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Sony polarization sensors get more and more customers. Teledyne DALSA introduces its Genie Nano camera built around the Sony Pregius 5.1MP polarized image sensor. The Genie Nano-M2450-Polarized model features a monochrome quad polarization filter, resolution of 2448 x 2048 pixels, and image capture of 35 fps.

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BusinessWire: ON Semi introduces the industry’s first 1/1.7-inch 2.1MP CMOS sensor featuring the newly developed 4.2μm BSI pixels. The AR0221 is said to deliver class-leading low light sensitivity for industrial applications. The AR0221 also offers 3-exposure line-interleaved HDR, supporting frame rates of 1080p at 30 fps.

Gianluca Colli, VP and GM, Consumer Solution Division of Image Sensor Group at ON Semi says: “The AR0221 represents the industry’s best CMOS image sensor in this class, thanks to its outstanding low light sensitivity and SNR performance. By including features like windowing, auto black level correction and an onboard temperature sensor, ON Semiconductor has produced an image sensor that will enable a new generation of security and surveillance cameras.”

The AR0221 is in production now.

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TechInsights compares Sony and Samsung 3-layer stacked sensors found in different version of Galaxy S9 smartphone:


Sony "IMX345 general structure is similar to the IMX400, the world’s first 3-layer stacked imager from the year-old Sony Xperia XZs:"


"In contrast to Sony’s custom-DRAM-in-the-middle wafer stack, Samsung has chosen to assemble its stack by micro-bumping a standard DRAM chip face-to-back on the ISP:"


Thanks to RF for the pointer!

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ExtremeTech: Ambarella self-driving test vehicle is a rare case of LiDAR-less platform:

"its EVA (Embedded Vehicle Autonomy) development vehicle built on its CVFlow architecture and a phalanx of 20 cameras powered by 16 of its CV1 image and vision processing SoCs.

For long range detection, EVA relies on six of Ambarella’s SuperCam3 4K stereo cameras, each with a 75-degree field of view. They are arranged in a hexagon, providing full 360-degree coverage. Ambarella claims that the system can detect and identify a pedestrian out to 150 meters, and as far as 180 meters if coupled with additional neural network software.

Each stereo camera is powered by its own pair of Ambarella’s CV1 vision SoCs. The cameras use Sony IMX317 sensors.. have lower resolution to give them bigger pixels and improved low-light and high-dynamic range performance.

The short-range stereo cameras are place in the front, back, and both sides of the car. Utilizing fisheye lenses, this provides the EVA with a full 360-degree view of the area immediately around the car. The four stereo cameras are supported by a dedicated pair of CV1 SoCs, and use an array of Sony’s 2MP IMX290, which feature very large pixels.

Rounding out the system are a front-facing radar for redundancy and driving in poor visibility, and a PC to run higher-level sensor fusion, localization, and path planning tasks."

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Samsung publishes an interview with Galaxy S9 fast camera design team:

"We were able to achieve a readout speed that is four times faster than conventional cameras thanks to a three-layer stacked image sensor that includes the CMOS image sensor itself, a fast readout circuit, and a dedicated dynamic random-access (DRAM) memory chip, which previously was not added to image sensors,” explained Dongsoo Kim. “Integrating DRAM allowed us to overcome obstacles such as speed limits between the sensor and application processor (AP) in a high-speed camera with 960fps features.

“It wasn’t easy testing out Motion Detection for Super Slow-mo, especially with people staring at us when we brought our laptops to these amusement parks and took videos of fast-moving rides. However, we were all committed to getting the feature exactly right,” said Dongsoo Kim.

“We also shot for two hours in the middle of a mountain range, on a freezing night, to complete the low-light camera function,” recalled Sungwook Choi."

Samsung also publishes a picture showing the 3-Layer structure - pixel layer on top, logic layer in the middle and DRAM on the bottom:


Photoblographer publishes Sony’s Mark Weir short explanation about fast full-frame stacked sensor used in A9 camera (dated by April 2017):

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BusinessWire: ON Semi introduces its first CMOS sensors with NIR+ technology combining HDR with enhanced low light performance for high-end security and surveillance cameras.

