Aptina Announces 1.1um and 1.4um BSI Pixels

Business Wire: Aptina announced that it will be showing its new 1.1 and 1.4-micron backside BSI sensors at the 2011 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain. Invited guests will see a live demonstration of an 8MP 1/4” 1.1-micron BSI image sensor, and an 8MP 1/3.2” 1.4-micron BSI image sensor for mobile applications. “We strive for the perfect pixel,” said Gennadiy Agranov, Vice President of Imaging Technology. “Aptina A-Pix technology raised the bar for FSI performance, and now, A-Pix technology is advancing the performance of BSI solutions.”

Aptina expects its AR0833, 1/3.2" 1.4-micron 8MP BSI image sensor will be its first BSI product to sample starting in mid-2011. In the second half of 2011, Aptina expects to sample 1.1-micron BSI products including a 12MP 1/3.2” 1.1-micron image sensor, and an 8MP 1/4” 1.1-micron image sensor.

Aptina is currently working with its fabrication partner Micron Technology to support BSI production capacity by CYQ3 2011 in anticipation of ramping products to be manufactured for mobile, digital still and digital video camera applications.

Demand for BSI CMOS image sensors is expected to grow from 10% of cell phone main cameras in 2011 to 20% in 2013, according to TSR.

Business Wire: Other live demos at Barcelona exhibition include:

• 3D video and depth sensing using Aptina’s sensors and mobile-compatible camera module
• Advanced DSC-like capabilities using Aptina’s image co-processor for mobile applications
• Integrated AF module using a liquid crystal AF element

Here is a  VGA picture from 1.1um pixel sensor:

Captured with Aptina 8MP 1.1um BSI Development Product (Photo: Business Wire)

PTC Tutorial Notes

Peter.vdHamer.com blog published the notes on PTC noise tutorial by Albert Theuwissen. The notes present the main content of the tutorial in a very concise form.

Thanks to AT for sending me the link!

PerkinElmer Illumination and Detection Solutions Business is Now Excelitas Technologies Corp.

I missed this news from two months ago: On Nov 29, 2010 the former Illumination and Detection Solutions (IDS) business of PerkinElmer was formally re-launched as Excelitas Technologies Corp.

Now owned by private equity firm Veritas Capital, Excelitas Technologies has 3,000 employees, manufacturing operations in the U.S., Canada, Europe and Asia and projected 2010 revenues of over $300 million. The new company continues production of Reticon CCD line and other specialty imagers.

Thanks to DG for letting me know!

Kodak to Sell CMOS Sensor Business?

Rochester Democrat and Chronicle quotes Kodak CEO Antonio Perez telling Wall Street analysts on Feb. 3, 2011 meeting that this year Kodak will likely sell its CMOS image sensor business, which is based in Rochester.

I thought this business was shut down two years ago. Kodak's image sensor solutions website lists CMOS sensors as discontinued products. So, what Kodak is selling now? Patents?

The newspaper says that the company expects to make $300 million to $400 million selling some assets, such as the CMOS image sensor business. Perez said Kodak had been shopping it around for more than a year, but didn't want to sell in a down economy when it would command less. The improving economy makes selling both CMOS and some real estate assets potentially more lucrative, he said.

Kodak Rochester Employees

Pyxalis - New Image Sensor Company Established

As somebody mentioned in comments, there is a new image sensor company founded in August 2010 - Pyxalis. The company is located in Grenoble area, France. The company's core team came from Atmel/e2v:

The company is led by Philippe Rommeveaux, a former e2v Imaging Business Unit director (80 people, revenue 50M€). Pyxalis offers custom design services and has expertize in HDR sensors, smart sensors, pixels with global shutter, high-speed imaging with ADC resolution up to 14-bit, low-light and large sensors (up to 1 die per wafer).

Aptina Licenses DxO Lab's Digital Pixel Processing

AG sent me an interesting PR which does not appear anywhere, other than on this site. Here it is in full:

January 31, 2011 - DxO Labs today announces that it has entered into a licensing agreement with Aptina Imaging Corporation to integrate its DxO Digital Pixel Processing (DxO DPP) technology into high-end CMOS imaging products for Aptina.

"We are very excited to team up with CMOS image sensor leader Aptina," said Jérôme Ménière, CEO of DxO Labs. "Our DxO DPP technology research scientists have developed a ground-breaking solution that can significantly improve the image quality of miniaturized cameras while reducing manufacturing costs."

