Business Wire: Ambarella announced the A7 IP Camera SoC capable to deliver 1080p60 H.264 video for surveillance market. The A7 integrates an image sensor pipeline with up to 500 MHz pixel capture rate (equivalent to 8MP at 60fps) with a multi-streaming 1080p60 H.264 encoder and power consumption below 1.5 Watts.
The A7 supports 3D motion compensated noise reduction with no motion smearing and ghosting artifacts that are commonly associated with motion adaptive 3D filtering and digital WDR.
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Digitimes: Himax Imaging Got Design Wins in Dell Notebooks, Huawei and ZTE Phones
Digitimes: Himax Imaging reportedly has landed image sensor for Dell notebooks, and has also cut into the supply chain of China handset brands including Huawei and ZTE, according to market rumors.
Digitimes also writes that CMOS image sensors are currently in tight supply as foundries are unable to spare sufficient capacity at their 8-inch fabs, according to the newspaper's sources.
Digitimes also writes that CMOS image sensors are currently in tight supply as foundries are unable to spare sufficient capacity at their 8-inch fabs, according to the newspaper's sources.
Canon Developing "Ultra-High Pixel Density" Sensors
Canon business report for 2010 says: "we produced steady results, including the development of CMOS sensors with an ultra-high pixel density capable of capturing details invisible to the naked eye. We showcased some of our achievements at “Canon EXPO” events held in New York, Paris, and Tokyo from September through November, where we also introduced our future vision with our imaging technology and products. Many who attended these events expressed praise and high expectations for that vision."
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Omnivision Proposes Contact Dummy Pixel
Omnivision's recent patent application US20110068429 talks about providing the contact to the backside of BSI pixel array. Ideally, these contacts could be placed inside each pixel in the array. For small pixels this requires hard trade-offs in the pixel layout. Hence Omnivision proposes to sacrifice a small number of pixels for dummies having backside contacts like this:
The application talks about devoting one pixel in thousand to such a backside contact (one in each 32 x 32 block, or, may be, pseudo-random). The application says that "already established and applied methods of averaging out white or dead pixels in any CIS device will also remove the impact of the contact-dummy pixels from the final image. Therefore the final image will not significantly be altered by contact dummy pixels."
The application talks about devoting one pixel in thousand to such a backside contact (one in each 32 x 32 block, or, may be, pseudo-random). The application says that "already established and applied methods of averaging out white or dead pixels in any CIS device will also remove the impact of the contact-dummy pixels from the final image. Therefore the final image will not significantly be altered by contact dummy pixels."
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Tessera Names Imaging and Optics President
Business Wire: Tessera has named Bob Roohparvar as its new president of Imaging & Optics. Roohparvar joins Tessera from Flextronics, which he joined in 2006 as president of FlexPower and president and CEO of Vista Point Technology. Prior to Flextronics, he served as vice president and general manager for Broadcom. He has also held management positions at Fairchild Semiconductor and Xicor.
Roohparvar is an associate professor of Computer Engineering at California State University, East Bay. He holds B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from Iowa State University, and is the inventor of multiple patents relating to semiconductor technology.
Roohparvar is an associate professor of Computer Engineering at California State University, East Bay. He holds B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from Iowa State University, and is the inventor of multiple patents relating to semiconductor technology.
Yole on BSI vs. FSI Market Trends
CNET article overviews Yole Developpement analyst Jerome Baron's presentation on BSI vs FSI trends at ISE 2011. Yole predicts that BSI market domination is near:
Saturday, March 26, 2011
ISE 2011: 5-Star Rating System for Phone Cameras
CNET: I3A President Lisa Walker presented a new 5-star rating system for phone cameras at ISE 2011. The system is meant to give a more objective measure for cameras quality.
"The test combines a host of technical measurements--detail, sharpness, chromatic aberration, lens distortion, and more--then links that analysis with subjective human assessments to ensure the measurements really are relevant. A detailed formula boils the various factors down into a single rating.