The AR0522 is a 1/2.5-inch 5.1MP sensor based on a 2.2 μm BSI pixel platform, developed for industrial applications that require high resolution, high quality video capture in low light conditions. The AR0522 image sensor delivers approximately twice the sensitivity in NIR over the existing AR0521.

The AR0431 is a 1/3.2-inch 4 MP sensor based on a 2.0 μm BSI pixel technology platform. Offering low power modes and a frame rate of up to 120 fps, it is aimed to applications where slow motion video capture is required. Its low operating power fits for battery-powered security cameras, action/sports cameras, in-car DVRs and general surveillance cameras.

ON Semi has developed NIR+ technology to increase NIR QE without sacrificing color fidelity in the visible spectrum. Through this technique, security cameras can use fewer IR LEDs on BOM driven at lower voltages and still achieve high quality images in low light and NIR conditions.

Gianluca Colli, VP and GM, Consumer Solution Division of Image Sensor Group at ON Semiconductor said: “Our NIR+ technology and the back-side illuminated pixel platforms utilised in the AR0522 and AR0431 really come together to deliver outstanding image quality and low-light performance, resulting in brighter and sharper images even in challenging lighting conditions.”

The AR0522 engineering samples are available now, with mass production planned for May 2018. Engineering samples of the AR0431 will be available later in April 2018, with mass production starting in July 2018.

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Image Sensors Auto Europe 2018 program has been published and and has a number of image sensing papers, primarily about LiDARs:

• LiDAR past, present, and future: seeing through the noise
  Anand Gopalan | CTO of Velodyne LiDAR, Inc.
  The presenter will trace the evolution of LiDAR from beginning to the current state of the art.
  He will then discuss the multitude of LiDAR approaches in the public domain and attempt to separate the hype from the reality.
  Finally, he will explore future trends toward greater integration and “edge compute.”
• Improving LIDAR sensitivity by using a DMD to mask ambient light
  John Fenske | DLP Automotive Systems Engineer of Texas Instruments
  Why ambient light is a problem in LIDAR systems and how it defines the noise floor
  How to use a DMD to block ambient light and increase LIDAR sensitivity
  How to estimate the performance improvement given by the enhanced sensitivity
• How to improve robustness of automotive LiDARs
  Celine Canal | Senior Project Leader & ADAS Application Engineer of Quantel Laser
  Trends in solid-state LiDARs
  Challenges and design considerations of novel beam steering approaches and flash LiDARs
  Short-pulse edge-emitter diode arrays
• Moving from legacy LiDAR to next-generation iDAR (Intelligent Detection and Ranging)
  John Stockton | VP of Product of AEye
  Traditional LiDAR systems, because of siloed sensors and rigid data collection methods, tend to oversample or undersample information. This then requires significant processing power and time to extract critical objects, leading to latency. Second-generation systems are emerging that fuse intelligence with the data collection process - enabling the system to dynamically track targets and objects of interest, with almost no computational penalty.
  In this session, AEye will delve into this new form of intelligent data collection, called iDAR”, or “Intelligent Detection and Ranging”. The session will help industry players understand iDAR’s role in optimising data collection, reducing bandwidth, improving vision perception and intelligence, and speeding up motion planning for autonomous vehicles.

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SystemPlus publishes reverse enginering report of ams ambient light sensor found in iPhone 8:

"ams AG is a long-time supplier for Apple’s iPhone and has the biggest share of the ambient light sensor (ALS) market.

By introducing the RGBC sensor into high-end smartphones, ams has placed a key milestone leading to the next-generation, true-color sensor inside the iPhone X.

ams’ iPhone 8 color sensor is located at the phone’s front, sharing the flex PCB with the proximity sensor and the front camera module. The sensor is integrated in a 6-pin LGA package with dimensions 2.85 mm x 2.61 mm x 0.53 mm.

