Taiyo Yuden Develops Substrate with Cavity

Pressebox: Japan-based Taiyo Yuden announces a new type of copper-core embedded-parts multilayer wiring substrate “EOMIN” with a cavity formation technology that enables the creation of a depression in a part of the substrate:

A multilayer wiring substrate for camera modules mounted in compact mobile devices such as smartphones and wearable devices. Thinner camera modules can be realized by mounting an image sensor in the cavity.

Varioptic Liquid AF Lens Reached Mass Market, Finally

Vision Systems Design: Varioptic and Datalogic announce the availability of Datalogic’s Matrix 300 barcode reader and PowerScan PD9500 HP mobile scanner with variable focus liquid lenses from Varioptic. Matrix 300 barcode readers are intended for marking applications including those in manufacturing, electronics, automotive, medical device traceability, food and beverage, and clinical lab automation applications. PowerScan PBT9500 HP 2D handheld area imagers are aimed to mobile scanning in warehouses, logistics, and manufacturing applications. Both of these devices feature a Varioptic liquid lens for variable focus from 5 cm to infinity. In addition, the lenses enable lower power consumption and higher shock resistance.

If I'm not mistaken, Datalogic is worldwide #2 in barcode readers, after Motorola Symbol. "The addition of Varioptic’s liquid lens with no moving parts to the PowerScan imager’s other advanced features allows us to offer an even more reliable product with higher performance levels," said Giulio Berzuini, VP and GM for the Hand Held Scanners Business Unit of Datalogic.

Kinect Guards South Korea Border

Kotaku, Forbes and other sites quote Korean-language newspaper Hankooki saying that Kinect-based system identifies the objects crossing the DMZ between South and North Koreas. It can discern the difference between animals and humans. If the system detects a human, it will alert the nearby outpost. Further details are sparse, supposedly because this involves South Korea national security.

Plastic Logic and ISORG Win FLEXI Award

PR Newswire: Plastic Logic and ISORG picked up the award for their large area flexible image sensor at the FlexTech Conference in Phoenix, Arizona.

The collaboration is based on the deposition of organic printed photodetectors (OPD) by ISORG, onto a plastic organic thin-film transistor (OTFT) backplane by Plastic Logic, to create a flexible sensor with a 4x4 cm active area, 375um pitch (175um pixel size with 200um spacing) and 94 x 95 = 8930 pixel resolution. This award recognises the potential of the technology in a range of applications and the competitive advantages of such products. The range of new applications is in digital image sensing, including smart packaging and sensors for medical equipment and biomedical diagnostics, security and mobile commerce (user identification by fingerprint scanning), environmental and other industrial uses. Most exciting of all is the ability to enable scanning surfaces and novel 3D interactive (gesture based) user interfaces for consumer electronics, including printers, smartphones and tablets.

Indro Mukerjee, CEO of Plastic Logic said "The collaboration with ISORG has showcased the exciting potential of combining two disruptive technologies and we plan to work together to bring new applications to market. This again underlines the real impact of plastic electronics as it starts to go mainstream in consumer markets." Jean-Yves Gomez, CEO of ISORG, stated "This collaboration demonstrates the versatility of organic electronics to combine two different technologies to create new and disruptive products for a broad range of markets. The first large area image sensor on plastic has already attracted strong interest from industry and consumer electronics leaders for new applications and functionalities."

Samsung Promotes ISOCELL Sensors

Samsung published a Youtube video promoting its ISOCELL technology:

Frost & Sullivan on Image Sensor Industry

PR Newswire: Frost & Sullivan released "Strategic Analysis of the World Optical and Image Sensors Market". A few of their market observations:

• Maintaining a balance between high image quality, technology, and price is the biggest challenge for the industry.
• It is difficult for smaller manufacturers to differentiate their products by any factor, other than price. This deters their entry into high-volume applications markets.
• Shortening the development time for optical and image sensors is important because of the short product life cycles of the consumer market where they are primarily targeted.

UCLA Courses on Image Sensors

UCLA Extension offers two courses on image sensors in March 2014:

March 10-12: "Fundamentals of CCD and CMOS Imagers and Camera Systems" by James Janesick, SRI
March 13-14: "Applications, Design, and Testing of CMOS and CCD Sensors and Camera Systems" by Terrence Lomheim, The Aerospace Corp.

The detailed program of the courses can be seen on the links above.

Sony Applies for Nano-Carbon Film IR Shutter Patent

Japanese language Egami blog noticed Sony patent application proposing to use nano-carbon film that apparently changes its transparency with applied electrical field. It looks like the transparency is modulated only in IR band, but Sony considers it significant enough to apply for an IR shutter patent.

2015 IISW Announces Dates and Location

2015 International Image Sensor Workshop (IISW) will be held on June 8-11, 2015 in Kasteel Vaalsbroek (Vaals, The Netherlands):

General Workshop Co-Chairs:
Johannes Solhusvik - OmniVision
Albert Theuwissen – Harvest Imaging & Delft Univ. of Technology

Technical Program Chair:
Pierre Magnan – Institut Supérieur de l'Aéronautique et de l'Espace

Sharp Explains iSHCCD Improvements, Announces 1.3MP/30fps CCD

Sharp published a page explaining its iSHCCD and iSHCCDII improvements in the recently announced iSHartina line. iSHCCD features an improved microlens shape:

iSHCCD-II features improved IR sensitivity achieved by the deeper photodiode implants:

These two modifications give iSHCCD a significant QE improvement over the non-iSHartina CCDs:

Sharp also announces a new member of iSHCCD II family - a 1.3MP/30fps RJ33J3CA0DT.

Update: The links above have been changed to English version.