Archives for September 2013

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Teledyne DALSA releases a new FTF7046 family of full frame image sensors with 32MP. Using the latest 5.2um pixel, the company says it is able to preserve DR (>72dB linear), QE, and FF (>90%) in the FTF7046 even as they reduced pixel size to deliver 32MP in a 35mm optical format. The FTF7046 image sensors are available in color (RGB) and monochrome models. The sensor's frame rate is 1.2fps with 2 x 25MHz parallel outputs.

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Electronics360: Andrew Rassweiler, senior director of Teardown Analysis and Cost Benchmarking Service at IHS Electronics & Media, presented cost analysis of the new iPhone 5s and 5c, with both rear and front cameras taking roughly 6-7% of the BOM:

Preliminary Cost Estimate for iPhone 5s

Preliminary Cost Estimate for iPhone 5c

This is somewhat lower than IHS' last year estimation of $16.40 for the rear camera of iPhone 4s:

iPhone 4s Cost Analysis

Now I wonder how IHS came to the conclusion that iPhone 4S' 8MP 1.4um-pixel BSI camera module is cheaper than 5S' set of front and rear cameras 1.2MP+8MP, where the rear one has 1.5um pixel stacked sensor? Where do they find the savings? My guess is that they just estimated the chip areas, and, naturally, the stacked sensor came out smaller.

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IGN, Forbes: At Tokyo Game Show, Sony confirmed the PlayStation 4 will support gesture control via the PlayStation Camera, similar to Xbox One’s Kinect. But while Kinect will come bundled with the console, Playstation 4 users will need to buy the optional gesture recognizing camera separately.

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EETimes: STMicroelectronics develops B&W automotive image sensors for ADAS. An interesting feature is that it's able to single-out the red colored details, while everything else is B&W. When asked why red, ST BU director Martin Duncan said, "Red indicates a lot of important information - such as red traffic light, red road signs, brake lights, and tail lights."

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Omnivision publishes a Youtube OmniBSI-2 video:

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The official Nokia Conversations blog published few more 41MP Lumia 1020 camera details coming from Eero Salmelin, Nokia’s Head of Imaging:

"First we have the optics system with its six element lens, which... is the highest performing optics ever been put into a Nokia device."

"In Nokia’s OIS solution the whole lens system is resting on ball bearings. The special gyro components are very accurate and fast in detecting how the phone is moving and the lens is moved by the motors in the opposite direction very quickly to compensate for the handshake."

"The camera module is the casing that packages everything together so that it slots neatly inside the Lumia 1020. It measures 25mm by 17mm and contains well over 130 individual components. Every single camera component is tested, calibrated and the quality is verified. We make sure that each module performs extremely well."

Lumia 1020 camera module

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Fujifilm and imec have developed a new photoresist for organic semiconductors that enables the realization of submicron patterns and does not hurt the light sensitivity of the organic photodetectors. For technical verification, Fujifilm and imec developed organic photo detectors (OPD) using the new photolithography technology, and tested their performance. Organic semiconductor materials were patterned to produce OPD composed of fine light receiving elements down to 200μm×200μm size (for some reason marked as 300um x 300um on the graph below). Generally, patterning of organic semiconductor materials degrades the property of converting light into electricity, but the OPD developed in this case were patterned without degradation:

Organic semiconductor materials were patterned to form OPD of 300μm×300μm size, and photoelectric conversion property with irradiation of artificial sunlight (AM1.5G) (red dotted line) was examined. When compared with photoelectric conversion property without patterning organic semiconductor materials (red solid line), it did not show degradation due to patterning. Similarly, there was no difference between with patterning (black dotted line) and without patterning (black solid line) for unirradiated dark current.

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Business Wire: Toshiba announces what it says the industry’s first dual camera module for smartphones, tablets and mobile devices. TCM9518MD incorporates twin 1/4 inch optical format 5MP camera modules (5MP x 2 arrays) and simultaneously outputs recorded images and depth data. Images captured with the module can subsequently be manipulated to change the depth of field and point of focus. Samples will be available by January 2014, with mass production scheduled for April 2014.

The dedicated companion LSI of the “TCM9518MD” measures and appends depth data to objects in the image. These data can be used for a wide variety of applications, including focus and defocus, and even to extract and erase objects from the picture. Used in combination with customers’ applications, the module supports the creation of new functions.

The companion LSI generates 13MP images by upscaling images taken by the twin 5MP cameras, realizing a lower module height than that of conventional 13MP camera modules. The TCM9518MD brings high resolution and computational camera functionalities to the CMOS image sensor market for smartphones, tablets and mobile devices.

The pixel size is 1.4um and the camera module measures 8.0 x 12.0 x 4.65 mm according to the PR (or 18 (W) × 12 (D) × 4.65 (H) mm according to the company's product page):

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Marketwired: LensVector and Hosiden announce an agreement for Hosiden to be LensVector's manufacturing partner. Production is scheduled to start early in 2014 in Hosiden's Shiga, Japan LCD facility. The agreement expands LensVector's manufacturing capabilities to serve the market for smartphones and other mobile devices. Hosiden will be using their LCD production technology, developed over a 40-year history of LCD production, to manufacture autofocus camera components to meet the quality and volume needs of the mobile phone market.