The ratings likely will come with a matrix that shares a bit more detail about the camera performance for those who want more than a handful of stars. The matrix as presently designed shows a variety of shooting styles--action, landscape, portrait, macro--fare when photos are presented on small or large prints or shown on mobile phones or TVs:"
"The test combines a host of technical measurements--detail, sharpness, chromatic aberration, lens distortion, and more--then links that analysis with subjective human assessments to ensure the measurements really are relevant. A detailed formula boils the various factors down into a single rating.
The ratings likely will come with a matrix that shares a bit more detail about the camera performance for those who want more than a handful of stars. The matrix as presently designed shows a variety of shooting styles--action, landscape, portrait, macro--fare when photos are presented on small or large prints or shown on mobile phones or TVs:"
Friday, March 25, 2011
Albert Theuwissen Continues ISE 2011 Coverage
The latest post covers:
Stephane Laveau (DxO) "Colour shading : root causes and review of solutions"
Yang Ni (New Imaging Technologies) "MAGIC : Logarithmic Image Sensing using photodiode in solar cell mode"
Sandro Tedde (Siemens) "Organic and hybrid photodiodes for active matrix imaging"
Renato Turchetta (Rutherford Labs) "Large area CMOS image sensors for X-ray and charged particle detection"
Stephane Laveau (DxO) "Colour shading : root causes and review of solutions"
Yang Ni (New Imaging Technologies) "MAGIC : Logarithmic Image Sensing using photodiode in solar cell mode"
Sandro Tedde (Siemens) "Organic and hybrid photodiodes for active matrix imaging"
Renato Turchetta (Rutherford Labs) "Large area CMOS image sensors for X-ray and charged particle detection"
Aptina's APS-C Sensor Among 2011 Golden Mousetrap Finalists
Design News announced 2011 Golden Mousetrap Finalists. Aptina's APS-C 16MP MT9H004 is the only image sensor among them.
The MT9H004 delivers 16MP images at 10fps, live-view video support and 1080p/30fps HD video recording. A 5dB increase in SNR is achievable under low-light conditions through the addition of a pixel-level, dual-conversion gain (DCG) switch. In high-light environments it can achieve a 47dB max SNR. The DCG switch controls the switching on and off of a capacitor connected to the FD node.
The MT9H004 delivers 16MP images at 10fps, live-view video support and 1080p/30fps HD video recording. A 5dB increase in SNR is achievable under low-light conditions through the addition of a pixel-level, dual-conversion gain (DCG) switch. In high-light environments it can achieve a 47dB max SNR. The DCG switch controls the switching on and off of a capacitor connected to the FD node.
Pixelplus Reports Q4 2010 Results
PR Newswire: Pixelplus announced unaudited financial results for Q4 2010. The revenue for the quarter was 7.5 billion Korean won (US$6.6 million), compared to 7.0 billion Korean won (US$6.1 million) in Q3 2010, and 6.0 billion Korean won (US$5.3 million) in Q4 2009.
Net income in Q4 2010 was 0.9 billion Korean won (US$0.8 million), compared to a net income of 1.6 billion Korean won (US$1.4 million) in Q3 2010, and a net income of 2.0 billion Korean won (US$1.8 million) in Q4 2009. Gross margin for Q4 2010 was 34.7%, compared to 40.5% in Q3 2010. The Company's lower-than-expected gross margin was mainly due to decrease in the average selling price of its image sensor sold in the fourth quarter.
"We remain fully committed to achieving our long-term growth targets and business strategies through developing new products, penetrating new markets, and securing new design wins. ...the Company continues to vigorously pursue cost-control measures and effectively manage our operating expenses," said S.K. Lee, CEO and Founder of Pixelplus.
Net income in Q4 2010 was 0.9 billion Korean won (US$0.8 million), compared to a net income of 1.6 billion Korean won (US$1.4 million) in Q3 2010, and a net income of 2.0 billion Korean won (US$1.8 million) in Q4 2009. Gross margin for Q4 2010 was 34.7%, compared to 40.5% in Q3 2010. The Company's lower-than-expected gross margin was mainly due to decrease in the average selling price of its image sensor sold in the fourth quarter.
"We remain fully committed to achieving our long-term growth targets and business strategies through developing new products, penetrating new markets, and securing new design wins. ...the Company continues to vigorously pursue cost-control measures and effectively manage our operating expenses," said S.K. Lee, CEO and Founder of Pixelplus.
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