Hynix Newsroom Pre-Announces Black Pearl 1.0um and 0.8um Pixel Technology

Only presented on SK Hynix Korean-language site so far, the company's 1.0um 'Black Pearl' pixel technology is said to reach market in Q1 this year. Four new 1.0um Black Pearl CIS products will be introduced in the Q1 2020, ranging from 8MP to 20MP. Hynix also says that 0.8um Black Pearl pixel is in works and expected to appear in 48MP product in the second half of this year.

They feature Quad Pixel to resize the pixel area and the Q2B Quad to Bayer Remosaic algorithm, said to be more efficient than competing products:

The 16MP Hi-1634 and 20MP Hi-2021 of the new line-up are optimized for ultra wide-angle smartphone cameras, while 8MP Hi-847 and 13MP Hi-1337 are optimized for telephoto smartphone rear cameras. The Hi-847 mass production is said to begun in February and the Hi-1337 production will begin in March:

SK Hynix's CIS Marketing Strategy Cho Ho-young said, “SK Hynix plans to officially brand all CIS products as 'Black Pearl' from this year and continuously introduce products that can deliver the best value to customers in the CIS field as well as memory semiconductors. Like Black Pearl (black pearl), one of the rarest and most beautiful pearls in the world, we will make more efforts to have a position that fits the brand meaning in the CIS field.”

The average number of camera per smartphone is expected to grow to 3.9 this year, according to Hynix research: