Archives for December 2014

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Trillion Sensors Summit held on Nov. 12-13, 2014 in San Diego, publishes Rambus presentation "Lensless Computational Image Sensors as a Foundation for New Opportunities in Biotech" by David Stork. Few slides out of 32:


CEA-Leti too presented its lens-free biomedical imaging, although little details on the operating principle were given.

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BBC reports that a member of the Chaos Computer Club (CCC) hacker network, Jan Krissler, has been able to replicate the fingerprint of German defense minister Ursula von der Leyen using pictures taken with a "standard photo camera". Krissler had no physical print from Ms von der Leyen. He only had obtained a close-up photo of Ms von der Leyen's thumb and had also used other pictures taken at different angles during a press event that the minister had spoken at in October.

A Youtube video (in German) presents the idea:

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CBInsights tracking VC investments registers reduced interest in mobile imaging opportunities. Whereas in Q2 2012 mobile video and photo were the major investment areas, they have disappeared from the Q3 2014 chart:

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Bruker publishes a IMEC's Peter De Wolf presentation of the Scanning Surface Resistance Microscope (SSRM) useful for TCAD tools calibration, among many other things:

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Shizuoka University, Japan published a PhD Thesis "A Study on Noise Reduction in CMOS Image Sensors using High-Gain Front-end Readout Circuits" by Mohd Amrallah bin Mustafa, dated by Aug. 2013. The thesis goes through a quick overview of the major noise sources, including RTN:


Then, thesis goes through the ways to reduce the noise, like correlated multiple sampling (CMS), high gain ADC combined with PGA, and Histogram-based RTN Suppression and Averaging (HRS):


Then, a pixel with two amplifiers is proposed, where a selection circuit chooses the least noisy amplifier out of the two:

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Toshiba Teli's presentation at Vision Show 2014 reveals details of the new Sony Pregius image sensors with 3.45um global shutter pixels:


Thanks to CM for the pointer!

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Intel has shown its front and rear RealSense cameras in its IDF 2014 presentation:


As another Intel presentation from April 2014 tells, the company invests quite a lot into 3D vision development:

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In continuation to the previous post, JS commented that nanoLambda has a similar to Hamamatsu small size spectrometer. NanoLambda's presentation at last year's Trillion Sensors Summit gives some background about the company, its product and applications:


Update: There is a newer nanoLambda presentation from Nov. 2014 build mostly around the emerging consumer applications. The presentation also shows the small spectrometers competition:

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Hamamatsu announces C12666MA, a new compact and cost-effective spectrometer for consumer applications:


The company says: "There is a trade-off relation between the spectrometer size and performance characteristics. As the size becomes smaller, the resolution deteriorates and the performance also declines. Our microspectrometer employs a method that diffracts the light after internally reflecting it one time, and is designed to exhibit the highest possible performance that achieves both satisfactory size and performance characteristics in this type of spectrometer."

"a further step forward was needed in both size and price in order to have them accepted for widespread use in the consumer electronics market... Small spectrometers can be built into compact devices. For example, we can expect to see new applications linked to smartphones or medical devices used at home."


The only company I've heard of working on consumer spectrometer products is Consumer Physics, completed its Kickstarter campaign in May 2014:

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As Rob pointed in comments, there is a nice Andor webinar comparing trade-offs in EMCCD and sCMOS camera design:

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Transparency Market Research predicts that the global camera module market will grow from a net worth of nearly $12.00 billion in 2012 to $43.06 billion by the end of 2019, growing at a CAGR of nearly 19.7% between 2013 and 2019. Rising demands for CMOS camera modules and robust expansion of the market in Asia-Pacific countries such as India, China, Korea, Taiwan, and Singapore are supporting growth of the market.

The global camera module market is highly fragmented with market players competing hard to acquire significant market shares. Major businesses operating in the global camera modules’ marketplace include SEMCO, Liteon Chicony, Toshiba, STMicro, LG-Innotek, Primax, Sharp, Foxconn, Sunny, Samsung Fiberoptic, BYD, Vista Point, Cowell, Truly, and KMOT.

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Dutch PC Magazine reports that Netherlands is the first country where Intel RealSense 3D camera-equipped computers have become available on the market. Only two products featuring RealSense technology have reached the shops so far. Asus N551JQ Ultrabook offers the 3D camera as an option:


The second product is Lenovo B50-30 All-in-one PC, too offering RealSense camera and applications as an option.

