Image Sensors World        Go to the original article...

EETimes: "Two French scientists, Ryad Benosman and Christoph Posch... founded Chronocam in 2014. They’ve developed an image sensor designed to capture images not based on artificially created frames, but driven by events within view.

“Each pixel individually controls its sampling – with no clock involved – by reacting to light, or changes in the amount of incident light it receives,” explained Posch, Chronocam’s CTO.

“Frame-based video acquisition is fundamentally flawed,” Chronocam CTO Posch decreed.

Chronocam has applied and tested its sensor’s principles in restoring people’s vision at Pixium Vision, a retina prosthetic company founded by Chronocam’s co-founders.

Chronocam has raised 1.5 million euro so far. Among investors are CEA Investment and Robert Bosch VC.

Chronocam’s CCMA ATIS 1.1 sensor, whose supply voltage is 3.3V (analog), 1.8V(digital), comes in a 9.9 x 8.2mm2 chip size, featuring 2/3-inch optical format. Its array size is 304 x 240 QVGA, with a pixel size of 30μm × 30μm. The power consumption is less than 10mW.

Asked about the company’s next steps, Verre, the CEO, said, “We aim at decreasing pixel pitch and increasing resolution. Our next steps are the VGA tape out and the migration to a CIS process.”

Chronocam is open to licensing its technology to others."

How Chrononcam's image sensor sees motions of hand (left)

Go to the original article...

Image Sensors World        Go to the original article...

Imec presents a new hyperspectral sensor with extended spectral range, going from the visible light (VIS) up to near infrared (NIR). The new line-scan VNIR (visible to near-infrared) sensor and snapshot mosaic VNIR camera outperform current solutions in spectral range and compactness.

Example applications for the line-scan sensor are machine vision and remote sensing applications, e .g. precision agriculture using UAVs and satellites. It features 140+bands in the 470-900nm range. Its small form factor is the result of extreme integration of the hyperspectral filter onto the CMOS sensor.

“Working closely with two of our camera partners, VRmagic and Cubert Gmbh, we have realized one of the most advanced snapshot hyperspectral imaging cameras. It captures 40+ bands ranging from 450-875 m, at video-rate speed acquisition. This achievement clearly sets a new milestone for the real-time snapshot hyperspectral imaging camera market,” explains Jerome Baron, Business development manager integrated imaging at imec.

Go to the original article...

Image Sensors World        Go to the original article...

ON Semi reports its Q4 2015 and full year results. The image sensor group keeps increasing its share of the company business:


Few quotes from the company's earning call:

"Revenue for Image Sensor Group was approximately $184 million, down approximately three percent as compared to the third quarter.

Our momentum in CMOS image sensors for automotive application remained intact driven by steep adoption of ADAS and viewing cameras.

Though Aptina has been a key driver of our growth, especially in the automotive market, our performance on organic basis exceeded that of the industry in 2015.

We successfully integrated Aptina, and results from Aptina far exceeded our expectations and the guidance we provided to the investment community. We believe that we are in early stages of realizing full potential of our acquisition of Aptina. With Aptina, we believe that ON Semiconductor is among the best positioned companies to benefit from steep adoption of ADAS in automobiles.

In 2015, we significantly improved our market positon in security related imaging market with year over year revenue growth of 15%."

Go to the original article...

Image Sensors World        Go to the original article...

IMEC presents a lens-free microscope for large field-of-view live imaging at micrometer resolution. Its key benefits include super-large field-of-view at micrometer resolution and a compact and modular design. In a lens-free digital microscope, images are captured on a CMOS sensor, and digitally reconstructed using software. Imec’s lens-free microscope features a comparable micrometer-scale accuracy as traditional optical microscopes. While being much smaller and less expensive, imec’s microscope captures a larger field-of-view in one shot, enabling shorter sample processing times. The lens-free microscope paves the way to new applications with living cells and tissues.


“Imec’s lens free imaging solution is now available as a full, ready-to-use demo kit evaluation system including a light source, image sensor, control and read-out electronics and a software interface,” stated Jerome Baron, business development manager of integrated vision systems at imec. “Companies can use it to try out their own applications, supported by our engineers to fine-tune the hardware and software and customize the systems toward their exact application requirements.”

Go to the original article...

Image Sensors World        Go to the original article...

PRNewswire: OmniVision announces the OV2744, a 1.4um PureCel sensor featuring its second-generation RGB-Ir technology which delivers quality IR output without compromising RGB images. The OV2744 targets biometric applications such as facial recognition for front-facing cameras in notebooks, tablets and smartphones.

