TechInsights Overviews Smartphone CIS Advances: Pixel Scaling and Scaling Enablers

TechInsights' image sensor analyst Ray Fontaine continues his excellent series of reviews based on his paper for the International Image Sensors Workshop (IISW) 2019. Part 2 talks about pixel scaling:

"At TechInsights, as technology analysts we are often asked to predict: what’s next? So, what about scaling down below 0.8 µm? Of course, 0.7 µm and smaller pixels are being developed mostly in secrecy, including for non-obvious use cases. For now, we will stick with our trend analysis and suggest that if a 0.7 µm generation is going to happen, it may be ready for the back end of 2020 or in 2021."

"The absence of major callouts in 2016 and onward do not correlate to inactivity. The innovation we have been documenting in leading edge parts of recent years could be described as incremental, although it is a subjective assessment. In summary, it is our belief that development of DTI and associated passivation schemes was the main contributor to delayed pixel introduction of 1.12 µm down to 0.9 µm pixels."