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Azosensors: CMOSIS is demonstrating its 12MP/300fps version of its CMV12000 sensor, which is now available in sample quantities. High volume production will ramp up from June 2014 onwards. When first announced in 2010 the speed was supposed to be 300fps, but the production version had 150fps.

"We are most happy to have finally achieved the outstanding performance of the CMV12000 in terms of its exceptionally high frame rate of 300 fps," said Lou Hermans, COO of CMOSIS. "Our strong technology focus and dedication to this development enables us to continue to offer new or improved CMOS sensor products on a regular basis."

Recently, CMOSIS entered Deloitte Technology Fast50 2013 as Belguim's highest-ranking company with a 4,098 per cent increase in its turnover (not clear over what period). Also, CMOSIS won 1st price for Export in the province of Antwerp of the Trends Business Tour 2013:

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Chipworks publishes a teardown report of the new Kinect camera, including ToF sensor and illuminator pictures:

Laser diodes

"There seems to be something else going on though, since we have three laser diodes, and the filters over them are patterned with what looks like a grid; maybe the diodes are toggled in sequence, and a grid is projected, to help in the motion detection part of the system."

ToF camera board

ToF camera disassembled

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Business Weekly: Cambridge Mechatronics announces that its "smart metal" OIS actuators passed reliability tests: "The suite of test specifications stipulated by our module integrator and handset customers include several individual and combination tests in line with industry standards - including drop testing, extended operation cycles and environments at the extremes of high and low temperature.

The completion and availability of this test data is a key milestone in the market readiness of CML's latest product offering, allowing our customers to confidently design our actuator into their own products.

This latest news is in line with CML's plans for our OIS lens motors to be shipping inside smartphone handsets in early 2014."

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Kingpak's presentation at Semicon Taiwan 2013 compares image sensor packages, with emphasis on Kingpack's own imBGA/imLCC advantages:

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Business Korea published an article on Samsung efforts to capture mobile CIS market. TSR predicts that Samsung will take the lion’s share of the mobile CIS market this year, capturing 24.5% market share by supplying 548.325M CIS units. Sony’s supply volume and market share are estimated at 410.84M units and 18.4%, respectively.

For now Samsung is focusing on mid-end and high-end products of less than 8MP. Although it does produce those that can capture eight or higher megapixels, these account for less than 20% of the total sales volume. Meanwhile, products of 8MP to 13MP represent over 70% of Sony’s total sales.

"Sony’s CISs are at least 1.5 times more expensive than those of Samsung Electronics and OmniVision. Almost all of the high-end smartphones in the market are equipped with CISs manufactured by Sony," said unnamed market expert. Sony’s brand power is said to be greater than Samsung’s when it comes to high-price products of 8MP to 10MP.

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NikkoIA SAS announces the grant of several collaborative development programs in 2013, totaling more than 1.5 million Euros over the next 2 years for “Organic Semiconductors for NIR Optoelectronics” through the several European research programs, including FP7 Framework Programme. This project will support the development of new organic materials sensitive in the NIR spectrum with tunable sensitivity windows. It complements the other granted programs which are more product-oriented and dedicated to the development of organic image sensors based either on a-Si active matrix TFT backplanes or silicon CMOS substrates, and targeting specific applications such as biometrics, medical and security.

The combination of all granted programs wraps up NikkoIA’s comprehensive development strategy and secures its roadmap objectives.

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Reuters, Bloomberg, Globes: Panasonic is reported to sell its three Japanese fabs to TowerJazz. It's not immediately clear whether Panasonic sells its image sensor plants. "The companies are negotiating the size of the stake and transfer of the factories' workers, one of the sources said. The three chip plants in Japan, with about 2,500 workers, have been fully depreciated and had a combined book value of 42.2 billion yen ($416 million) as of March 31.

Panasonic said nothing had been decided. Officials at TowerJazz's headquarters could not immediately be reached." "The plants are likely worth more than 10 billion yen ($99 million), and a final decision may come as soon as next month."

So far Panasonic has more than 3 fabs in Japan, not clear which ones go to TowerJazz:


Meanwhile, image sensors appear as one of the core technologies at Panasonic site:

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EETimes: Piet De Moor, Program Manager for Specialty Imagers at Imec published a view on CMOS vs CCD for space applications: "While CMOS has become the standard in consumer electronics, the space community is still mainly relying on CCD technology. In part, that's because backside illumination processing for CMOS imagers is almost uniquely developed for 300mm wafers [probably Piet meant Imec process offerings here - ISW], whereas high-end space imagers typically use 200mm wafer technologies.

However, the space industry would well be served with a customized high-end backside illuminated CMOS imager processing platform on 200mm wafers. Given the strategic value of Earth observation, it is not surprising that governments on both sides of the Atlantic are currently supporting local initiatives in this area."

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MIT News: Ramesh Raskar, Achuta Kadambi, Refael Whyte, Ayush Bhandari, Christopher Barsi from MIT and Adrian Dorrington and Lee Streeter from the University of Waikato in New Zealand presented a new ToF camera at SIGGRAPH Asia 2013: "Coded Time of Flight Cameras: Sparse Deconvolution to Address Multipath Interference and Recover Time Profiles."

