GHz Imagers in Cellphones

As soon as ISSCC 2012 papers have been published on IEEE site, newspapers get excited about THz imagers presented there.

PopSci, Engadget and many others talk about work by Kenneth O, professor of EE at UT Dallas and director of the Texas Analog Center of Excellence(TxACE) at University of Texas at Dallas. "We’ve created approaches that open a previously untapped portion of the electromagnetic spectrum for consumer use and life-saving medical applications," said Dr. Kenneth O.

"CMOS is affordable and can be used to make lots of chips," Dr. O said. "The combination of CMOS and terahertz means you could put this chip and receiver on the back of a cellphone, turning it into a device carried in your pocket that can see through objects." Due to privacy concerns, Dr. O and his team are focused on uses in the distance range of less than four inches.

Meanwhile IEEE Spectrum talks about the THz camera designed by a team from IEMN and STMicroelectronics, in France, and the University of Wuppertal, in Germany.This camera has a resolution of 1024 pixels, frame rate 25fps and can operate out of USB power.

Photonis Announced 1.3MP 9.7um Pixel Sensor

Photonis announces Lynx CMOS sensor, a 9.7um pixel, 1.3MP low-light image sensor designed man-portable systems and unmanned remote posts where 24/7 CCTV image availability is required.

The Lynx read noise is said to be below 4e- at rates up to its full 100 fps with a power consumption under 200mW. The full well is >25Ke- with image lage <0.1%. The output resolution is said to be 10b at 60fps and "digital output" at 100fps.

Goossen Boers, CEO of PHOTONIS, commented, "The ground-breaking Lynx CMOS digital sensor is a pure product of our Night Vision expertise. It differentiates itself from other sensors in the market by the perfect combination of large pixels collecting the maximum amount of photons, low noise, low power consumption, very high sensitivity and extended wavelength range. The new sensor reinforces our continued commitment to the low light imaging market as well as to our innovation and new product development."

Here is some data from Lynx datasheet to support the claims (judge by yourselves):

ST Proposes Metal Optical Shields Between Colors

STMicro patent application US20120086091 proposes to place metal shields 23 between color filters in BSI pixel array:

"...a disadvantage of [BSI] sensors is that they are particularly prone to color mixing phenomena between neighboring color filters. In particular, a light ray may cross two adjacent filters 15 of different colors before reaching a photosensitive area 9. A light ray may also be essentially filtered by a filter 15 of a first color, and reach the photosensitive area 9 of a neighboring pixel, associated with another color. Such phenomena are currently called “optical crosstalk” and adversely affect the quality of the images acquired by the sensor. They especially occur when light rays reach filters 15 with poorly adapted angles of incidence, for example, in case of a poor alignment of microlenses 17, or in case of parasitic reflections in the sensor. Such phenomena are particularly strong in the peripheral regions of the sensor, in which the pixels are illuminated by light rays having relatively high angles of incidence, which may exceed 30°."

"Walls 23 enable to prevent any direct passing of light between adjacent filtering elements. Walls 23 extend approximately along the entire height, for example, along at least 90% of the height of the filtering layer, and are preferably made of aluminum, of tungsten."

EuroCIS Platform for European CMOS Imagers

Imec: "The main goal of [EuroCIS] project is the creation of a European supply chain for state-of-the art CMOS imagers. As identified by both ESA and the EC, there is a need for such a supply chain for CMOS imagers for space applications which uses solely European (and hence ITAR-free) sources. This goal will be realized using the proposed consortium as all partners have excellent know-how and track record in the expertise fields required."

The EuroCIS program has started in Nov. 2011 with a budget of 2,840M 2.84M euro, and is scheduled for 36 months. The program members are Imec (Belgium, sensor design), Selex Galileo (Italy, definition and characterization), Exico (France, BSI laser annealing), TNO (Holland, optical film coating).

EuroCIS Gantt (Click to enlarge)

Caeleste IS2012 Presentation On-Line

Caeleste published its presentation on Image Sensors 2012 Conference in London, UK. The title is "Color X-ray photon counting image sensor":

Sharp Announces 20MP CCD with 1.2um Pixels

Tech-On: Sharp announces what its calls the highest resolution 1/2.3-inch CCD featuring 20.15MP resolution and 1.2um pixel pitch. The new RJ23G3BA0LT packs 20% more pixels than the previous generation 16MP CCD in the same optical format and it targets DSC market.

The reported sensitivity in Green is 105mV (typ), measured at 1000 lux with F4, 90% transmitting lens at 1/30s exposure. The sensitivity is said to be improved by unique technology using light focusing. The saturation level is 400mV (min). Smear is -86dB (typ). The sensor supports 720p30 video mode.

The CCD is sampling starting from April 26, 2012. Mass production will start in August 2012 at a rate of 200,000 units per month.

Red Announces 6K 120fps Sensor with 15+ Stops DR

Reduser.net, Slashgear, Engadget: A year ago Red announced an oncoming sensor upgrade for its EPIC and Scarlet cameras. However, Red was reluctant to release any details about the new sensor, named Dragon. This year the details an the timing of the Red Dragon have been released:

The sensor's speed is 85fps at full 6K resolution, or 120fps at 5K resolution. The new sensor features 5um pixels and 30 mm x 15.8 mm optical array size. Red says that the native DR of Dragon sensor is greater than 15 stops.

Vimeo video shows Red's excitement over the new sensor introduction:

Aptina Adapts Syntricity Yield Management

Business Wire: Aptina installs an integrated yield management system, delivered through Syntricity’s Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) offering, dataConductor.com. Accessed through a web browser, dataConductor provides a reliable, secure, and scalable enterprise yield management system, with automated connections to Aptina’s global supply chain of wafer foundries, assembly houses, and test facilities.

"After evaluating yield management system solutions, Syntricity’s dataConductor stood out for its scalability and advanced analysis capabilities," said Ed Jenkins, Director of Product and Test Engineering at Aptina. "Continuously looking to improve our systems, we looked to Syntricity’s success in managing large, hosted data warehouses as a key factor in our decision to partner with them. Syntricity’s hosted database and dataConductor.com tool set will give us ready worldwide access to our supplier data without adding further capital and resources to our current internal IT infrastructure."

Toshiba Pixel Performance

New Toshiba catalog dated by Feb. 2012 shows an interesting pixel performance table:

Panasonic Talks about Micro-Machined Pixels, Samsung Announces YSNR10 Data

Panasonic published Digital Camera System Solution Guide 2012 describing its products for digital still camera applications. The 17.78MP 2.8um-pixel MN34070 sensor is said to feature "Micromachined cell technology" delivering "high resolution performance". I'm not sure what the micro-machining means , especially since Chipworks reverse engineering report does not mention anything unusual about its pixel structure.

Panasonic Semiconductor Selection Guide 2012 shows a next generation of 1/2.33-inch 1.43um-pixel MN34110 sensor, the MN34120, featuring 1.335um pixels. The new sensor is marked as "under development", no parameters are shown.

Samsung published YSNR10 data for its 1.4um-generation BSI sensors. 8MP S5K3H7 YSNR10 is stated at 82 lux. The smaller HD video S5K8AA sensor based on the same pixels shows YSNR of 86 lux.