For the iPhone 8, Apple chose to continue its partnership with ams, but with a next-generation ALS that allows for detecting a wider range of wavelengths (color and infrared). The uniqueness of this color sensor lies in the organic material used for certain filters, which involves a more complex process. The die design has also changed, with around 4x more photodiodes than the ALS in the iPhone 6S or 7, and there’s a circular arrangement for the sensing part which improves sensing ability. The central filter region is for the infrared sensor, and the color sensors are positioned around it. They are composed of organic color filters and interferometric filters."

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Brookman Technology publishes Youtube demo of its ToF camera of Dynamic ambient light suppression (DALS) by Multi-tap sensing technology with Short Pulse Modulation (SPM):

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BusinessWire: ON Semiconductor announces KAE-08152 that shares the same 8.1MP resolution and 4/3 optical format as the existing KAE-08151, but incorporates an enhanced pixel design that doubles NIR QE at 850 nm – critical for surveillance, microscopy, and ophthalmology. The KAE-08152 is fully drop-in compatible with the existing device, simplifying adoption for camera manufacturers.

In addition, all devices in ON Semiconductor’s IT-EMCCD portfolio are now available with packages that incorporate an integrated thermoelectric cooler.

“Interline Transfer EMCCD technology enables image capture with video frame rates even under extreme low-light conditions – down to moonless starlight,” said Herb Erhardt, VP and GM of Industrial Solutions Division, Image Sensor Group at ON Semiconductor. “With new options that provide enhanced NIR sensitivity and integrated cooling, this expanded portfolio allows customers to identify the best low-light imaging solution for their application.”

Interline Transfer EMCCD devices combine two established imaging technologies with a unique output structure to enable a new class of low-noise, high-dynamic range imaging. Interline Transfer CCD provides excellent image quality and uniformity with a highly efficient electronic shutter, while EMCCD excels under low-light conditions. Combining these technologies allows the low-noise architecture of EMCCD to be extended to multi-megapixel resolutions, and an innovative output design allows both standard CCD (normal-gain) and EMCCD (high-gain) outputs to be utilized for a single image capture - extending intrascene dynamic range and scene detection from sunlight to starlight in a single image.

Engineering grade versions of the KAE-08152 are now available, with production planned for 2Q18. KAE-04471 and KAE-08151 devices with integrated TEC coolers will be in production in 2Q18, while cooled versions of the KAE-02150 and KAE-02152 are available today. All IT-EMCCD devices ship in ceramic micro-PGA packages, and are available in both Monochrome and Bayer Color configurations. The KAE-02152 is also available with the Sparse CFA color pattern.

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University of Illinois publishes Eric Fossum March 29, 2018 presentation on QIS:

" The Quanta Image Sensor (QIS) is a possible 3rd generation solid-state image sensor technology based on photon-counting. Primarily focused on scientific and defense applications, it may also be useful for consumer applications. The specialized QIS pixel device and its deep sub-electron read noise will be discussed. The specialized pixel uses ultra-low capacitance rather than avalanche multiplication to achieve single photoelectron detection capability. The high frame rate, low power readout will also be described. The QIS opens new possibilities for computational imaging.

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VLSI Symposium to be held on June 18-22, 2018 in Honolulu, HI, publishes lists circuits and technology accepted papers with few image sensor related ones:

• A Two‐Tap NIR Lock‐In Pixel CMOS Image Sensor with Background Light Cancelling Capability for Non-Contact Heart Rate Detection,
  Chen Cao, Shizuoka University
• A 252 × 144 SPAD pixel FLASH LiDAR with 1728 Dual‐clock 48.8 ps TDCs, Integrated Histogramming and 14.9‐to‐1 Compression in 180nm CMOS Technology,
  Scott Lindner, EPFL and University of Zurich
• A 220 m‐Range Direct Time‐of‐Flight 688 × 384 CMOS Image Sensor with Sub‐Photon Signal Extraction (SPSE) Pixels Using Vertical Avalanche Photo‐Diodes and 6 kHz Light Pulse Counters,
  Shinzo Koyama, Panasonic Corp.
• An over 120 dB wide‐dynamic‐range 3.0 μm pixel image sensor with in‐pixel capacitor of 41.7 fF/um2 and high reliability enabled by BEOL 3D capacitor process,
  Masayuki Takase, Panasonic Corporation
• Next‐generation Fundus Camera with Full Color Image Acquisition in 0‐lx Visible Light by 1.12‐micron Square Pixel, 4K, 30‐fps BSI CMOS Image Sensor with Advanced NIR Multi‐spectral Imaging System,
  Hirofumi Sumi, The University of Tokyo
• A Near‐ & Short‐Wave IR Tunable InGaAs Nanomembrane PhotoFET on Flexible Substrate for Lightweight and Wide‐Angle Imaging Applications,
  Yida Li, National University of Singapore

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Canon publishes promotional videos of its 120MXS 120MP 2.2um pixel APS-H sensor and 35MMFHDXS 1080p 19um pixel full-frame sensor:

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Yole Developpement report "Wafer Starts for More Than Moore Applications" shows that CIS consumes more wafers than RF devices and MEMS, but less than power management devices:

"We expect 12-inch wafer demand to grow from 3.3 million units in 2017 to 7.5 million in 2023, mainly fueled by Backside Illumination CMOS Image Sensors (BSI CIS) (3D stacked BSI, 3D hybrid BSI)."

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EETimes publishes Corephotonics article "Triple Cameras: Are Three Better Than Two?" by Gil Abraham. Few quotes:

"In this article, we will discuss some motivations for adding a third camera to the smartphone imaging complex, the challenges it brings and some possible solutions.

...This first phase of dual cameras continued until mid-2016, while various OEMs were testing dual camera technologies in some of their flagship smartphones, using different dual camera setups, including depth-only, RGB-Mono and Wide-and-Wider duos. There was still no "killer camera app" identified, nor a winning dual camera configuration.

...Apple managed to shine the spotlight on a specific dual camera configuration, Wide+Tele, as the premium camera setup.

...the addition of that third camera carries significant challenges (and rewards), while opening up a wide array of possibilities and configurations for smartphone manufacturers.

Challenge 1: “Real-estate” & Cost

The added cost of the third camera directly depends on the camera configuration, as explained later in this article, and could be anywhere between $10 to $30.

Challenge 2: Calibration

In case all three cameras need to be perfectly calibrated one with respect to the others, the camera assembly process must be carefully designed, and the expected yield would be lower. In turn, these have direct effect on the total camera cost."

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GlobeNewswire: Himax has decided to exercise its options to fully acquire Emza Visual Sense Ltd. Terms of the investment were not disclosed. The transaction is expected to close by the end of the second quarter, 2018.

Emza is an Israeli company dedicated to the development of extremely efficient visual sensors that include proprietary machine-vision algorithms and architectures that enable always-on visual sensing capabilities, achieving orders of magnitude improvement in power consumption, price and form factor. Aiming at the booming computer vision market, Himax made a strategic cash investment for 45.1% equity of Emza in April 2017, with one-year options to acquire the remaining 54.9% of Emza’s equity and all outstanding stock options. Emza will continue as it is after the acquisition, and will maintain Emza company brand as well as the WiseEye brand product lines.

“With the full acquisition of Emza, Himax will be uniquely positioned for IoT solutions, which require tight integration of the critical skills and knowledge of Himax’s CMOS technology and ASIC design with Emza’s computer vision algorithms. Himax will be positioned to offer significant value to our customers and to enter new markets beyond consumer electronics, such as connected homes, smart buildings and security, and extend our reach into new IoT markets with interest in other Himax products such as our 3D sensing solutions,” said Jordan Wu, CEO of Himax.

“Our team members are excited about becoming part of the Himax family. The synergy between the two companies and our mutual skills will accelerate the development of highly integrated turn-key IoT solutions to take machine learning-based computer vision applications to a whole new level of performance, price and autonomy. We will continue to pursue the IoT market and customers,” said Yoram Zylberberg, CEO of Emza.

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Reuters publishes an article on Uber self-driving Volvo XC90 sensing module comparing it with Ford Fusion autonomous cars that Uber used in its older fleet. One can see that the latest Uber-Volvo cars rely more on radars and less on cameras and LiDARs:

"Autonomous vehicles operated by rivals Waymo, Alphabet Inc’s self-driving vehicle unit, have six lidar sensors, while General Motors Co’s vehicle contains five, according to information from the companies.

The safety of Uber’s self-driving car program is under intense scrutiny since Elaine Herzberg, 49, was killed last week after an Uber Volvo XC90 SUV operating in autonomous mode struck and killed her while she was jaywalking with her bicycle in Tempe, Arizona."

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MDPI Sensors journal publishes a paper "Multi-Aperture-Based Probabilistic Noise Reduction of Random Telegraph Signal Noise and Photon Shot Noise in Semi-Photon-Counting Complementary-Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor Image Sensor" by Haruki Ishida, Keiichiro Kagawa, Takashi Komuro, Bo Zhang, Min-Woong Seo, Taishi Takasawa, Keita Yasutomi, and Shoji Kawahito from Shizuoka and Saitama Universities

"A probabilistic method to remove the random telegraph signal (RTS) noise and to increase the signal level is proposed, and was verified by simulation based on measured real sensor noise. Although semi-photon-counting-level (SPCL) ultra-low noise complementary-metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) image sensors (CISs) with high conversion gain pixels have emerged, they still suffer from huge RTS noise, which is inherent to the CISs. The proposed method utilizes a multi-aperture (MA) camera that is composed of multiple sets of an SPCL CIS and a moderately fast and compact imaging lens to emulate a very fast single lens. Due to the redundancy of the MA camera, the RTS noise is removed by the maximum likelihood estimation where noise characteristics are modeled by the probability density distribution. In the proposed method, the photon shot noise is also relatively reduced because of the averaging effect, where the pixel values of all the multiple apertures are considered. An extremely low-light condition that the maximum number of electrons per aperture was the only 2 e− was simulated. PSNRs of a test image for simple averaging, selective averaging (our previous method), and the proposed method were 11.92 dB, 11.61 dB, and 13.14 dB, respectively. The selective averaging, which can remove RTS noise, was worse than the simple averaging because it ignores the pixels with RTS noise and photon shot noise was less improved. The simulation results showed that the proposed method provided the best noise reduction performance."

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Powerchip files US20180040651 patent application "Image sensor and related fabrication method" by Shih-ping Lee, Yu-an Chen, Hsiu-wen Huang, and Chuan-hua Chang.

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Below is just a couple of nice videos recently published on Youtube:

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BusinessWire: Ambarella introduces the CV2 camera SoC combining advanced computer vision, image processing, 4Kp60 video encoding, and stereovision in a single chip. CV2 targets advanced automotive, IP security, drone, and robotic applications, delivering up to 20 times the deep neural network performance of Ambarella’s first generation CV1 chip. Fabricated in 10nm process, CV2 offers extremely low power consumption.

“With CV2 we have dramatically increased our computer vision performance and combined it with full SoC functionality,” said Fermi Wang, CEO of Ambarella. “As the highest performance member of our new CVflow family, CV2 delivers both the deep neural network and stereovision processing required for the most advanced automotive and security cameras.”

CV2 Computer Vision SoC Features:

• CVflow processor with CNN/deep learning support
• 4Kp60/8MP AVC and HEVC encoding with multi-stream support
• Multi-sensor support for 3-channel electronic mirror and 4-channel AVM systems, multi-channel stereo sensing systems (up to 4 stereo pairs), and multi-imager IP cameras
• Quad-core 1.2-GHz ARM Cortex A53 with NEON DSP extensions and FPU
• Real-time hardware-accelerated 360-degree de-warping and Lens Distortion Correction (LDC) engine
• Multi-channel ISP with up to 800 MP/s input pixel rate
• Multi-exposure HDR and WDR processing
• LED flicker mitigation

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BusinessWire: Cepton Technologies unveils its Vista LiDAR sensor, said to deliver the best-in-class performance to the automotive market when compared to current LiDAR technologies. The 120-line-equivalent scanner delivers 200 meters of range and 0.2 degrees of spatial resolution. The Vista LiDAR is significantly smaller than most solutions on the market and uses fewer than 10 watts of power.