"Partnering with a world class manufacturer like Hosiden is an important step in establishing LensVector as the premier provider of solid-state autofocus lenses," said Howard Earhart, CEO, LensVector. "LensVector's manufacturing strategy is to merge high quality, low cost mature LCD panel manufacturing with our proprietary thin film process. This combination will provide very high capacity from existing Fabs yielding arrays of thousands of lens elements per panel."

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Wired publishes an article by Marc Barros, the co-founder and former CEO of Contour, an action hands-free camera company. Marc discusses difficulties of creating a hardware company from scratch using camera startup as an example:

"Take cameras, for example. To make an amazing product you need: (1) a quality lens, (2) the latest image sensor, and (3) a powerful processor.

The best lenses are made in Japan (often by the camera makers themselves), so access to these components begins with $500K up front in engineering services and a guaranteed minimum order well into the thousands. Meanwhile image sensor companies are quickly being consolidated — so if a purchasing company isn’t a big name, it can’t even get access to the good stuff. For processors at least, the U.S. companies who created them are willing to provide access (to their true roadmap, SDK documentation, and engineering services), because they understand the importance of helping entrepreneurs build a product that maximizes their platform.

Overall, however, this lack of components means a hardware startup has to build volume with a crappy camera before they can make a really good one.

And of course, the established hardware players know their advantage in components is a massive barrier to entry. A few of them, like Sony and Samsung, are willing to sell other companies the same components used in their products as long as they don’t directly compete with them. Other companies, like Canon, build their own components to get ahead of the competition."

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TSMC is going to present its recent developments in hardmask for deep implants in small pixel sensors at NMDC, Taiwan on Oct 6-9, 2013. The paper is titled "Nanotechnology Development for CMOS Image Sensor Applications" by C.C. Wang, T.H. Hsu, S.F. Ting, C.Y. Chen, K.C. Huang, J.C. Liu, S. G. Wuu. TSMC has developed a nice hardmask process for pixel size of order of 1um:

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imec publishes its 2013 presentation on image sensor process and plans, presented on imec technology forum 3 weeks ago in Taiwan. Few slides from the doc:

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Business Wire: Samsung announces its new pixel technology, ISOCELL. "This new technology substantially increases light sensitivity and effectively controls the absorption of electrons [I'd guess they meant collection of electrons], resulting in higher color fidelity even in poor lighting conditions."

"Previous sensor technology developments focused on improving the light absorption of each pixel, and have progressed pixel technology from FSI (Front Side Illumination) to BSI (Back Side Illumination) which places photodiode at the top to maximize photoelectric efficiency. While being very effective at the time, this BSI technology also faced limitations in improving image quality as pixel sizes continued to decrease.

Building on these past advances and continuing the push toward higher quality image sensors for mobile devices, Samsung has developed ISOCELL the next generation of pixel technology, which is patent pending. ISOCELL technology forms a physical barrier between neighboring pixels – isolating the pixel. This isolation enables more photons to be collected from the micro-lens and absorbed into the correct pixel’s photodiode minimizing undesired electrical crosstalk between pixels and allowing expanded full well capacity (FWC).

Compared to conventional BSI pixels, the ISOCELL pixels decrease the crosstalk by approximately 30 percent which results in higher color fidelity to reproduce the original color with sharpness and richness, and increase the full well capacity (FWC) by 30 percent which leads to greater dynamic range.

Additionally, an imager designed with ISOCELL can feature a 20 percent wider chief ray angle (CRA), reducing the height of the camera module. This makes it suitable for slim and small form factor mobile devices with challenging low z-height requirements.

As the first Samsung image sensor to adopt this new technology, the S5K4H5YB 8Megapixel imager utilizes a 1.12um ISOCELL pixel and has a 1/4inch optical format. The S5K4H5YB is currently sampling to customers with mass production scheduled for Q4 2013.

According to market research firm Techno System Research, in 2014, approximately 66 percent of smartphones will feature image sensors with 8Mp or higher resolution."

Samsung Tomorrow, the official Samsung blog, publishes ISOCELL vs BSI comparison picture (click to expand):

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Imaging Resource posted an interesting note on the recent trend to remove optical low pass filters over the sensors:

"There's been a strong move in the camera industry lately to remove low-pass filters (aka anti-aliasing filters or LPFs) from cameras, in pursuit of greater image sharpness... At IR, we feel strongly that eliminating low-pass filters is a bad idea, and a mistake for the industry. While the vast majority of natural subjects aren't subject to aliasing and moiré issues, many man-made objects have the sort of regular patterns that trigger the problem."

Imaging Resource supports its claim by real-world examples shot by one of the recent cameras with no optical anti-aliasing filter:

Example of color aliasing, caused by the fine thread patterns in the model's outfit.

Example of luminance moiré in the form of the swirly lines in what should be diagonal louvers on the building's front.

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