Fair in Stuttgart, Germany on November 8, 2011. The presentation overviews the main approaches to 3D vision system implementation and also talks about the 3D applications in machine vision. The last part of the presentation touches the requirements to cameras for 3D machine vision systems.

Thanks to GA for sending me the link!

Chipworks: Omnivision 8MP Sensor in Motorola Phones

2011-11-21T08:50:00.001+02:00

Chipworks' Motorola Razor smartphone teardown revealed Omnivision OV2B3BA 8 MP, 1.4um pixel BSI sensor. This is the same CIS as was also found in another high-end smart phone from Motorola: the Droid Bionic XT875.

Chipworks also published a complete reverse engineering report on Sony IMX-145 sensor found in iPhone 4S. The sensor is 8MP, 1.4um BSI pixel.