Caeleste and BrainVision Cooperate on ToF Technology

Brainvision Inc. (Tokyo, Japan) and Caeleste (Antwerp, Belgium) have materialized their licence agreement on the design of ToF image sensors based on Caeleste’s patent US7564022. The design collaboration started in December 2010. An image from the first VGA resolution sensor now succesfully demonstrated:

The key advantage of Caeleste patented technology is said to reside in the strict usage of standard, mainstream CMOS technology, leading to lowest possible manufacturing cost. Brainvision and Stanley Electric (Tokyo, Japan) aim to serve the high volume applications such as automotive market and machine vision with Caeleste technology.

Caeleste patent relies on depletion field modulation to implement a fast change of the pixel sensitivity:

Hynix Announces MIPI Sensors Lineup

Hynix announced a complete lineup of VGA to 5MP sensors having MIPI interface:

Samsung Patent Application Improves ToF Sensor Speed

Recently published Samsung patent application US20110198481 talks about speeding up a ToF imager based on in-phase/out-of-phase light pulses measurement. The sensor includes a detection portion and a transfer portion separating the signal between two floating diffusions:

The detection portion is a pinned photodiode, while the transfer part consists of photogate, transfer gates Tx1 and Tx2 and floating diffusions FD1 and FD2 separately accumulating in-phase and out-of-phase signals. The photodiode is made has few different doping areas to create a potential stairs and speed the charge transfer to the photogate:

Albert Theuwissen Starts "How to Measure?" Series

Albert Theuwissen started a new series of blog posts called "How to measure ...?". The first post in the series deals with image sensor dark current measurements. Different techniques and different ways to present the results are described.

Omnivision Quarterly Earnings Call

SeekingAlpha published Omnivision's quarterly earnings call transcript for the quarter ended on July 31, 2011. Some quotes:

Shaw Hong, CEO:

...we achieved record quarterly revenue of $276 million and we shipped over 170 million image sensors. ...On a rolling 12-month basis, I am pleased to report that OmniVision has topped the $1 billion market in total revenues.

...We believe there are many directions for strategic growth... This can lead to opportunities in the field of optic sensors, outside visible spectrum, image data processing, data interface chip, and the system solutions. ...we are leveraging the knowledge we acquired from the Kodak patent that we purchased several months ago. These patents ...greatly enhanced our ability to innovate beyond imaging sensors.

...we have a portfolio of more products based on OmniBSI-2. They will be continuously we released to the marketplace in the coming quarters.

Ray Cisneros, VP Worldwide Sales:

...units sales of sensors 2-megapixel and above represented approximately 37% of total shipments, the same percentage as the prior fiscal quarter. In this category of our BSI based 5-megapixel sensor product line continued to ship at record levels in to various markets and was dominated by the smartphone segment.

...unit sales of sensors that were VGA and below represented approximately 45% of total shipments.

Hasan Gadjali, VP Worldwide Marketing and Business Development:

...our OmniBSI-2 and newer OmniBSI products are also designing with the important 30 frame-per-second feature for camera sensors today. The 30 frame-per-second feature is now narrowing the performance gap between cell phone cameras and point-and-shoot digital still cameras. This is a major technical breakthrough.

The high dynamic range feature or HDR originally used in our automotive products to take pictures under extreme lighting condition is already finding its ways into smartphones ...Most OmniBSI-2 and newer OmniBSI products include this HDR capability.

Anson Chan, CFO:

Our fiscal 2012 first quarter gross margin was 31.7%, 1 percentage point higher than the 30.7% that we reported in our prior quarter.

...our BSI-2 devices ...Consistent with our past experience with advance devices, we anticipate less than optimal yields during this initial rollout and this may translate into a temporary reduction in margin.

...our outlook for the second quarter of fiscal 2012, which ends on October 31, 2011. We currently expect our 2012 second fiscal quarter revenues will be in the range of $255 million to $275 million [compared to 276M this quarter - ISW] This range primarily reflects the expansion of the development cycle with our 8-megapixel product line [Apple iPhone 5 miss? - ISW] as well as cautionary part due to macroeconomic uncertainties with various companies sale already discussed in their earnings calls.

