Archives for December 2021

Oppo Unveils 6nm Imaging NPU – MariSilicon X

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One of the largest China-based smartphone companies, Oppo, announces its first self-designed imaging NPU - MariSilicon X. Built on 6nm process technology, MariSilicon X combines a NPU, ISP, and multi-tier memory architecture, which makes real-time RAW processing possible to capture 4K AI Night Video with live preview.

With more than a decade of experience in pushing the boundaries of image technology, OPPO has been behind some of the biggest innovations in the industry when it comes to camera modules, lenses, and algorithms,” says Jiang Bo, OPPO’s Senior Director. “Our new cutting-edge imaging NPU is the biggest leap we’ve taken so far, which brings more power to mobile imaging systems and will create extraordinary experience for our users.


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Canon develops SPAD sensor with world-highest 3.2-megapixel count, innovates with low-light imaging camera that realizes high color reproduction even in dark environments

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Nikon Z 28-75mm f2.8 review

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The Nikon Z 28-75mm f2.8 is a general purpose zoom for full-frame Z-series mirrorless cameras, delivering a useful range and fast aperture at a low weight and reasonable price. Do you really need 24mm? Find out more in our review!…

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Samsung Presentation of 50MP All-Directional PDAF Sensor with 2.2V Pixel Supply

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Hot Chips publishes Samsung its August 2021 conference materials, including Samsung ISOCELL GN2 presentation "World Largest Mobile Image Sensor with All Directional Phase Detection Auto Focus Function" by Sukki Yoon:


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Qurv Reviews CQD SWIR Technology

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Information Display publishes a paper "Colloidal Quantum Dot Image Sensors: Technology and Marketplace Opportunities" by Stijn Goossens, Gerasimos Konstantatos, and Antonios Oikonomou from Qurv startup, Grenoble, France, Barcelona, Spain.

"Most computer vision applications can benefit dramatically from the electromagnetic spectrum's NIR (0.7–1.0 μm) and SWIR (1.0–2.5 μm) range. First, sunlight interference can be reduced up to four orders of magnitude (104×), enabling more robust active light-based sensing systems, such as LiDAR and eye-tracking, in outdoor conditions. More relaxed eye safety conditions in the SWIR band allow LiDAR systems to allow orders of magnitude more power, enabling a significant range increase. Furthermore, up to 40× times more photons are available in the SWIR band during moonless nights, allowing true night vision (Fig. 2). Fog and haze are more transparent in the SWIR; therefore, a SWIR imaging system enables enhanced safety under all weather conditions. Furthermore, SWIR imaging enables the detection of substances using optical detection of molecular fingerprints. Qurv names this molecular vision, and envisions use cases such as food quality inspection or distinguishing between water and black ice on the road."

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Nikon is developing the NIKKOR Z 800mm f/6.3 VR S, a super-telephoto prime lens for the Nikon Z mount system

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Nikon releases the NIKKOR Z 28-75mm f/2.8 for the Nikon Z mount system

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GPixel Unveils Full-Frame Sensors for High End Photography and Video

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Gpixel announces GCINE4349, a first product in the new GCINE product series based on BSI stacked image sensor technology for cinematography, drones, production imaging and other video applications. The GCINE product line features BSI for high QE and good angular response, as well as wafer stacking with exposure summing for HDR modes up to 110 dB (18+ f-stops) and 8K frame rates up to 120 fps.

GCINE4349, the first new product of this family, is a 49MP (35.2 x 25.8 mm) full frame image sensor with a 4.3 μm^2 BSI pixels supporting 8K or binned 4K video with maximum frame rates of up to 120 fps at 8K resolution and up to 240 fps at binned 4K resolutions, all with a pixel bit depth of up to 16 bit/pixel interfaced over 64 sub LVDS channels @ 1.2 Gbps/channel. In full frame you can use the full width of the sensor (8192 pixel) for 8K DCI widescreen, 2.4:1 8K wide or scope format, 8K open gate and various other creative imaging formats.

GCINE4349 is developed using a 2-wafer level stacked BSI architecture. The top layer consists of a BSI pixel array with 49M 4.3 um pixels achieving a maximum QE of up to 75% at 525 nm. The bottom digital CMOS layer consists of an array of core cells each including 16-bit ADC blocks and SRAM memory blocks which are used to sum and store up to 4 subsequent sub-frames with seamless exposure, enabling an in-pixel full well charge of up to 160k e- for a dynamic range of 80 dB.