The RealSense hardware has a visible camera, an IR camera, and a laser projector. The working distance is said to be 30-50cm.


Dutch Hardware.info site shows the first RealSense products and their camera:

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Alexima's patent application US20140367552 "Image sensors, methods, and pixels with tri-level biased transfer gates" by Jaroslav Hynecek and Alexander Krymski proposes a global shutter "pixel with a transfer gate that is controllable among at least three biasing conditions, including a first biasing condition in which electrons are transferable from a photodiode to a potential well under the transfer gate, a second biasing condition in which the electrons are confined in the potential well under the transfer gate, and a third biasing condition in which the electrons are transferable out of the potential well under the transfer gate." The pixel cross-section and its band diagram in all 3 modes is shown below:

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Dual Aperture International (DAI) has raised $5.7M in Series A funding led by Value Invest Korea (VIK), based in Seoul, South Korea. eWBM, a licensee of DAI’s technology, also participated in the round.

Cheol Lee, CEO of VIK says, “In the past few years, many companies have tried to enable low-cost and low-power 3-D image capture, depth estimation and gesture tracking. We think it’s time to approach the problem anew. We see Dual Aperture’s technology as a game changer and with the engineering resources and world class engineers of CISS, we see an opportunity for Dual Aperture International to disrupt the imaging business in mobile and beyond.”

Dual Aperture's technology and alliances have been covered here, here and here.

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Rice University: Sidong Lei, a graduate student in the Rice lab of materials scientist Pulickel Ajayan, synthesized a single-layer matrix of copper, indium and selenium atoms (CIS). Lei also built a prototype three-pixel CCD to prove the material’s ability to capture an image:


The device traps electrons formed when light hits the material and holds them until released for storage, Lei said. CIS pixels are highly sensitive to light because the trapped electrons dissipate so slowly, said Robert Vajtai, a senior faculty fellow in Rice’s Department of Materials Science and NanoEngineering. “There are many two-dimensional materials that can sense light, but none are as efficient as this material,” he said. “This material is 10 times more efficient than the best we’ve seen before.”

No info on the new sensor's QE is given, however article states that the sensor is transparent.

Manufacturing process starts with few-layer exfoliated CIS on a silicon substrate, ten fabricates three pairs of titanium/gold electrodes on top of the CIS and then cuts the CIS into three sections with a focused ion beam.

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Spectronet posted a presentation "Sony Pregius sensors: A quantum leap for machine vision cameras" by Horst Mattfeldt, Matrix Vision GmbH. Most of it is devoted to the first generation 5.8um pixel IMX174 sensor:


There is also Vimeo video version in German.

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Germany-based BASF, the world's biggest chemical company, develops a 3D image sensor and a camera. "In 2011, BASF scientists invented a new technology with the potential to impact markets as diverse as consumer electronics, automotives, medical applications, and the security industry. At the heart of this technology is a new physical effect, enabled by chemistry developed within BASF. Through a novel distance measurement technique, 3D position detection and 3D imaging can be performed as never before.

Up to now, in state-of-the-art technologies, 3D information was captured either passively by calculating the information from pictures of different perspective angles (triangulation), e.g in stereoscopic cameras, or actively by time-of-flight measurements (ToF). Both traditional technologies use up a large amount of computing power and often require postproduction processing. Now, the BASF sensor works passively with only one lens, and it does not need triangulation for the 3D data capture; this significantly decreases the demand for computing power and makes the 3D data capture very fast: with the new BASF 3D sensor technology real-time 3D imaging may find it’s way into our daily lives."