"Notebook and mobile device OEMs have traditionally relied on two-camera solutions for image capturing and facial recognition functionalities," said Arun Jayaseelan, product marketing manager at OmniVision. "The OV2744 is capable of delivering both premium RGB imaging and high quality IR information required for biometric and other emerging IR applications. The OV2744 thus gives OEMs the opportunity to move to single camera solutions, thereby reducing cost and space requirements for their devices."

The OV2744 is said to have less color aliasing than competing RGB-Ir sensors that are currently available in the market.

The OV2744 captures 1080p video at 60fps while consuming less power than any other 1080p sensor currently on the market. The 1/6-inch OV2744 supports full frame staggered high dynamic range and features an ultra-low power mode, which reduces the resolution and frame rates to conserve additional power.

The OV2744 is currently available for sampling and is expected to enter volume production in Q1 2016.

Go to the original article...

Image Sensors World        Go to the original article...

Qualcomm announces its mid-range and low-end SnapDragon mobile processors: 625, 435, and 425. Even the lowest cost 425 model features dual ISP and 16MP imaging support:

Go to the original article...

Image Sensors World        Go to the original article...

Brigates publishes a fairly detailed datasheet of its BG0601D MCCD sensor:

Go to the original article...

Image Sensors World        Go to the original article...

Albert Theuwissen reviews ISSCC 2016 Sensor Noise Forum and compares different ways of read noise reporting, based on Neale Dutton's presentation.

Go to the original article...

Image Sensors World        Go to the original article...

Albert Theuwissen concludes his ISSCC review with NHK/Shizuoka Univ./Brookman 33MP, 1.1um pixel sensor for 8K UHDTV, and FBK SPAD imager that only reacts when a pre-set number of photons is registered by a pixel.

Go to the original article...

Image Sensors World        Go to the original article...

Technical Group on Information Sensing Technologies (IST), the Institute of Image Information and Television Engineers (ITE), holds an image sensor conference at NHK Lab facilities, Tokyo, Japan, on March 11, 2016. Participation is free of charge, no prior registration is required. The IST conference proceeding is about 1000-2000 yen. The agenda of the conference is full of interesting presentations:

