Image Sensors London Conference

Image Sensor conference to be held on March 17-19, 2015 in London, UK, has published its final agenda:

Workshop – If you can’t make it global, then let the shutter roll!
Dr Albert Theuwissen, Founder, Harvest Imaging

This workshop will deal with needs, advantages, disadvantages and characteristics of several shutter that are being used with CMOS image sensors. Most devices on the market do have a rolling shutter, but there is a need to have a global shutter like it was the case for CCDs.

Fast moving objects in the scene do deform when read out in rolling shutter mode. But switching from a rolling shutter to a global shutter is not straight forward, for sure not in the case today's characteristics of the rolling shutter devices need to be maintained (correlated-double sampling, anti-blooming, electronic shuttering, low dark current). Two global shutter types are introduced in commercial products: storage of the signals in the charge domain or in the voltage domain.

The first part of the workshop will concentrate on the basic properties of the two shutter types, as well as on the effect the rolling and global shutter have on the imager characteristics. In the second part of the workshop two existing solutions, resp. of the global shutter in the charge domain as well as the global shutter in the voltage domain will be analyzed and compared with each other. Finally a look into the future will close the workshop.

Technology push, or market pull – perspectives on maximising opportunities from technology development
Giora Yahav, General Manager - Advanced Imaging Technology Organisation, Microsoft

• So you have a great idea, what now?
• Finding a niche, or letting the niche find you
• Where next in 3D imaging, technology push or market pull in 2015 and beyond

Patenting an idea
Daniel Doswald, Examiner, EPO

• Familiarize yourself with IP - How to search for patents
• Is my idea patentable?
• Disclosure and scope of protection of a patent
• Inside the mind of a patent examiner
• Challenging a competitor’s patent in an early stage

Protecting your IP in today’s fast moving image sensor marketplace
Keith Beresford, European Patent Attorney, Beresford & Co

• Quick guide to patents and why they are important for your business
• Best practice for integrating IP protection into your R&D workflow and business strategy
• Experiences from the front lines – what happens if you draft your specification poorly
• Combatting patent trolls – what you can do to prevent and deter this activity

Beyond Bayer rolling shutter CMOS image sensors
Eiichi Funatsu, Senior Director, OmniVision

• CMOS image sensor market and development trend
• Super high sensitivity by RGBC solution
• RGB-IR for man-machine interface
• Global shutter for machine vision

Stacked image sensors - the new image sensor standard
Paul Enquist, CTO, Ziptronix

• State of play with chip stacking
• Comparison of stacking using TSV's vs. hybrid bonding
• Technical benefits of the stacking approach

The role of ADCs in imaging applications - novel approaches
Prof Ángel Rodríguez-Vázquez, R&D Director, AnaFocus

• CIS technology trends and the need for ADCs in emerging applications
• ADC options and how to implement
• Limitations and areas for further study

Optical filter glass for image sensors
Prof Steffen Reichel, Development / Application, Advanced Optics, Schott

• Challenges for IR cut filters with BSI chips
• Evaluation of IR filers glass materials and lens design
• Recommendation for materials specifications and performance parameters for plano-plano IR filters

Image sensor device testing needs with high yield performances
Satoshi Takahashi, Senior Engineer, Advantest

• Growing manufacturing and demand requirements drive the need for test systems
• The key factors to realize high yield device testing for CIS device manufacturing
• Architecture and performances of test system capable of measuring 64 devices simultaneously at up to 2.5Gbps.

Security imaging today and tomorrow
Dr Anders Johannesson, Senior Expert Engineer, Axis Communications

• Historical development of security cameras from grainy images to self-contained systems with 4K resolution and beyond
• Defining the imaging challenges in security applications
• Key aspects for further improvement in security cameras

Advances in cooled/uncooled IR sensors for security applications
Claire Valentin, VP Marketing, Sofradir

Image sensors for low light levels with active imaging features
Pierre Fereyre, Image Sensor Design, and Gareth Powell, Strategic Marketing Manager, e2v

• Five transistor pixel CMOS sensor for range-gated active imaging to extend usability of intelligent cameras in the most difficult conditions
• Advanced state of the art image sensors and embedded features, with emphasis on size, weight, power and cost benefits
• New applications that are enabled

Image sensor planetary space mission
Dr Harald Michaelis, Head of Department, DLR Institute of Planetary Research

• Image capture aims of the Rosetta mission
• Camera and sensor specifications, performance parameters, design considerations
• Results from the mission
• Future planetary imaging plans and aspirations and next generation camera design

Future of computational imaging
Raji Kannan, Founder, LensBricks

• Hardware developments
• Advanced in processing and impact at a system level
• Market opportunities

Image Fusion - how to make best use of broad spectrum data
David Connah, Research Associate in Visual Computing, University of Bradford / CoFounder, Spectral Edge

• Challenges in fusing multiple data channels into one single image for display
• Mapping the contrast (structure tensor) of a multi-channel image is mapped exactly to a 3-channel gradient field
• The problem of mapping N-D inputs to 3-D (RGB) outputs
• Applications in hyperspectral remote sensing, fusion of colour and near-infrared images and colour visualisation of MRI Diffusion-Tensor images

Lensless ultra-miniature computational sensors and imagers: using computing to do the work of optics
Dr David Stork, Fellow and Research Director of the Computational Sensing and Imaging Group, Rambus Labs

• Computational optical sensors and imagers that do not rely on traditional refractive or reflective focusing
• Computing images from raw photodiode signals
• Imager performance, features, and applications

High performance smart automotive camera system
Tarek Lulé, Automotive Camera System Consultant, ST Microelectronics

• Automotive camera needs: power, size, ambient requirements
• High sensitivity, hdr pixel architecture: choice of pixel and resulting performance
• Imager system architecture: 1.3mpix raw image sensor with 130db dynamic range and excellent low light performance
• Automotive hdr image processor: very low power companion chip for hdr colorization, with embedded video analytics and automotive interfaces

Depth sensing solutions for consumer electronics
Markus Rossi, Chief Innovation Officer, Heptagon Advanced MicroOptics

• Drivers for optical depth sensing in consumer applications and review of current technologies
• Hardware solutions for depth sensing concepts
• Case examples

Cameras in medical applications - novel applications and innovative camera designs
Thomas Ruf, Manager Sales and New Business, First Sensor E²MS

• Medical cameras come in all shapes and sizes – what challenge does this present?
• Examples of innovative camera design for X-ray apparatus, computer tomographs and stereo endoscopes
• Enabling technologies for design and assembly of complex and unique camera systems

High end camera systems for multi imager applications
Marcus Verhoeven, Managing Director, aSpect Systems

• Implementing hardware, software, mechanics, temperature control, optics and imaging technology for high performance imaging applications
• Example 1: Per pixel energy dispersive X-Ray architecture with a resolution of 400x400 pixels (250µm), a frame rate of 10.000 FPS which supports an energy resolution of 1keV in a range from 3-220keV
• Example 2: A new detector for proton therapy of cancer based on a stack of 12 crossed strip detectors and 24 layers of CMOS imagers

An insider's outside view of image sensor development past, present and future
Jed Hurwitz, Technologist, Advanced Measurement Systems, Analog Devices

• The beginning of CMOS
• The glory years!
• Progress viewed from the outside
• Perspectives on the future of digital imaging