BASF 3D Sensor

A 120 page-long patent application WO2012110924 "Detector for optically detecting at least one object" by Mohamedi Haroun Al, Ingmar Bruder, Felix Eickemeyer, Peter Erk, Stephan Irle, Andreas Pelster, Rüdiger Sens, and Erwin Thiel, explains how it works:

"the invention is based generally on the hitherto unreported and surprising insight that specific optical sensors exist whose sensor signal is not only dependent on a total light power of the illumination of the sensor region, for example of the sensor area, of these sensors but in which a pronounced signal dependence on a geometry of the illumination, for example a size of a light spot of the illumination on the sensor region, for example the sensor area, also exists. This is generally not the case for most conventional optical sensors, in particular for most inorganic semiconductor sensors, since here the sensor signal is generally dependent only on a total power of the illumination, that is to say an integral over the intensity over the entire light spot which is generally independent of the size of the light spot, that is to say the geometry of the illumination, as long as the light spot lies within the limits of the sensor region. It has surprisingly been discovered, however, that in specific optical sensors, for example organic optical sensors, such a dependence of the sensor signal occurs in which the sensor signal on the one hand rises with the total power of the illumination, but on the other hand, even given a constant total power, is dependent on a geometry of the illumination. Examples of such optical sensors are explained in even greater detail below. By way of example, the sensor signal, given the same total power, can have at least one pronounced maximum for one or a plurality of focusings and/or for one or a plurality of specific sizes of the light spot on the sensor area or within the sensor region."

The application then states that the organic dye-based sensor's response changes if the light is modulated, and using a modulation at different frequencies at two sensors, one can separate illumination and geometrical data. Then the description says:

"In contrast to known detectors, in which a spatial resolution and/or imaging of objects is also generally tied to the fact that the smallest possible sensor areas are used, for example the smallest possible pixels in the case of CCD chips, the sensor region of the proposed detector can be embodied in a very large fashion, in principle, since for example the geometrical information, in particular the at least one item of location information, about the object can be generated from a known relationship for example between the geometry of the illumination and the sensor signal."

The application does not explain much about the processing and how the distance is measured:


The last part of the application is filled by rows of organic chemistry formulas, not sure what they mean:

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Grass Valley's LDK 6000 DPM CCD Multiformat HDTV Camera System, first introduced at the NAB Show in 2000 by Phillips, which was subsequently acquired by Grass Valley, gets 2014 Emmy Award for its ability to capture multiple video formats and frame rates without physically changing the image sensor.

Based on Grass Valley's patented Dynamic Pixel Management (DPM) imager technology, the LDK 6000 Camera has been used in a wide variety of high-profile sports events and broadcasting projects. "The Philips LDK6000 HD Camera System, first demonstrated in 2000, uses their patented DPM (Dynamic Pixel Management) imager technology, enabling the camera to capture multiple video formats and frame rates without physically changing the image sensor. The DPM sensor, a full frame transfer (FT) 2/3" type CCD imager, combines 9.2 million sub pixels (1920x4320) to capture 1920x1080, 1280x720, 720x576, or 720x480 pixel images in 16:9 or 4:3 aspect ratios as well as 2.37:1 (Cinemascope). The DPM sensor, coupled with a mechanical blade shutter, eliminates the vertical artifacts and distortions exhibited by an Interline Transfer (IT) CCD type sensor."

"Our patented CCD technology was a real breakthrough in 2000, and the work we are doing now with our FT-CMOS technology is the next step. Being out front in capture technology guarantees that our customers will always be ready for any opportunity that arises in the future," noted Mike Cronk, SVP of strategic marketing, Grass Valley.

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Marketwired: Gentex announces an HDR image sensor with per-pixel exposure control: "Automotive video for rear vision requires a camera with high dynamic range, which is the ratio between the brightest and darkest areas of a given scene. The challenge is to display the details in the darkest and brightest areas of a given scene simultaneously, without causing the display to "washout" due to bright light sources. The new Gentex camera meets this challenge in a unique way, with a proprietary CMOS (complementary metal oxide semiconductor) imager that delivers unprecedented dynamic range. The imager allows each individual camera pixel to choose its own exposure, self-adjusting so that the brightest and darkest areas of any given scene are clear and visible."

Gentex' Nov 2014 investor presentation gives a little bit more detail on the new HDR sensor:

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Altera presents its video processing solutions in a series of videos. The first video talks about about the challenges in 4K processing IP:



Another video talks about challenges on the way to 8K HEVC encoder:



The third video talks about 4K 60fps real-time HEVC encoder:

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InVisage announces that it has set a new record for capital raised by any imaging company. The company adds China Oceanwide USA Holdings, the US subsidiary of China-based China Oceanwide Holdings Group to its roster of investors. With Oceanwide’s investment, InVisage’s total funding for its latest round has grown to $32.5M. The previous investment round announced in April 2014 has already brought the company's total investment "to more than $100 million." Then, in Oct. 2014, Invisage got a venture loan.

