Omivision Unveils 48MP Smartphone Sensor with 1.2um Pixels

PRNewswire: OmniVision announces the OV48C, a 48MP image sensor with a large 1.2um pixel size for flagship smartphone cameras. The OV48C is the industry's first image sensor for high resolution mobile cameras with on-chip dual conversion gain HDR, which reduces motion artifacts and produces better SNR. This sensor also offers a staggered HDR option with on-chip combination for the maximum flexibility to select the best HDR method for a given scene.

"The combination of high resolution, large pixel size and high dynamic range is essential to providing the image quality required by flagship mobile phone designers for features such as night mode," said Arun Jayaseelan, staff marketing manager at OmniVision. "The OV48C is the only flagship mobile image sensor in the industry to offer the combination of high 48MP resolution, a large 1.2 micron pixel, high speed, and on-chip high dynamic range, which provides superior SNR, unparalleled low light performance and high quality 4K video."

Built on OmniVision's PureCel Plus stacked die technology, this 1/1.3" format sensor also integrates an on-chip, 4-cell color filter array and hardware remosaic, which provides 48MP Bayer output, or 8K video, in real time. In low light conditions, this sensor can use near-pixel binning to output a 12MP image for 4K2K video with four times the sensitivity, yielding a 2.4 micron-equivalent performance. The OV48C also uses 4C Half Shield phase detection for fast autofocus support.

Output formats include 48MP at 15 fps, 12MP with 4-cell binning at 60 fps, and 4K2K video at 60 fps with the extra pixels needed for EIS. This sensor also offers 1080p video with slow motion support at 240 fps, as well as 720p at 360 fps. OV48C samples are available now.