The Vista sensor is the fourth LiDAR product developed by the fast paced Cepton team over its first 20 months in operation. Built on Cepton’s patented micro-motion technology (MMT) platform, Vista has no rotational or frictional parts, consisting only of high maturity automotive components for expedited automotive grade certification. Vista LiDAR samples are available today for Cepton’s automotive partners to evaluate in their self-driving fleets. Automated volume production will start in Q2, 2018.

“Performance is very important for our automotive customers, but when it comes to scale deployment, everything matters. Vista provides an unmatched combination of small size, low power, long range and high resolution,” says Mark McCord, VP of engineering and co-founder, Cepton. “For those who pursue all levels of autonomous driving, active safety or mapping applications, Vista is the most cost-effective solution for deployment at scale.”

Cepton - Vista LiDAR Introduction from Cepton Technologies on Vimeo.

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SiOnyx presents Aurora action camera based on Black Silicon image sensor that it will be launching on Kickstarter on April 20th:

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PRNewswire: RTI International, a nonprofit research institute, spins-out a venture company, SWIR Vision Systems Inc., to commercialize infrared camera technology developed at RTI for applications in the industrial machine vision, security systems, agricultural, automotive, and other global imaging markets.

RTI's patented infrared camera technology, based on novel and commercially scalable image sensor materials, was advanced with a combination of grant support from DARPA and internal development, management, and financial support from RTI. The technology was licensed exclusively to SWIR Vision Systems, which plans to commercialize its SWIR-band cameras in 2018 and manufacture the cameras at its Research Triangle Park, NC operations center.

George Wildeman, a photonics industry executive and entrepreneur with over 25 years of technology commercialization experience, has been named CEO of SWIR Vision Systems. Ethan Klem will transition from RTI to become SWIR's CTO.

"Acuros cameras will dramatically expand the imaging toolkit for machine vision integrators, disrupting the cost and performance curve for vision systems design," said Wildeman, "We look forward to witnessing the impact of the technology as it is adopted in our target applications and markets."

The challenge: Expensive InGaAs Sensors
Presently, commercially available, short-wave infrared (SWIR) imagers are based on costly, high-purity semiconductor materials such as indium-gallium-arsenide (InGaAs) that are grown on indium phosphide (InP) substrate. To form electrical connections between each photodiode (i.e., pixel) and the corresponding Si ROIC input, the two devices are joined, one detector at a time, by metal-to-metal bonding. This time-consuming process, known as hybridization, is carried out by forming an array of bumps on the detector die, bringing this bumped array into contact with an array of metal bumps on the ROIC die, and then reflowing the bonds to form the electrical connections. The hybridization process imposes limitations on array size, pixel size, and sensor resolution.

The innovation: CQD Sensor Technology
CQD sensor technology changes the performance-to-cost point of SWIR cameras. CQD semiconductor crystals are deposited from solution directly on the surface of silicon CMOS circuitry. The resulting monolithic photodetector structure enables higher resolution and eliminates the prohibitively expensive hybridization process inherent to InGaAs sensors.

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BusinessWire: Huawei P20 Pro flagship smartphone features triple rear camera and DxOMark Photo score of 114 points:

"The HUAWEI P20 Pro features a Leica triple camera with the highest total pixel count on a smartphone – the camera configuration is comprised of a 40MP RGB sensor, a 20MP monochrome sensor and an 8MP sensor with telephoto lens. It also features an exclusive Leica color temperature sensor for better color reproduction. With f/1.8, f/1.6 and f/2.4 wide aperture to capture crisp, clear details, the HUAWEI P20 Pro also includes a brand new Leica 3x telephoto (VARIO-SUMMILUX-H 1:1.6-2.4/27-80ASPH) lens for long-range photography of up to 5x Hybrid Zoom. The HUAWEI P20 Pro’s highly sensitive image sensor captures low light photos with up to ISO 102400.