“We’re delighted to continue to attract market-driving investors,” says Jess Lee, CEO at InVisage. “These partners bring solid validation on an increasingly global scale. We are pleased to welcome Oceanwide as part of our broad initiative to address the China market.”

In addition to Oceanwide, InVisage’s latest funding round also includes investments from GGV Capital, Nokia Growth Partners, InterWest Partners, Intel Capital, and RockPort Capital. Ivisage QuantumFilm products are said to be released next year.

In an unrelated news, Invisage publishes a poll of 500 mobile camera users on what bothers them in their cameras. Here are the partial results:

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PRNewswire: SMIC has begun operations at its Shenzhen 200mm wafer fab. This fab is the first 8-inch production line to be put into operation in Southern China, and is also the first domestic IC production line to be launched after the 'National Outline of Promoting the Development of IC Industry' was issued this year. According to the plan, by end of this year, the fab will reach an installed capacity of 10,000 wafers per month; by end of 2015 it will reach 20,000 wafers per month, and will continue to expand its capacity further. The wafer production will mainly be devoted to image sensors, logic circuits, power management ICs and other consumer and communication electronics.

Talking about other SMIC updates, the company's Nov. 2014 presentation shows 0.13um and 0.11um BSI sensors in production and TSV for CIS in development:

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GizmoChina: Huawei presents the new Honor 6 Plus mobile phone with dual rear camera. The two 8MP cameras can shot 13MP pictures when combined, or, in low light, provide a sensitivity equivalent to pixel size of 1.98um. The dual camera also supports HDR mode and fast 0.1s AF based on stereo triangulation and features a new DSLR-like ISP integrated onto its HiSilicon Kirin 925 application processor.

A Youtube video with English subtitles explains the dual camera features:

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ISSCC 2015 program has 11 image sensor-related papers in 3 sessions, and one image sensing tutorial. T10 tutorial "CMOS Sensors for 3D Imaging" by David Stoppa covers all 3D techniques with an emphasis on ToF imagers.

Session 6 "Image Sensors and Displays" contains 5 image sensor papers:

A 1/1.7-inch 20Mpixel Back-Illuminated Stacked CMOS Image Sensor for New Imaging Applications
A. Suzuki, N. Shimamura, T. Kainuma, N. Kawazu, C. Okada, T. Oka, K. Koiso, A. Masagaki, Y. Yagasaki, S. Gonoi, T. Ichikawa, M. Mizuno, T. Sugioka, T. Morikawa, Y. Inada, and H. Wakabayashi
Sony, Atsugi, Japan
Sony Semiconductor, Kikuyou, Japan
Sony, Shinagawa, Japan
Sony LSI Design, Fukuoka, Japan
Sony LSI Design, Atsugi, Japan

133Mpixel 60fps CMOS Image Sensor with 32-Column Shared High-Speed Column-Parallel SAR ADCs
R. Funatsu, S. Huang, T. Yamashita, K. Stevulak, J. Rysinski, D. Estrada, S. Yan, T. Soeno, T. Nakamura, T. Hayashida, H. Shimamoto, and B. Mansoorian
NHK Science & Technology Research Laboratories, Tokyo, Japan
Forza Silicon, Pasadena, CA

A 45.5µW 15fps Always-On CMOS Image Sensor for Mobile and Wearable Devices
J. Choi, J. Shin, D. Kang, D-S. Park
Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology, Suwon, Korea

Single-Shot 200Mfps 5×3-Aperture Compressive CMOS Imager
F. Mochizuki, K. Kagawa, S-I. Okihara, M-W. Seo, B. Zhang, T. Takasawa, K. Yasutomi, S. Kawahito
Shizuoka University, Hamamatsu, Japan
The Graduate School for the Creation of New Photonics Industries, Hamamatsu, Japan

