Digitimes: Tessera syas that the cost of Wafer-Level-Camera technology (WLC) is 30% lower than that of conventional camera technology. Though concrete cost difference figures are unavailable because customers have not yet moved into volume production, Tessera stressed that the ASP of WLC components will be lower than that of conventional solutions.
Regarding the resolution of Tessera's OptiML WLCs, Tessera executives said its technology allows for scaling to multi-megapixel resolutions. Tessera WLC licensing fees cover all packaging, component, equipment and testing aspects related to production. Royalty payments are made to Tessera after start of production.
Friday, June 13, 2008
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Tower Tells About Pixel Design
EDN published a nice aricle on evolution of pixel design from 3T to 4T to shared pixels and beyond. The article is written by Assaf Lahav and Amos Fenigstein, two pixel design experts from Tower Semicoductor foundry. It covers many aspects of pixel design and describes the logic behind pixel archtectural evolution, all in easy to read manner.
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Chipworks on Sony Sensors
Chipworks blog has an interesting post about Sony's latest pixel generation, also mentioning just announced BSI pixels.
The article shows a page from Sony's presentation claiming it leads the industry in 1.4um pixel mass production. The presentation says that Sony's 3MP 1.4um pixel SoC sensor is in mass production now.
The post discusses reverse engineered pixels from 3 Sony sensors, including IMX021 APS-C-sized 25MP DSLR sensor, shown below:
Update, Sep. 16, 2008: The presentation mentioned above is from Sony site, dated by Feb 2008. It claims that Sony holds 75% of 5MP and higher image sensor market. The slide from the presentation shows Sony plans and also 3MP SOC with 1.4um pixels.
The article shows a page from Sony's presentation claiming it leads the industry in 1.4um pixel mass production. The presentation says that Sony's 3MP 1.4um pixel SoC sensor is in mass production now.
The post discusses reverse engineered pixels from 3 Sony sensors, including IMX021 APS-C-sized 25MP DSLR sensor, shown below:
Update, Sep. 16, 2008: The presentation mentioned above is from Sony site, dated by Feb 2008. It claims that Sony holds 75% of 5MP and higher image sensor market. The slide from the presentation shows Sony plans and also 3MP SOC with 1.4um pixels.
Sony Announced 1.75um BSI Pixel
Sony announced development of 5MP backside illuminated sensor with 1.75um pixels. It's claimed to have nearly twice higher sensitivity and lower noise. The new sensor achieves SNR of +8dB(+6dB sensitivity, -2dB noise) in comparison to existing Sony CMOS image sensors of the same pixel size.
The BSI sensor retains 60fps speed that it achieved in its latest sensor's generation.
Compared to conventional front-illuminated structures, back-illuminated structures commonly causes problems such as noise, dark current, defective pixels and color mixture that lead to image degradation and also cause a decrease in the SNR. To overcome this Sony developed a new photo-diode structure and on-chip lens optimized for back-illuminated structures. Additionally, Sony's high-precision alignment have addressed color mixture problems.
The BSI sensor retains 60fps speed that it achieved in its latest sensor's generation.
Compared to conventional front-illuminated structures, back-illuminated structures commonly causes problems such as noise, dark current, defective pixels and color mixture that lead to image degradation and also cause a decrease in the SNR. To overcome this Sony developed a new photo-diode structure and on-chip lens optimized for back-illuminated structures. Additionally, Sony's high-precision alignment have addressed color mixture problems.
Omnivision Launches 3MP Sensor with MDDI Interface
Yahoo: Omnivision announced 1/4" 3MP sensor with Qualcomm's MDDI interface, designed to optimize partitioning with Qualcomm's chipsets. The new OV3647 uses 1.75um pixels and is capable of operating at up to 15fps in full resolution.
The OV3647 fits in 7 x 7 x 5 mm camera modules with a very short optical track, and thus is versatile enough to work well both with fixed focus and auto-focus modules. The OV3647's embedded, one time programmable (OTP) memory is designed for part recognition and simplification of module designs using different lenses.
Digitimes also reports that Omnivision vice president of sales Ray Cisneros has said digestion of CMOS image sensor inventory at customers is almost complete and demand from handset customers is also recovering. Cisneros said current inventory levels have resumed to a healthy level. Sales prospects for CMOS image sensors are anticipated to improve in the second half of 2008.
The OV3647 fits in 7 x 7 x 5 mm camera modules with a very short optical track, and thus is versatile enough to work well both with fixed focus and auto-focus modules. The OV3647's embedded, one time programmable (OTP) memory is designed for part recognition and simplification of module designs using different lenses.
Digitimes also reports that Omnivision vice president of sales Ray Cisneros has said digestion of CMOS image sensor inventory at customers is almost complete and demand from handset customers is also recovering. Cisneros said current inventory levels have resumed to a healthy level. Sales prospects for CMOS image sensors are anticipated to improve in the second half of 2008.
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Nextreme Thermal Bump Technology Adopted by Princeton Lightwave
EETAsia: Princeton Lightwave Inc. (PLI) and Nextreme Thermal Solutions Inc. have agreed to co-develop a SWIR focal plane sensor using Nextreme's thermoelectric cooling bumps. The two companies are working on integrating thin-film thermoelectric cooling bumps with InGaAs focal plane arrays to dramatically reduce power consumption and weight, and improve overall performance.
e2v Announces 80% QE CMOS Sensor Technology
e2v has developed a new, high QE (>80%), CMOS sensor technology. The new custom sensors generation also features a low-noise, full-frame global shuttering scheme.
This technology is particularly suited to performance-driven markets, such as surveillance, homeland security, Automotive Driver Active Safety (ADAS) applications, industrial machine vision including barcode reading, professional DSLRs and broadcast/cinematography cameras and deep UV inspection systems for the semiconductor industry.
Further improvements in signal to noise ratio in the global shutter architecture are planned for future standard products built on the high sensitivity platform.
This technology is particularly suited to performance-driven markets, such as surveillance, homeland security, Automotive Driver Active Safety (ADAS) applications, industrial machine vision including barcode reading, professional DSLRs and broadcast/cinematography cameras and deep UV inspection systems for the semiconductor industry.
Further improvements in signal to noise ratio in the global shutter architecture are planned for future standard products built on the high sensitivity platform.
Wednesday, June 04, 2008
Alps Announces 2.2mm Thick VGA Module
Video/Imaging Design Line: Alps announced industry’s smallest VGA camera module (5.0mm wide x 5.0mm deep x 2.2mm high) with F2.8 lens. Once wafer level camera modules reach the market, today's 2.2mm thickness would look quite a lot. But now Alps certainly has a reason to be proud of its achievement.
Aptina Licenses Scalado's SpeedTags Technology
Aptina announced that it will integrate Scalado SpeedTags technology into future mobile 3MP and above multi-megapixel SOC designs. Scalado technology assists in managing the larger files produced by the high resolution image sensor improving overall JPEG image handling performance within CPU restrictions of mobile phone. There is not that much known about SpeedTags. Probably it's a set of special hardware hooks to accelerate subroutines from Scalado CAPS imaging SDK.
About a year ago Omnivision made a similar announcement. So by now the two world's biggest CMOS sensor vendors support Scalado. The word is that Nokia, Samsung and Sony Ericsson develop camera phone applications using Scalado CAPS.
About a year ago Omnivision made a similar announcement. So by now the two world's biggest CMOS sensor vendors support Scalado. The word is that Nokia, Samsung and Sony Ericsson develop camera phone applications using Scalado CAPS.
Monday, June 02, 2008
Magnachip Plans Comeback
EETimes: Magnachip "is putting the finishing touches on its turnaround strategy", including "a major comeback in the CMOS image sensor business".
MagnaChip's CMOS image sensor sales were about $85M in 2007, which ranked them as the world's ninth largest supplier in the area, says Robert Lineback, an analyst with IC Insights Inc. "MagnaChip was well up in the top-5 in the rankings until a few years ago, but they stumbled in the mega-pixel class and above products," he said. "MagnaChip has seen some improvements from its weakening position in 2006, but it still faces stiff, growing competition from the likes of Sony and Samsung, along with OmniVision, which has regained its foothold and took back the top spot in CMOS image sensors in 2007," Lineback said.
As part of its comeback strategy, MagnaChip recently launched a 2.2um, 1/10-inch VGA CMOS image sensor for use in slim mobile phones. In about the same time its major competitors announce 1.4um pixel generation. I wonder how Magnachip can seriously talk about the comeback while being two generations behind the others?
MagnaChip's CMOS image sensor sales were about $85M in 2007, which ranked them as the world's ninth largest supplier in the area, says Robert Lineback, an analyst with IC Insights Inc. "MagnaChip was well up in the top-5 in the rankings until a few years ago, but they stumbled in the mega-pixel class and above products," he said. "MagnaChip has seen some improvements from its weakening position in 2006, but it still faces stiff, growing competition from the likes of Sony and Samsung, along with OmniVision, which has regained its foothold and took back the top spot in CMOS image sensors in 2007," Lineback said.
As part of its comeback strategy, MagnaChip recently launched a 2.2um, 1/10-inch VGA CMOS image sensor for use in slim mobile phones. In about the same time its major competitors announce 1.4um pixel generation. I wonder how Magnachip can seriously talk about the comeback while being two generations behind the others?
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