"We are very pleased to partner with DxO Labs, a very innovative and leading imaging company," said Farshid Sabet, Vice President and General Manager of Aptina's Mobile, PC and Gaming Business Unit. "This technology will provide our customers two key benefits: first, DxO's DPP technology clearly provides improved overall image quality, and secondly, the technology reduces system complexity, increases overall product quality, and enables rapid integration."

About DxO DPP

Color shading and green imbalance are system-level issues that occur when the camera is miniaturized by using 1.75µ pixels and smaller. The color light rays are much more spread out as they pass through the lens and infrared filter and then onto to sensor. The problem is made more complex due to a high variability of conditions, including numerous different kinds and intensities of light sources, the colors in the scene, and the unit dependency.

All these root causes and variations make this a very complex problem to solve. Current correction methods are based on costly calibrations on the production line for a limited number of predetermined situations. They introduce failures in most indoor real-life situations, even with high-end smart phones using backside illumination (BSI) sensors.

DxO Labs engineers have succeeded in developing an advanced technology that provides the color uniformity that end-users expect, regardless of the sensor size, the light source, the scene, and the unit. DxO DPP estimates color lens shading and green imbalance maps on the fly from the stream of images before correcting RAW data for color non-uniformity and high-frequency structured noise.

Using DxO DPP technology, digital camera and camera phone OEMs can:

• Differentiate their image quality compared to current per-unit calibration-based methods;
• Market thinner devices by relaxing constraints on lenses;
• Reduce system costs thanks to easier camera manufacturing;
• Shorten time-to-market through simplified integration and tuning.

DxO DPP solution is available in two versions:

• A hardware version delivered as a soft RTL IP that can be integrated either in a CMOS sensor die or in a processor chip.
• A software version delivered as a library running on any ARM core or embedded processor.

Update: Quality Magazine and I-Micronews published the PR.

Update #2: The official PR is published at PRLog site.

Microsoft Kinect Sales

GigaOm, NY Times: "Kinect is the fastest-selling consumer electronics device in history... Kinect exceeded all expectations with 8 million stand-alone and bundled sensors sold in just 60 days," said Peter Klein, Microsoft CFO in the quarterly results conference call (SeekingAlpha). Citibank Research estimates that Microsoft will ship about 19.2 million Kinect controllers over next 18 months.

JDSU supplies two components for Kinect: a laser diode, apparently with maximum power of 500mW and an IR pass filter for the sensor. The two component's price is about $4 per Kinect controller, according to estimates from Mark Sue, analyst with RBC Capital Markets.

OptoIQ published a popular comparison of 3D vision approaches for gesture recognition. Not much new there, other than various people sayings about the gesture recognition market.

Sinclair Vass, senior director of marketing and operations at JDSU, said: “Both coded light and time-of-flight are viable, and most likely will coexist. Gaming is a good strong commercial market, but pretty small relative to other places where this could be used, such as the living room.”

Panasonic Lumix GH2 DSLR Sensor

Chipworks reverse engineering revealed that 16.0MP Micro Four Thirds Panasonic Lumix GH2 DSLR manufactured uses MN34070 sensor, also manufactured by Panasonic. The sensor has 3.8um pixels and is able to deliver 1080p/24fps or 1080i/60fps video.

UV-Transparent Coating for Image Sensors

Nanowerk: CMOS devices are normally covered with a silicon nitride coating to protect from moisture and other impurities. The silicon nitride coating limits the range of optical applications because it is impermeable to UV light.

Scientists at the Fraunhofer Institute for Microelectronic Circuits and Systems IMS in Duisburg have found a solution to this problem: "We've developed a new process step," says Werner Brockherde, head of department at Fraunhofer IMS, "that allows us to produce a protective coating with the same properties but which is permeable to blue and UV light."

The trick is to increase the proportion of nitrogen in the coating by fine-tuning the deposition parameters such as pressure and temperature. "This reduces the absorption of shortwave light," explains Brockherde. "This makes CMOS image sensors suitable for use in wavelength ranges down to 200 nanometers," states Brockherde. "With standard passivation the limit was about 450 nanometers."

IISW 2011 Pre-Registration is Now Open

2011 International Image Sensor Workshop (IISW) pre-registration is now open. Thanks to EF for sending me the alert.

Update Feb 4, 2011: As EF wrote in comments, the pre-registration is now full. All the additional requests will be placed on a waiting list.