The GCINE4349 architecture also supports two additional HDR modes. Firstly, a proprietary Variable Slope High Dynamic Range method achieving an exceptionally high 110 dB of Dynamic Range. Secondly, a classic dual gain read out achieving up to 87 dB of Dynamic Range. An additional DSC mode can be enabled for low noise read out down to 1.7 e- and dedicated shutter control for DSC operation.

GCINE4349 is packaged in a 431-pin LGA ceramic package and comes with a double side AR coated glass lid.

Gpixel plans to expand the GCINE sensor series and offer a broad portfolio of products suitable for high-end video and photography.

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DJI Mavic 3 Review

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The Mavic 3 is DJI’s flagship folding camera drone. It's the first to feature dual cameras mounted on the same gimbal: a Hasselblad four-thirds sensor and a 28x hybrid zoom. Find out why it's best in its class in our review!…

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Axcelis Explains its Strengths in Image Sensor Manufacturing

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Axcelis Investor Presentation explains the company's offerings in CIS production:

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Article about Will Semi and its CEO

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Tencent article talks about Will Semi, Omnivision's parent company, and its CEO Renrong Yu:
  • Will Semi  is the second largest company in China's semiconductor and chip stocks by market value, second only to SMIC.
  • According to data from the China Semiconductor Industry Association, Will Semi is the second largest company in China's IC design companies in terms of revenue, second only to HiSilicon.
  • According to Techsugar's statistics, Will Semi design revenue in 2020 is about 17.3 billion yuan, and it is the only company with a revenue of over 10 billion among the Shanghai and Shenzhen IC design companies. Goodix Technology’s IC design business is the second only 67 100 million yuan in revenue.
  • Will Semi is the company with the largest number of employees (3291) among domestic listed chip design companies, with the highest per capita research and development expenses -up to 1.05 million yuan per capita. In 2020, the research and development expenses reached 1.727 billion yuan.
  • The per capita salary of Will Semi reaches 456,631.64 yuan, and the employee benefits are among the best
In 1985, Yu Renrong successfully entered Tsinghua University's Department of Wireless Communication (now Electronic Engineering Department) 85 EE85 class, only then began to have the legendary character of the protagonist in the novel:

Class 85 EE85 of the Department of Wireless Communications of Tsinghua University (Beijing) is known as "Half of China's Chip Industry". Many people who will stir China's chip and sensor industries in the future come from here, such as:
  • Zhao Weiguo - Tsinghua Unisplendour and Yangtze River Storage, Chairman (leading domestic chip company)
  • Yu Renrong - Founder of Will Semi
  • Feng Chenhui - Co-founder of Zhuosheng Microelectronics (Leading RF Chip Enterprise)
  • Lu Huang - One of the early investors of Will Semiconductor and Zhaoyi Innovation. Founder of 4 companies including Quanzhou Kuntaixin Microelectronics Technology Co., Ltd., Quanzhou Yushuo Industrial Design Co., Ltd. and Quanzhou Aifang Technology Co., Ltd.
  • Lidong Zhao - Founder of Suiyuan Technology (China's first self-developed artificial intelligence high-end training chip), former General Manager of RDA
  • Zhao Lixin - Founder of Galaxycore Microelectronics (leading domestic camera sensor company)
  • Ren Zhijun - Founder of Xinhenghui Smart Card Company
  • Shu Qingming - One of the founders of Zhaoyi Innovation (a leading company in memory chips)
  • Weidong Liu - Founder of Jiuhao Electronics (sensor signal conditioning chip)
  • Yu Qunhui (female) - Deputy General Manager of Feitian Integrity
  • Gao Feng - General Manager of Stony Brook Capital (Semiconductor Investment Fund), former Deputy General Manager of Tsinghua Unisplendour

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Evolution of Scientific Image Sensors – Past, Present, and Future

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IEEE Buenaventura Section publishes a presentation "Evolution of Scientific Image Sensor ICs - Past, Present, and Future" by Atul Joshi , CEO and chief innovation officer of SAAZ Micro Inc.

