Aptina Ships One Billionth Image Sensor

Yahoo: Aptina announced that it shipped one billion image sensors since it began manufacturing image sensors in 2002. Of the one billion sensors shipped, approximately 55 percent were megapixel or greater. Aptina maintains a product portfolio of over 70 CMOS image sensors.

Nemotek Features on I-Micronews Site

Yole's site I-Micronews published an interview with Youssef Benmokhtar, Marketing & Business Development Director on Nemotek, the first licensee of the full portfolio (SHELLCASE and OptiML) from Tessera.

The company was established in September 2007 as a subsidiary of MEDZ (a Moroccan company with more than 1.2B$ of assets) as a Government initiative to position Morocco as a key player within the microelectronics industry and new sciences arena. Nemotek is claimed to be the only company in the world to date to offer a one-stop-shop approach for wafer-level cameras.

Advasense on Pixel Size Shrink

One more interesting presentation from Itertech-Pira Image Sensors 2008 Conference is Advasense one. Here is how Advasense sees the pixel size shrink progress with respect to full well:



Advasense's solution of diminishing full well problem is using its own Feedback Controlled Pixel - FCP. Here is the explanation why FCP has higher full well:



And here is one more comparison of deep photodiode full well with shallow photodiode:

Weekly Patent Review

I always enjoy reading Siliconfile patents. It looks to me that the company has quite a few unusual, sometimes bright, ideas. The newly ublished application US20080290440 proposes to reduce the light reflection from silicon by using "concavo-convex surface" shaped surface. The picture below shows how exactly this reduces the reflection:



I'm not sure if this idea works for small pixels, where pixel size is of close to wavelength. Also, I believe the process of creating such a surface is not simple. But I like fresh, out of the box thinking of Siliconfile engineers.

Application US20080291309 by University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia talks about pixel with amplifier transistor, instead of source follower. The application is written in a scientific paper style, with good comparison of different techniques and their strong and weak points. While I don't like their idea and especially their proposed implementation, it's a good educational read.

Chipworks is About to Publish Sony 1.4um Sensor Reverse Engineering Report

Chipworks got a hold of a Sony 1.4um 8MP IMX046 sensor in a commercially available product (probably from LG or Sony-Ericsson phone). The formal report announcement is prepared for next week. The die picture below reveals very compact sensor design. I hold my breath to see the full report available.



Thanks to R.F. for the information.

Samsung Launches HD Sensor for PCs

Yahoo: Samsung announced that it has expanded its portfolio of CMOS image sensors to include a new high-definition 1/4-inch, 1.2MP SoC imager, the S5K4AW, for notebook and desktop computers. Instead of more usual 1.3MP, 1.2MP is better suited for HD video applications. By binning in 2x2 pixel groups, the S5K4AW’s 1.2Mp resolution (1280x960 pixel format) also can display standard VGA format without annoying problem of losing the top or the bottom of a scene while video conferencing or video file sharing on social media networks such as YouTube.

The binning technique used by Samsung’s new S5K4AW sensor for VGA resolution also significantly improves the imager’s sensitivity to low light. Samsung claims that the industry’s typical method of binning results in an improved sensitivity of approximately 1.2x - I'm not sure how they got this number. Samsung’s 2x2 binning shows a sensitivity improvement of nearly 3x. This is critical when the only illumination on the scene might be from the computer screen itself.

The new S5K4AW imager is a 1/4-inch sensor that uses a 2.8um pixels. It supports 720p HD video at 30fps and VGA video at up to 60fps.

Samsung is currently sampling S5K4AW sensor to select customers. Mass production is expected in the first half of 2009.

Omnivision Quarterly Earnings Call

Seeking Alpha publishes a transcript of Omnivision Q2 FY2009 Earnings Call. As many have expected, the guidance for the next quarter is down and the company forecasts an operating loss. Its strong cash position of $283M should help it survive and continue to invest in new technologies during the downturn, at least Shaw Hong, the CEO, believes so. He also tells that the company has already taken steps to reduce its operating expenses.

Gross margin for the Q2 was 25% compared to 25.2% the previous quarter. Excluding stock-based compensation expense gross margin was 25.4% compared to 25.7% reported in the Q1.

Omnivision continues its work to migrate to 300-millimeter wafer production, both with TSMC and VisEra.

Ray Cisneros, VP of Sales, says:

During our fiscal second quarter, we sold about 99 million units into the marketplace.
....
Our 2-megapixel sensor shipments into smart phones have been particularly strong over the past two quarters. And now, this quarter, we have ramped up our 3-megapixel sensor shipments.
....
just over 60% of our revenues came from the mobile phones and just under 40% from emerging products. As for the unit mix in the quarter, the VGA and below was 65%, 1.3-megapixel was just over 15%, and 2-megapixel and above was just below 20%.
....
sensors on notebooks represented our strongest growth area during the quarter and represented approximately 30% of the company’s revenue.

One of suspicious omissions in the conference call was absence of any word on BSI sensor volume production start, general sampling or design wins. No analyst asks about it in Q&A session either. This brings some food for thought.

Correction: As written in comments, the earnings call does have a statement that two BSI products will be qualified for mass production in the first half of 2009.

Tessera on Mobile Imaging - Part 4

Mobile Handset Design Line publishes part 4 of Tessera mobile imaging challenges and solutions article. This part talks about image processing extensions to make cheaper and better camera modules, such as cheaper lens aberration correction, red eye removal and face detection features.

Altasens Presents Tapered Reset in 4T Pixel

Altasens presents its new idea on tapered reset usage in 4T pixel on Intertech-Pira Image Sensors 2008 Conference. The pixel has 2 modes of operation. At large signal it works like any other 4T pixel. In low light mode the pixel transistor works in common source mode where the photodiode charge is transferred to its Miller capacitance. This way pixel has a higher gain, so that the column circuitry noise is less important. The slide below shows the idea:

Sony 1.4um Picture on Intertch-Pira Conference

Sony presented a picture from its new 8MP 1.4um pixel sensor on Intertech-Pira Image Sensors 2008 Conference. The picture is given below, as appeared in Sony .pdf file. Essentially, this is a copy of the picture from the official Sony PR, but with higher resolution and illumination conditions reported. The picture is quite good for a first generation sensor (click on it to expand):