"Using the current state of the art, such as the new Kinect, you cannot capture translucent objects in 3-D," says Achuta Kadambi. "That is because the light that bounces off the transparent object and the background smear into one pixel on the camera. Using our technique you can generate 3-D models of translucent or near-transparent objects." Changing environmental conditions, semitransparent surfaces, edges, or motion all create multiple reflections that mix with the original signal and return to the camera, making it difficult to determine which is the correct measurement.

The new ToF camera uses an encoding technique commonly used in the telecommunications industry to calculate the distance a signal has travelled. "We use a new method that allows us to encode information in time," Ramesh Raskar says. "So when the data comes back, we can do calculations that are very common in the telecommunications world, to estimate different distances from the single signal."

"By solving the multipath problem, essentially just by changing the code, we are able to unmix the light paths and therefore visualize light moving across the scene," Kadambi says.

A Youtube video demo visualizes the light travel, including multi-path resolving on semi-transparent objects:

Key components: PMD 19k3 sensor, FPGA Dev Kit, Custom PCB for light sources, and DSLR lens from a regular Canon SLR.

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Business Wire: Toshiba will start mass production of T4K71, a 1.12µm, 1/7.3-inch 1080p60 BSI image sensor with color noise reduction (CNR), on December 2, 2013. Initial announcement in April 2013, stated production start in September, so it's almost as scheduled.

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Khronos Group VP Erik Noreke presents "Vision, Camera and Sensor Processing" at SIGGRAPH Asia 2013:

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Business Wire: Dongbu HiTek has begun volume production of 5MP Image Sensor for Superpix Micro Technology of Beijing, China. With patented SuperPix pixel signal processing and SuperImage image processing techniques, Superpix anticipates strong demand for its 5MP CIS devices in China’s mid-range to low-end smart phone market segments.

"We continue to expand our foundry relationship with Superpix, and are now on track to begin developing its 8MP CIS chips early next year so that volume production can also begin next year," said Jae Song, Dongbu HiTek EVP of marketing. He noted that his company’s foundry relationship with Superpix has progressively developed from manufacturing QVGA/VGA chips to the 2MP–to-8MP range.

According to Maybank, the Chinese smart phone market in the mid-range to low-end segment is forecast to grow from some 216M units shipped this year to about 400M units in 2015, thereby exceeding 85% growth over the two year period. In another forecast from iSuppli, smart phones that feature 5MP resolution and above will substantially command this segment’s growth as they replace 2M resolution cameras, shipping 187M units next year and 288M units in 2015, representing a year-over year growth of more than 50%.

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Imec presents a prototype of a time-delay-integration (TDI) image sensor based on imec’s proprietary embedded CCD in CMOS technology. Imec developed and fabricated the sensor for the French Space Agency, CNES, which plans to utilize the technology for space-based earth observation. The prototypes were fabricated using imec’s 130nm process with an additional CCD process module. A charge transfer efficiency of 99.9987 % has been measured ensuring almost lossless transport of charges in the TDI array.

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AllThingsD gets a confirmation from Apple that it has bought Primesense for a price closer to $360M, according to ATD sources:

Apple spokeswoman Kristin Huguet confirmed the PrimeSense deal with the boilerplate comment the company typically provides when news of one of its acquisitions leaks: “Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time, and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans.”

Globes reports that the deal was finally closed on Friday, Nov. 22.

Update: Primesense confirms the acquisition in an email to EETimes-Europe: "We can confirm the deal with Apple. Further than that, we cannot comment at this stage."

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Rambus announces that its paper "Lensless Ultra-Miniature CMOS Computational Imagers and Sensors" by David Stork and Patrick Gill won Best Paper Award at Sensorcomm 2013, held in Barcelona, Spain in August 2013. Rambus' "method relies on novel special phase anti-symmetric spiral phase gratings, which overcome prior limitations and afford new functionality. Moreover, our new sensor architecture enables the construction of new classes of ultra-miniature sensors whose output is an estimation of some property of the scene (e.g., visual motion) or a decision (e.g., face detection or barcode reading)."


"These imagers promise to be smaller (lower physical volume) than any existing lens-based imagers of comparable resolution, very inexpensive, and customizable to both imaging and a wide range of sensing and image measurement tasks."

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Tektronix published a nice webinar on MIPI M-PHY operation and testing. Although not yet appearing in image sensor products, the new standard delivers much higher speeds at lower power consumption and certainly deserves to be the interface of choice in CMOS sensors:

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The newly announced Sony Effio-A/V image processors for SD security cameras improve 3D-NR function to reduce moving subjects blur. The 3D noise reduction processes a few consecutive frames, so moving subjects are excessively blurred, at least, in a normal 3D-NR scheme. It looks like Sony has solved this problem:

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Pixel shift often presented as a way to enhance image sensor resolution. One of the latest cameras has been presented by Vieworks at Stemmer Imaging Technology Forum 2013:


Martin Doppelbauer, Prof. at Karlsruhe University, Germany, presents the pixel shift video simulation that questions the real benefit of this approach:


Thanks to TL for the Stemmer Imaging link!