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Terranet Develops Event Camera-Based LiDAR

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Terranet CTO Nihat Kücük presents BlincVision combining structured light 3D imaging with event-driven sensor:


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Event-Based Structured Light 3D Imaging

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ETH Zurich publishes "ESL: Event-based Structured Light" project page by M. Muglikar, G. Gallego, and D. Scaramuzza.

"We propose a novel structured-light system using an event camera to tackle the problem of accurate and high-speed depth sensing. Our setup consists of an event camera and a laser-point projector that uniformly illuminates the scene in a raster scanning pattern during 16 ms. Previous methods match events independently of each other, and so they deliver noisy depth estimates at high scanning speeds in the presence of signal latency and jitter. In contrast, we optimize an energy function designed to exploit event correlations, called spatio-temporal consistency. The resulting method is robust to event jitter and therefore performs better at higher scanning speeds. Experiments demonstrate that our method can deal with high-speed motion and outperform state-of-the-art 3D reconstruction methods based on event cameras, reducing the RMSE by 83% on average, for the same acquisition time."

A Youtube video presentation describes the ETH approach:

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Tamron 35-150mm f2-2.8 Di III review

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Tamron's 35-150mm f2-2.8 Di III is a unique proposition for full-frame mirrorless cameras, combining an unusually bright aperture with a useful 4.3x range from mild wide-angle to telephoto. Find out how it performs in our in-depth review!…

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Imec SWIR Plans

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 Imec has updated its page on SWIR imagers, including a new Vimeo video:

The Pixel Technology Explore activity is looking at two methods for cost-effective uncooled IR detection:

  1. thin film on silicon – Materials such as organic and colloidal quantum dots offer low-cost synthesis, compatibility with a variety of substrates and processing feasibility on a large area. This article gives you an in-depth view.
  2. hybrid infrared imagers – Both III-V hetero-epitaxy on silicon and III-V material transfer on silicon are compatible with processing in a silicon wafer fab and reduce the manufacturing costs of IR sensors.


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Luminar CTO Explains Major Advantages of InGaAs Sensors in LiDARs

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Luminar co-founder and CTO Jason Eichenholz discusses the company’s acquisition of its exclusive InGaAs sensor provider and advantages of the SWIR LiDAR photon budget:

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SiLC Unveils First Commercial-grade FMCW LiDAR

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BusinessWireSiLC launches the new Eyeonic LiDAR providing accurate instantaneous depth, velocity, and dual-polarization intensity information while enabling immunity to multi-user and environmental interference. No performance data has been released.

Eyeonic will be transformational to many industries across the globe by enabling the anticipated mass migration to coherent imaging,” explained Mehdi Asghari, founder and CEO, SiLC. “Our unique technology and innovative manufacturing process puts SiLC in the optimal position to provide the key building blocks needed for this next wave of significant innovation – at a competitive price.


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MIPI D-PHY Introduction

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MIPI publishes a video introduction into different D-PHY standards:


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Canon to Start Mass Production of Low-Light SPAD Sensor for Security Cameras in 2022, Builds New CIS Fab in 2023

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Nikkei-Asia: Canon plans to start mass-production of the 3.2MP SPAD sensor for security cameras in 2022. The sensor is said to provide a color night vision, as well as ToF feature:

"The sensor can recognize light at one-tenth the brightness conventional sensors need, lending itself to a range of industrial applications such as driving and surveillance.

The number of pixels in a sensor is key to image clarity, and Canon's SPAD sensor boasts 3.2 million, making it the world's densest, more than three times the number of the company's conventional sensor. It can recognize the time of light returning in units of less than a nanosecond, allowing for more accurate object recognition.

Canon's factory in Kawasaki will begin mass-producing the new sensor in the second half of 2022. The company plans to install the sensors in its own security cameras that it is to introduce by the end of next year. It will also market the sensors to other companies.

In 2023, Canon will invest more than 21 billion yen ($185 million) to build a new image sensor plant in the Kanagawa Prefecture city of Hiratsuka, where it plans to gradually increase production of the sensor. The sensor can be made with the production technology used for CMOS sensors and at around the same cost."

