Imec published Vimeo video on its hyperspectral sensors capabilities:
Thanks to JB for the link!
Tuesday, February 12, 2013
Saturday, February 09, 2013
Crowdsourcing IR Camera Project
While this is slightly off-topic for this blog, I've been following Muoptics effort at Indiegogo to collect funds for an affordable IR camera project. As far as I know, this is the first attempt to crowdsource a camera company. So far, the project has been able to collect a little over $6.5K in a week since it has started. Looks too slow to reach their $200K target till March 10th. Below is Vimeo video describing the idea:
PR.com: CTO, Charles McGrath states that, "we can get the retail price of the Mμ Thermal Imager down to $325 initially and with enough orders from the big box retailer we think we may even cut that price considerably. Another goal is to double the resolution within a year."
PR.com: CTO, Charles McGrath states that, "we can get the retail price of the Mμ Thermal Imager down to $325 initially and with enough orders from the big box retailer we think we may even cut that price considerably. Another goal is to double the resolution within a year."
Friday, February 08, 2013
Tessera DOC Gets New President
Business Wire: Tessera announces that John S. Thode has been appointed president of DigitalOptics Corporation (DOC). Thode will report to Robert A. Young, president and CEO of Tessera.
"DOC has a unique and differentiated MEMS approach to smartphone camera modules that I believe has the potential to revolutionize mobile imaging," said Thode. "I look forward to working with the team to deliver MEMS autofocus camera modules to market and to build on DOC’s emerging role in this exciting space."
Thode, 55, was most recently EVP and GM at McAfee. Before that, Thode was GM of Dell’s Mobility Products Group where he was responsible for leading the strategy and development of Dell’s nontraditional products, including smartphones and tablets. Prior to Dell, Thode was president and CEO at ISCO, a telecom infrastructure company. Thode also spent 25 years with Motorola in various management roles, including GM of its UMTS Handset Products and Personal Communications Sector and GM of its Wireless Access Systems Division in its General Telecoms Systems Sector.
Business Wire: Tessera announces Q4 and 2012 earnings. In Q4 DOC revenue was $10.2M, compared to $7.7M a year ago. The increase was due primarily to sales of fixed focus camera modules of $3.8M that occurred in 2012 but did not occur in 2011, which was partly offset by lower revenues from the company’s image enhancement technologies and weaker demand for the company’s Micro-Optics products.
Fore the full year 2012, DOC revenue was $41.1M.
Thanks to SF for the links!
"DOC has a unique and differentiated MEMS approach to smartphone camera modules that I believe has the potential to revolutionize mobile imaging," said Thode. "I look forward to working with the team to deliver MEMS autofocus camera modules to market and to build on DOC’s emerging role in this exciting space."
Thode, 55, was most recently EVP and GM at McAfee. Before that, Thode was GM of Dell’s Mobility Products Group where he was responsible for leading the strategy and development of Dell’s nontraditional products, including smartphones and tablets. Prior to Dell, Thode was president and CEO at ISCO, a telecom infrastructure company. Thode also spent 25 years with Motorola in various management roles, including GM of its UMTS Handset Products and Personal Communications Sector and GM of its Wireless Access Systems Division in its General Telecoms Systems Sector.
Business Wire: Tessera announces Q4 and 2012 earnings. In Q4 DOC revenue was $10.2M, compared to $7.7M a year ago. The increase was due primarily to sales of fixed focus camera modules of $3.8M that occurred in 2012 but did not occur in 2011, which was partly offset by lower revenues from the company’s image enhancement technologies and weaker demand for the company’s Micro-Optics products.
Fore the full year 2012, DOC revenue was $41.1M.
Thanks to SF for the links!
Eric Fossum Elected to The National Academy of Engineering
Dartmouth reports that its Professor of Engineering Eric Fossum has been elected to The National Academy of Engineering (NAE)—a part of the National Academies, which includes the NAE, the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), the Institute of Medicine (IOM), and the National Research Council (NRC). The NAE cites Fossum’s principal engineering accomplishment to be "inventing and developing the CMOS active-pixel image sensor and camera-on-a-chip."
"It is truly an honor to be recognized at this level by my fellow engineers," says Fossum. "I am regularly astonished by the many ways the technology impacts people’s lives here on Earth through products that we didn’t even imagine when it was first invented for NASA. I look forward to continuing to teach and work with the students and faculty at Dartmouth to explore the next generation of image-capturing devices."
Fossum has published more than 250 technical papers and holds over 140 U.S. patents. He is a Fellow member of the IEEE and a Charter Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors. He has received the IBM Faculty Development Award, the National Science Foundation Presidential Young Investigator Award, and the JPL Lew Allen Award for Excellence.
"This is the highest honor the engineering community bestows," says Thayer School Dean Joseph Helble, "It recognizes Eric’s seminal contributions as an engineer, technology developer, and entrepreneur. His work has enabled microscale imaging in areas that were unimaginable even a few decades ago, and has led directly to the cellphone and smartphone cameras that are taken for granted. We are honored to have someone of his caliber to oversee our groundbreaking Ph.D. Innovation Program."