The HUAWEI P20 builds on its predecessor’s foundation with a Leica dual camera featuring a 12MP sensor with a pixel size as high as 1.55 μm, and a 20MP monochrome sensor, enhancing the HUAWEI P20’s ability to capture photos in low-light settings.

The HUAWEI P20 Series devices support six-axis stabilization and 960fps super slow motion. With Ultra Snapshot mode, the devices can capture an image in as little as 0.3 seconds by just double clicking the down volume button, even from an off screen."

Key camera data:

• Triple camera setup
• Main camera: 40Mp, 1/1.73″ RGB sensor with Quad Bayer structure, f/1.8-aperture lens with 27mm equivalent focal length
• Secondary camera: 20Mp, 1/2.78″ monochrome sensor, f/1.6-aperture lens with 27mm equivalent focal length
• Tele-camera: 8Mp, 1/4.4″ RGB sensor, f/2.4-aperture lens with 80mm equivalent focal length, and optical image stabilization
• Aperture mode default eq. focal length: 55mm
• PDAF on main sensor
• 4K video (not default mode)
• 960 fps slow-motion video at 720p

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Caeleste updates on the recent progress in its low noise pixels based on the combination of oversampling and inversion-accumulation cycling:

"Pixel with thin gate oxide narrow pmos amplifier has the lowest noise. Because of process variation, even the same kind of pixels has some noise difference. For pixels with thin gate oxide narrow pmos amplifier, the best pixel can reach 0.21 e-RMS read noise."

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EE Journal publishes a tutorial video on passive IR sensors by Amelia Dalton and Jeffrey Katz (Panasonic):

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Sony patent application US20180077372 "Solid-state imaging element and driving method therefor, and electronic apparatus" by Hiroaki Ishiwata proposes keeping the TG shape constant even though the PDAF diodes ratio changes across the array.

In interchangeable lens cameras, "if lenses having different F-values are used, there is a possibility that the light-collecting spot S may be deviated from the center of the pixel. In this case, in order to set the light-collecting spot S in the boundary between the phase-difference pixel A and the phase-difference pixel B, it is necessary to set the light-receiving surfaces of the phase-difference pixel A and the phase-difference pixel B to have a different size. The light-collecting spot position is changed depending on an image height, and hence it is necessary to change, depending on the arrangement position of the pixels in the solid-state imaging element, the size ratio between the phase-difference pixels A and B in that pixel."

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OM Semi patent application US20180077368 "Image sensors with power supply noise rejection capabilities" by Kazuhisa Suzuki explains the mechanisms of supply noise influence and proposes an improvement:

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Image Sensors Europe conference held in London, UK in mid-March publishes its 2018 Awards:

Best Academic Research Team
Winner: Robert Henderson and his team at The University of Edinburgh

Best Up-and-Coming Company
Winner: vivaMOS Ltd
"The challenges faced for the design of wafer-scale image sensors required a rethinking of the traditional methods used and developed for semiconductor ASIC design. Good pixel design know-how with expertise in analogue mixed-signal and radiation-hard designs is the foundation on which the sensors are developed for good imaging performance in harsh X-ray environments. However, developing products of such a significant size has required a new thought-process and approach. We are delighted to have been recognised with another industry award. The recognition from industry peers is testimony to the hard work and ingenuity that the vivaMOS team has put into this new business." - Dan Cathie, CEO

Biggest Breakthrough Development
Winner: ams AG for CMV50000 image sensor.

Biggest Innovator in the Image Sensor Industry
Winner: Xenics NV
"We thank the judges for recognizing the breakthrough achieved by the development of our latest XLIN detector, and also to our engineers who made it all possible."

CEO/Managing Director of the Year
Winner: Omer Keilaf, CEO and Co-founder, Innoviz Technologies

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