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Sony announces 2.5um BSI-pixel based CMOS sensor for industrial applications, the IMX124LQT. Its sensitivity is said to improved by ~2.7 times over the existing FSI 2.5µm pixel in the older IMX036LQR sensor. It looks like this sensitivity advantage is achieved at quite large aperture, while smaller apertures show almost no BSI benefit:


The new sensor has 3.21MP resolution and can deliver 1080p60 video. The ADC has 12b resolution and its gain can be controlled in 51db range by 0.1db increments.

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ABI Research: "Hands-free operation or gesture recognition is soon going to become a key differentiator in high-end flagship smartphones, media tablets, and smart glasses," says senior analyst Joshua Flood. In 2013, almost 12% of smartphones shipped will have vision-based gesture recognition capabilities.

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Research-In-China has updated its "Global and China CMOS Camera Module Industry Report" with 2013 data. A few key statements from the report:

• The growth rate of cell phone camera pixels slows down, or even declines in 2013.
• OIS is widely used in high-end phones: HTC (one), SONY (Xperia ZU), LG (G2 flagship) and Google (Nexus5)
• Tablet PC shipment has shown the signs of touching the ceiling, and its future growth will be sluggish.
• The automotive CCM shipment totaled 24,946,000 sets in 2012 and will grow by 56.4% year on year to 39,008,000 sets in 2013. The shipment is expected to maintain rapid growth, reaching 59,632,000 sets with the increase of 52.9% in 2014. The automotive CCM market is dominated by Panasonic, Sony, Magna, Valeo, MCNEX, Gentex, Fujitsu, Continetal and Autoliv.
• Without taking DSC into account, CMOS camera modules market is about USD13 billion in 2013, up 28.7% from 2012. Themarket is expected to hit USD15.9 billion in 2014, representing a year-on-year increase of 22.3%, mainly because of the adding of higher pixels and more complex features such as OIS.
• At the image sensor market, Omnivision, Samsung and Sony compete with each other fiercely. Sony firmly occupies the high-end market, especially the market of 13MP and bigger pixel size; Omnivision's revenue in FY2013 surged by 56.8% from the figure in FY2012 by virtue of low prices, but with profit sacrifice. Aptina transfers to less competitive non-handset markets.
• Largan almost monopolizes the beyond-8MP lens market. Its gross margin and operating margin jump from 2012 and the revenue is approaching USD1 billion. The revenue of the second-ranked GSEO falls to less than USD350 million in 2013.
• Taiwanese camera module vendors LITEON, PRIMAX and CHICONY are facing weak growth. However, Chinese and South Korean vendors are developing triumphantly, especially South Korea ones. LG INNOTEK has achieved the world's first laureate again, mainly serving Apple whose at least 70% CCM comes from LG INNOTEK. Taiwanese vendors can only snatch Apple's orders for low-end products. SEMCO's revenue soars thanks to Samsung's handset shipment surge; by profit, SEMCO acts as the world's largest CCM vendor.
• Among Chinese mainland vendors, SUNNY witnesses the strongest growth, and its shipment in 2013 is expected to reach 136 million units, doubling that in 2012. Besides, South Korean vendors also push aggressively into Chinese market, for instance, MCNEX is ZTE's largest supplier and Cowell acts as Lenovo's supplier.

Revenue of the Leading Camera Module Vendors (Unit: US$M)

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EETimes-Europe, Korea JongAng Daily, Korea Economic Daily, Korea Herald: Dongbu financial group, the owner of Dongbu HiTek foundry is planning to sell the foundry to solve the mother company financial problems. Dongbu HiTek is one of the better known foundries making image sensors. SETi, Siliconfile, Pixelplus and other image sensor companies are among its customers. Dongbu has invested several trillion won in Dongbu HiTek in the non-memory semiconductor sector, but the foundry incurred losses for 14 straight years since its creation in 1997. Its first quarterly profit was in 2011.

"After putting in enormous investment and efforts over the past 10 years or so, the business of Dongbu HiTek has just been getting into the right orbit, but in order to dispel concern in the financial community over our future investment in the semiconductor sector, we made an inevitable decision to sell it," Dongbu group said.

Dongbu image sensor processes

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PR Newswire: Xineos-1515 X-Ray imager features Teledyne DALSA's next generation CMOS pixel with 99um resolution and a switchable saturation dose where X-Ray technicians can choose between high sensitivity and extended DR depending on the requirements of the procedure. This high-speed, low-power detector is capable of real-time (30 fps) imaging without the need for forced air or liquid coolers, which makes it an ideal choice for fixed as well as mobile interventional C-Arms, Fluoroscopy and 3D Orthopedic imaging systems.

"Our new Xineos detector signals Teledyne DALSA's continued commitment to designing the industry's highest performing CMOS X-Ray detectors," said Yves Kessener, Senior Product Manager at Teledyne DALSA. "Our versatile panels deliver the low-dose image quality standard of image-intensified CCD cameras with the form factor and workflow advantages of digital flat detectors."

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NS (Stephen) Woo, President & GM of Samsung System LSI Division presentation at Analyst Day on Nov. 6, 2013 has few slides on image sensor progress:

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