Update: Few slides from the company's 2020 presentation:

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Sony SPAD Presentation

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Build the fastest portable SSD

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Portable drives are invaluable and in this guide I’ll show you how to build the fastest one I’ve ever tested - and it only took two parts and a few minutes to assemble! …

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Sony SWIR Presentation

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Lucid Vision presents its SWIR camera based on Sony SenSWIR InGaAs stacked sensor:


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Q3 Smartphone Sensor Shipments Drop by 24% YoY

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Aiji Micro App: According to Qunzhi Consulting’s (English name Sigmaintell) market report, global smartphone CIS shipments in Q3 2021 were approximately 1.21B, a YoY decline of approximately 24.0%. Qunzhi Consulting estimates that global smartphone image sensor shipments in 2021 will be approximately 5.05B, a YoY decrease of 10.3%:

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Samsung, DxOMark, and Counterpoint on Mobile Camera Innovations and Trends

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Tecno Mobile publishes a webinar "Mobile Camera Trends 2022: Innovation Talk:"


Among other things, Samsung presents a 64MP GWB mobile sensor:

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Sony SenSWIR White Paper

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Sony publishes a white paper promoting its InGaAs SWIR sensors:

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MIPI CSE Adds Functional Safety to Automotive Image Sensor Interface

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MIPI Alliance has recently released the Camera Service Extensions (MIPI CSESM) v1.0 specification, which enhances the MIPI Camera Serial Interface 2 (MIPI CSI-2) image sensor interface with end-to-end functional safety and other features for automotive applications:

  • A cyclic redundancy check (CRC-32) to detect data transmission errors, ensuring the image data captured by the sensor is accurate when received at the ECU
  • A frame counter to detect frame loss or duplication, with its accuracy verified by the CRC, ensuring the continuity of video streams from cameras to ECU
  • A message counter that can be used as a timeout checker to detect any loss of data caused by a stopped or stuck transmission between an image sensor and ECU
  • Service Extension Packet (SEP) functionality is implemented over the entire PHY link, which provides packetization and uniform delivery of image data.

While the initial release of CSE provides the functional safety enabling features described above, the next version is already under development. CSE v2.0 will add security features to CSE_i and CSE_c, and will work with the upcoming MIPI Security specification to bring end-to-end security to the MASS framework. Version 2.0 is expected to be completed in mid-2022.

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Pixart Unveils Distance Sensors

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EETimes: Pixart launches Single-Axis Distance Sensor (SAS) product line based on the optical-geometric technology.  There are two sensors in the new product line: PAC7088J1 is a middle-range version and PAC7088J2 is s short range one.

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Photon Counting Camera Use Cases

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Hamamatsu publishes a new flyer for its Orca-Quest qCMOS camera with example applications for its photon resolving capability:

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Image Sensors and AI Processors

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PRNewswire: Xailient announces face recognition AI for Sony's intelligent vision sensor IMX500 with 97.8% accuracy up to 3 meters distance. On the IMX500, Xailient claims to provide the world's most power-efficient Face Recognition AI.

Shivy Yohanandan, Chief Scientist and co-founder of Xailient, says, "The IMX500 is a game-changer for the smart camera market. Delivering the image sensor and AI processing on a single chip has dramatic power efficiency benefits, which is important to extending battery life."

Ray Edwards, Xailient's VP of Market Development, says, "This should sell like hotcakes! Anyone building a smart camera system would be nuts not to consider the IMX500. This is the new standard."


SynSense and Prophesee announced a partnership. The two companies leverage their respective expertise in sensing and processing to develop ultra-low-power solutions for implementing intelligence on the edge for event-based vision applications.

The partnership combines in one single chip SynSense’s low-power vision SNN processor DYNAP-CNN with Prophesee’s event-based Metavision sensors, and is focused on developing a line of cost-efficient modules that can be manufactured at high volume.

As IoT applications in smart homes, offices, industries and cities proliferate, there is an increasing need for more intelligence on the edge. Our experience in implementing neuromorphic enabled vision sensing with smart pixel methods complements SynSense’s expertise in neuromorphic processing to make implementing high performance vision more practical. Together we can drive the development of highly efficient, lower cost products that provide more visibility, safety and productivity in a wide range of use cases.” said Luca Verre, CEO and co-founder of Prophesee.

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