After the disappointing outlook many question were obviously centered on it:

Daniel Amir Lazard Capital Markets:

...can you give a little more clarity on the guidance here I mean typically your quarter is up, you guided now. ...could give any clarification that would be helpful.

Ray Cisneros:

In term of the macroeconomics I think what everything that’s going on in the markets; we saw some unsettling in our numbers in front of us. So, in particular in some of the bigger segments such as the notebook and PC segments, those recent events definitely have some perturbations in the marketplace. So, we’re taking a cautionary approach when we look at that those kind of situations. And everything what’s happening in the economy globally is certainly we feel probably influencing some of the numbers.

Raji Gill, Needham & Company:

...this extension of the development of the product cycle on the 8-megapixel, which has to do with smartphones. Could you maybe elaborate what’s going on there? Has that resulted in share loss at some of your key accounts, any details there would be helpful?

Ray Cisneros:

Sure. ...I think the way to look at is when we launch a product, this 8-megapixel is not any different than all our other products that we attempt to launch. It’s quite intensive and extensive R&D and development. So that means, we plan on, I would say, a development lifecycle. And once we execute on that we go into mass production. So, what we see in our 8-megapixel plan is we have a plan and our plan is to hopefully hit at the tail end of this quarter as we mentioned when we can start delivering the 8-megapixel.

Seeking Alpha reports that as of August 25, 5:11PM ET, Omnivision shares plunge -30% in after hours trading following the weak guidance.

Sony Announces Fast CCD, HD Video Sensor and 1.12um BSI Sensors Family

Sony CX-News vol. 65 announces few new imagers: 1-inch 6MP CCD providing full HD video,1/2.8-inch 1080p/30 video CMOS sensor and smartphone-oriented 1.12um BSI sensors.

Industrial applications targeted ICX694 15.99mm-diagonal CCD has 6.09MP resolution and is based on 4.54um pixel. The ICX694's four outputs allow it to operate at 25fps speed at full resolution of 46fps in 1092-line cropping mode. So far diagonal 11 mm (Type 2/3) were the upper optical limit of Sony lineup of image sensors for industrial cameras. Sony used the same "EXviewHAD CCD II" pixels in 1-inch format to increase sensor's resolution while maintaining high IR sensitivity. The CCD is available in B&W and color versions.

The industrial-oriented 1/2.8-inch 2.43MP IMX122LQJ CMOS sensor uses 2.8um pixel arranged in a diagonal fashion. The sensor is said to have improved low light sensitivity by 6db and SNR by 8db as compared to the older Sony 1/3-inch sensors. The claim is supported by pictures (looks like zoom-able to full resolution in the pdf doc):

The 1.12um BSI family consists of 16.41MP/15fps IMX081PQ, 13.25MP/15fps IMX091PQ, and 8.17MP/22.5fps IMX111PQ imagers. Sony says it managed to increase the sensitivity of the new sensor, as measured per unit pixel by about 1.35 times compared to the current 1.4 µm front-illuminated sensors. The saturation signal level is increased by 1.15 times, as converted to value per unit area.

All sensors in the family deliver 1080p/60fps video by addition/averaging processing of up to four pixels of the same color in vertical and horizontal direction. The interface is MIPI (SCI-2) 1,2 or 4 lanes (up to 2 lanes in 8MP sensor).

The sensors integrate some image processing circuitry. Sony says: "substituting high-speed CPUs to process images for dedicated image processors is a strong ongoing trend. The IMX081PQ, IMX091PQ and IMX111PQ have a function for correcting image quality to optimum image data built into the sensor. This function easily provides high picture quality even without processing by an dedicated image processor (See figure 2):"

Zoran Announces COACH-14 Camera Processor

Market Wire: Zoran announced that its COACH 14 camera processor is available to qualified manufacturers of 3D, Full HD video, hybrid and interchangeable-lens cameras.

