Wednesday, November 15, 2017

More about Sony 7.42MP Automotive Sensor

Nikkei publishes a 4-page article on Sony 1/1.7-inch IMX324 ADAS sensor. Sony says "We will sell the product with intent to achieve 100% share (of the market for image sensors designed for sensing cameras to be attached to the front side of vehicle)."

The main points are:

  • Its power consumption at full 7.42MP resolution 40fps is 500-600mW, which is the industry's smallest, according to Sony.
  • The new sensor has the highest sensitivity in the industry and is the industry's first automotive image sensor that features security functions, Sony said.
  • Sony started to contact Mobileye from an early stage of the development of the new product and responded to many demands of Mobileye.
  • However, the new product was developed not only for Mobileye. The specifications required by Mobileye are "commonly-required specifications," Sony said.
  • Sony is to ship samples in November 2017 and to start volume production in June 2018.
  • Sony uses a laminated stacked design, the first laminated-type automotive image sensor, the company said. "We applied a process that is two or three generations more advanced that the processes used for existing automotive image sensor products."
  • Sony improved the sensitivity by using an RCCC CFA. Image recognition is possible with Mobileye's without using all of the RGB colors.

7 comments:

  1. 40fps for full resolution is too low for automotive application.

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  2. Probably because CSI-2 running at 1GHz maxes out at ~48.5fps for 7.42MP sensor. 12M30 at 10bit requires 1GHz using 4 lanes.

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  3. 40fps is too slow and CSI-2 DPHY 1.2 is capable of much faster per lane and the Maxim and TI serializers can transmit it. This is definitely a sensor limitation. The quote that Sony is trying to achieve 100% share shows just how little they know about the Automotive market, as T1s and OEMS will always have multiple vendors for pricing and supply.

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  4. This is 48fps @ full res, wich means that in 4K will give 60+fps, and more...

    Whats is more exiting:

    ony says that the new sensor is almost three times the horizontal resolution of conventional IMX224MQV products which enables it to capture distant road signs which are at a distance of 160 meters ahead of the camera with the help of an FOV 32° lens.

    For rising the quality and the sensitivity, the sensor is equipped with a pixel binning mode that adds multiple pixel data to raise sensitivity further. Thus making it possible to capture images of pedestrians and obstacles even in dark nighttime situations with a sensitivity of 2666 mV.

    Low loght @ 160m road sign: http://images.fonearena.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Sony-IMX324-disctant-sample-comparison-768x489.jpg

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    Replies
    1. The question is that when this sensor is mounted on a moving car, can it still capture such high resolution with vibrations ?

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  5. Anyone else understand Sony's arbitrary units of light level expressed in millivolts?

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  6. Is there a line-up of sony automotive image sensors?

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