25.3μW at 60fps 240×160-Pixel Vision Sensor for Motion Capturing with In-Pixel Non-Volatile Analog Memory Using Crystalline Oxide Semiconductor FET
T. Ohmaru, T. Nakagawa, S. Maeda, Y. Okamoto, M. Kozuma, S. Yoneda, H. Inoue, Y. Kurokawa, T. Ikeda, Y. Ieda, N. Yamade, H. Miyairi, M. Ikeda, S. Yamazaki1
Semiconductor Energy Laboratory, Kanagawa, Japan
University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan

Session 11 "Sensors and Imagers for Life Sciences" has another 5 image sensor papers:

A 10.8ps-Time-Resolution 256×512 Image Sensor with 2-Tap True-CDS Lock-In Pixels for Fluorescence Lifetime Imaging
M-W. Seo, K. Kagawa, K. Yasutomi, T. Takasawa, Y. Kawata, N. Teranishi, Z. Li, I. A. Halin, S. Kawahito
Shizuoka University, Hamamatsu, Japan
Putra University, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia

A 160×120-Pixel Analog-Counting Single-Photon Imager with Sub-ns Time-Gating and Self-Referenced Column-Parallel A/D Conversion for Fluorescence Lifetime Imaging
M. Perenzoni, N. Massari, D. Perenzoni, L. Gasparini, D. Stoppa
Fondazione Bruno Kessler (FBK), Trento, Italy

A 67,392-SPAD PVTB-Compensated Multi-Channel Digital SiPM with 432 Column-Parallel 48ps 17b TDCs for Endoscopic Time-of-Flight PET
A. Carimatto, S. Mandai, E. Venialgo, T. Gong, G. Borghi, D. R. Schaart, E. Charbon
Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands

A Time-Correlated Single-Photon-Counting Sensor with 14GS/s Histogramming Time-to-Digital Converter
N. A. W. Dutton, S. Gnecchi, L. Parmesan, A. J. Holmes, B. Rae, L. A. Grant, R. K. Henderson
University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
STMicroelectronics, Edinburgh, United Kingdom

A Multimodality CMOS Sensor Array for Cell-Based Assay and Drug Screening
J. S. Park, T. Chi, J. Butts, T. Hookway, T. McDevitt, H. Wang
Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA

Session 16 on Emerging Technologies has one image sensor paper:

A Large-Area Image Sensing and Detection System Based on Embedded Thin-Film Classifiers
W. Rieutort-Louis, T. Moy, Z. Wang, S. Wagner, J. C. Sturm, N. Verma
Princeton University, Princeton, NJ

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Pixart patent application US20140358302 "Apparatus having gesture sensor" by Chung-yuo Wu, Yi-hsien Ko, and Nientse Chen proposes gesture control that can finely change the water flow, rather than a simple on/off IR switch used now:

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BusinessWire: Ambarella announces that the Global Semiconductor Alliance (GSA) has honored the company with the award for “Most Respected Emerging Public Semiconductor Company (achieving $100 to $250 million in annual sales).” “In previous years, Ambarella has been awarded six GSA awards including ‘Start-up to watch,’ ‘Most Respected Private Semiconductor Company’ and last year’s Morgan Stanley ‘Favorite Analyst Semiconductor Company.’ This year’s honor is a tribute to Ambarella’s diligence and continued excellence in business practices,” said Jodi Shelton, president of GSA.

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Nikkei Tech, PCWorld: Panasonic presents Hikari ID technology based on ID signals transmitted by backlighting LEDs of LCD signs. The LEDs flicker at a rate that is imperceptible to the human eye, but picked up by smartphone camera sensors from up to 5m away. The transmission speed is said to be several kilobits per second, according to Panasonic, significantly faster than conventional speeds for visible light communication (VLC). Panasonic plans to commercialize a device that transmits an ID from a light source in fiscal 2015.


PCWorld: Fujitsu presented a similar illumination-based LED technology, but with a slower speed of 10bps. Fujitsu too aims to commercialize it during its fiscal 2015.

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Silvaco publishes an application note on 4T pixel radiation damage simulation. The simulator includes quite fine effects: "Particle bombardment can change the arrangement of the atoms in the crystal lattice creating lasting damage, and increase the number of recombination (defect) centers depleting the minority carriers and degrading the analog properties of the affected semiconductor junctions. High dose rates of particles (particles/area-s) can cause partial annealing (“healing”) of the damaged lattice, leading to a lower degree of damage than with the same doses delivered in low intensity over a longer time period."

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