Congratulations, Eric!
"It is truly an honor to be recognized at this level by my fellow engineers," says Fossum. "I am regularly astonished by the many ways the technology impacts people’s lives here on Earth through products that we didn’t even imagine when it was first invented for NASA. I look forward to continuing to teach and work with the students and faculty at Dartmouth to explore the next generation of image-capturing devices."
Fossum has published more than 250 technical papers and holds over 140 U.S. patents. He is a Fellow member of the IEEE and a Charter Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors. He has received the IBM Faculty Development Award, the National Science Foundation Presidential Young Investigator Award, and the JPL Lew Allen Award for Excellence.
"This is the highest honor the engineering community bestows," says Thayer School Dean Joseph Helble, "It recognizes Eric’s seminal contributions as an engineer, technology developer, and entrepreneur. His work has enabled microscale imaging in areas that were unimaginable even a few decades ago, and has led directly to the cellphone and smartphone cameras that are taken for granted. We are honored to have someone of his caliber to oversee our groundbreaking Ph.D. Innovation Program."
Congratulations, Eric!
CNBC: Sony to Focus on Image Sensors
Mykola Golovko, global consumer electronics industry analyst at Euromonitor International, expects Sony to move its main focus to image sensors in his interview to CNBC. Currently, 80% of Sony sensor volumes go to mobile phones, but most of the money is generated from DSLR sensor sales, Golovko says. One of the Sony challenges is to improve profits in its high volume mobile applications, Golovko says at the end of the interview (Adobe Flash player required):
Himax Reports Q4 2012 Results
Himax CEO, Jordan Wu, talks about the state of image sensor business in Q4, 2012 and beyond:
"Our CMOS image sensors delivered a phenomenal growth during the fourth quarter of 2012, mainly due to numerous design-wins in smartphone, tablet, laptop and surveillance applications. We currently offer mainstream and entry-level sensor products with pixel counts of up to 5 mega and are on track to release a new 8 mega pixel product soon. However, the Q1 prospect for CMOS image sensor looks gloomy as China market is going through correction and many of the customers adopting our new sensor products are still finishing up their product tuning.
Notwithstanding the short-term downturn, we do expect the sales of this product line to surge in 2013, boosted by shipments of our new products, many of which were only launched in the second half of last year. We also expect to break into new and leading smartphone brands and further penetrate the tablet, IP Cam, surveillance and automotive application markets."
"Our CMOS image sensors delivered a phenomenal growth during the fourth quarter of 2012, mainly due to numerous design-wins in smartphone, tablet, laptop and surveillance applications. We currently offer mainstream and entry-level sensor products with pixel counts of up to 5 mega and are on track to release a new 8 mega pixel product soon. However, the Q1 prospect for CMOS image sensor looks gloomy as China market is going through correction and many of the customers adopting our new sensor products are still finishing up their product tuning.
Notwithstanding the short-term downturn, we do expect the sales of this product line to surge in 2013, boosted by shipments of our new products, many of which were only launched in the second half of last year. We also expect to break into new and leading smartphone brands and further penetrate the tablet, IP Cam, surveillance and automotive application markets."
Omnivision and Aptina Sensors Inside Blackberry Z10
Chipworks: The Z10 smartphone that is supposed to begin Blackberry comeback, relies on Aptina's secondary front sensor and Omnivision's OV8830 BSI-2 primary sensor.
The primary camera ISP is Fujitsu Milbeaut MB80645C, typically used in DSCs.
The primary camera ISP is Fujitsu Milbeaut MB80645C, typically used in DSCs.
Thursday, February 07, 2013
SMIC CIS Sales Reach 5% to 7.5% of Revenue in 2012
Seeking Alpha published SMIC Q4 2012 earnings call transcript. The company's CEO, TY Chiu, says:
"The first fab [BSI] chip demonstrated good image quality, the complete BSI process technology is targeted to contribute revenue in 2014. This will serve the market for higher resolution of phone cameras and high performance video cameras."
"Indeed I think the CIS already is a significant portion of our revenue. The CIS, so after – at last year, it is near to between 5% to 7.5% of our revenue coming from the CIS, okay. And BSI, we expect that definitely will enlarge our access to this market. We believe that by fairly 2014, we should have a reasonable amount of our CIS that comes with BSI technology."
The reported annual revenue is $1.7B, thus CIS sales are about $100M. Image sensors are named as one of the main areas that contributed to 2012 revenue growth.
"The first fab [BSI] chip demonstrated good image quality, the complete BSI process technology is targeted to contribute revenue in 2014. This will serve the market for higher resolution of phone cameras and high performance video cameras."
"Indeed I think the CIS already is a significant portion of our revenue. The CIS, so after – at last year, it is near to between 5% to 7.5% of our revenue coming from the CIS, okay. And BSI, we expect that definitely will enlarge our access to this market. We believe that by fairly 2014, we should have a reasonable amount of our CIS that comes with BSI technology."
The reported annual revenue is $1.7B, thus CIS sales are about $100M. Image sensors are named as one of the main areas that contributed to 2012 revenue growth.
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