The 1080p video sometimes suffers from video artifacts introduced by the in-sensor binning of the high-megapixel sensor data. Zoran's COACH 14 SoC is said to eliminate this problem by processing the raw sensor data to create a crisp, full resolution, full-color video stream.

Feature list:

• Supports Full HD, H.264, multi-stream compression.
• CMOS Rolling-Shutter Correction Technology
• Digital Video Stabilization based on digital motion analysis technology that eliminates the need for a gyro, saving manufacturing costs.
• New set of lens correction technologies
• Motion Compensated Temporal Filter which reduces noise and improves low-light performance while eliminating blur due to object motion.
• Dual-sensor support for 3D still and video encoding as well as a direct connection to 3DTVs via an HDMI 1.4 port.

Zoran's COACH processors power digital still and video camera models from Casio, Fujifilm, GE, Kodak, Nikon, Olympus, Pentax, Samsung, Sony, and Vivitar among others. The COACH 14 is currently available to qualified digital camera manufacturers and is being designed into multiple camera models that are planned for production in Q1 2012.

"Adoption of CMOS sensors is accelerating in the digital camera market because they support faster capture speeds and higher quality 1080p video. In 2013, CMOS sensors are forecast to overtake CCD sensors with 70 million CMOS sensors shipping to market versus 65 million CCD sensors," according to Tetsuo Omori, analyst at Techno Systems Research.

One More 1.75um OminBSI-2 Sensor Announced

PR Newswire: Omnivision introduced another 1.75um OmniBSI-2 pixel-based sensor - the 5MP OV5680 SoC. The 1/3.2-inch OV5680 offers 1080p/30fps full-area HD video (or 1080p/60 cropped one). The on-chip scaler enables electronic image stabilization, while maintaining full field of view in 1080p HD video mode. The sensor's 2 x 2 binning functionality with post-binning re-sampling filter enables 720p/60fps video with minimized spatial artifacts and removed image artifacts around edges. Additionally, the OV5680 can synchronize exposure and frame for stereo cameras to meet 3D video capture requirements.

"With the rise of video-centric smartphones, we have experienced a steep ramp in 5-megapixel sensor demand in the past 18 months, and we are continuing to see strong growth forecasts into 2012, and reports are projecting 5-megapixel production to nearly double within the next three years as smartphones have now overtaken feature phones in the US market," commented Vinoo Margasahayam, product marketing manager at OmniVision.

The OV5680 comes with a standard 2-lane MIPI interface and fits into 8.5 x 8.5 x 6 mm module. It is now available for sampling, with mass production expected for the first half of 2012.

Omnivision Announces 1.75um OmniBSI-2 Sensor

PR Newswire: Omnivision unveiled OV9770, a 1/6-inch 720p/30 HD sensor for notebooks, tablets and portable media players. The sensor is the first to be based on 1.75um OmniBSI-2 pixels and uses 300mm 65nm process. "Over 50 percent of notebooks are already equipped with HD resolution cameras. We believe the key driver for continued HD camera market growth is sensor performance. The OV9770 therefore sets a new quality standard for HD video capture in 720p by combining our strongest current low-light performance (SNR10) with our highest available sensitivity and dynamic range," says Nicholas Nam, director of product marketing at OmniVision.

Compared to the first-generation OmniBSI pixel, the new pixel is said to offer a 20% improvement in peak QE, a 50% in full-well capacity, and a 20% improvement in low-light performance.

The OV9770 is currently available for sampling and is expected to enter mass production in the fourth quarter of 2011.

Samsung Proposes Convex BSI Diodes

Samsung patent application US20110193147 proposes BSI pixel with convex etched shape of photodiodes on the back side:

The planarisation layers 150 and 170 help to keep color filters 160 and microlens 180 flat in this embodiment. Other versions omit layer 150, so that color filter follows the PD shape.

The manufacturing process includes etching out the islands like this:

and then melting them into a spherical shape using "a thermal process":