• Invited Talk: Low-Noise Image Sensors
  Shoji Kawahito (Shizuoka Univ.)
• Multi-storied photodiode CMOS image sensor for multiband imaging with 3D technology
  Yoshiaki Takemoto, Kenji Kobayashi, Mitsuhiro Tsukimura, Naohiro Takazawa, Hideki Kato, Shunsuke Suzuki, Jun Aoki, Toru Kondo, Haruhisa Saito, Yuichi Gomi, Seisuke Matsuda, Yoshitaka Tadaki (Olympus)
• A CMOS Image Sensor Using Multiple Tap Lateral-Electric-Field Charge Modulators for Time-of-Flight Range Imaging
  Taichi Kasugai, Sang-Man Han, Hanh Trang, Taishi Takasawa (Shizuoka Univ.), Satoshi Aoyama (Brookman Tech.), Keita Yasutomi, Keiichiro Kagawa, Shoji Kawahito (Shizuoka Univ.)
• Stacked Image Sensor Using Chlorine-doped Crystalline Selenium Photoconversion Layer Composed of Size-controlled Polycrystalline Particles
  Shigeyuki Imura, Kazunori Miyakawa, Hiroshi Ohtake, Misao Kubota, Kenji Kikuchi (NHK), Toru Okino, Yutaka Hirose, Yoshihisa Kato (Panasonic), Nobukazu Teranishi (University of Hyogo)
• A 1280x720 single-photon detecting image sensor with 100dB dynamic range using a sensitivity boosting technique
  Manabu Usuda, Yusuke Sakata, Seiji Yamahira, Shigetaka Kasuga, Mitsuyoshi Mori, Yutaka Hirose, Yoshihisa Kato, Tsuyoshi Tanaka (Panasonic AIS)
• A 1.1μm 33Mpixel 240fps 3D-Stacked CMOS Image Sensor with 3-Stage Cyclic-Based Analog-to-Digital Converters
  Toshiki Arai, Toshio Yasue, Kazuya Kitamura, Hiroshi Shimamoto (NHK STRL), Tomohiko Kosugi, Sungwook Jun, Satoshi Aoyama (Brookman Technology), Ming-Chieh Hsu, Yuichiro Yamashita (TSMC), Hirofumi Sumi (The University of Tokyo), Shoji Kawahito (Shizuoka University)
• Visualization of Ultra High-Speed Phenomena by 10 Mfps Ultra High-Speed Camera with Improved Photosensitivity of ISO 16000
  Manabu Suzuki, Masashi Suzuki, Fan Shao, Rihito Kuroda (Tohoku Univ.), Nobuyuki Tokuoka, Yasunori Kawaguchi, Hideki Tominaga (Shimadzu), Shigetoshi Sugawa (Tohoku Univ.)
• An APS-H size 250Mpixel CMOS Image Sensor Using Column Signal ADCs with Dual Gain Amplifiers
  Takashi Muto, Hirofumi Totsuka, Toshiki Tsuboi, Daisuke Yoshida, Yasushi Matsuno, Masanobu Ohmura, Hidekazu Takahashi, Katsuhito Sakurai, Takeshi Ichikawa, Hiroshi Yuzurihara, Shunsuke Inoue (Canon)
• A 1.2e- Temporal Noise 3D-Stacked CMOS Image Sensor with Comparator-Based Multiple Sampling PGA
  Kei Shiraishi, Yasuhiro Shinozuka, Tomonori Yamashita, Kazuhide Sugiura, Naoto Watanabe, Ryuta Okamoto, Tatsuji Ashitani, Masanori Furuta, Tetsuro Itakura (Toshiba)
• An 18M-pixel CMOS Image Sensor Using 12-bit Column-Parallel Single-Slope ADCs with Operation-Period-Reduced Time-to-Digital Converters
  Yoshio Hagihara, Yusaku Koyama, Takanori Tanaka, Atsuko Kume, Yosuke Kusano, Mai Arita, Masashi Saito, Yoshihisa Okada (Olympus)
• High-Speed Range Finding using Smart Image Sensor
  Daisuke Uehara, Makoto Ikeda (UTokyo)
• CMOS Biosensor IC Focusing on Dielectric Relaxations of Biological Water with 120GHz and 60GHz Oscillator Arrays
  Takeshi Mitsunaka, Akira Saito, Nobuyuki Ashida, Kunihiko Iizuka (SHARP), Tetsuhito Suzuki, Yuichi Ogawa (Kyoto Univ.), Minoru Fujishima (Hiroshima Univ.)
• Device Simulations for Ultrahigh-Speed and High-Voltage Image Sensors
  Hideki Mutoh (Link Research)
• Color Image Sensor with Three-stacked Organic Photoconductive Films
  Toshikatsu Sakai, Hokuto Seo, Tomomi Takagi, Misao Kubota, Hiroshi Ohtake (NHK), Mamoru Furuta (Kochi Univ. of Tech.)
• Organic-Photoconductive-Film CMOS Image Sensor -- 120dB Wide-Dynamic-Range,Photoelectric conversion controlled Global Shutter --
  Masashi Murakami, Kazuko Nishimura, Sanshirou Shishido, Masayuki Takase, Yasuo Miyake, Tokuhiko Tamaki, Yoshihiro Sato, Yasunori Inoue (Panasonic)

Thanks to RK for the info!

Go to the original article...

Image Sensors World        Go to the original article...

Albert Theuwissen publishes the second part of his ISSCC review. This part covers CMOSIS 391MP sensor and Canon 250MP APS-H imager, as well as Toshiba and TSMC papers.

Go to the original article...

Image Sensors World        Go to the original article...

EV Group (EVG) joins the 3D integration consortium of IRT Nanoelec headed by CEA-Leti and includes STMicro and Mentor Graphics to develop advanced 3D wafer-to-wafer bonding technologies. SET also joined recently the consortium.

Séverine Chéramy, director of the 3D integration program of IRT Nanoelec, said the consortium expects to achieve an interconnection pitch of about 1µm.

"Wafer-to-wafer stacking using direct Cu-to-Cu bonding is key for advanced 3D technologies, specifically for imaging application and 3D partitioning," Chéramy said. "EVG's knowledge on bonding will leverage the process expertise of the original members. The participation of EVG in the consortium will create new opportunities and optimized and cost-effective solutions for 3D IC devices."

Go to the original article...

Image Sensors World        Go to the original article...

Albert Theuwissen publishes a review of Panasonic organic sensor papers presented at ISSCC 2016 this week. This is the first part of his ISSCC review.

Go to the original article...

Image Sensors World        Go to the original article...

Himax reports its Q4 and full fiscal 2015 year results. There are few updates on the company's image sensor business:

"CMOS image sensor business was the main factor behind the year-over year decline. As mentioned in our previous earnings call, our CMOS Image sensor business suffered becaucse we didn’t ramp our 8MP and 13MP sensors as planned due to the lack of Phase Detection Auto Focus (PDAF), a new but nowadays required feature for high end smartphone. We remained one of the market share leaders in notebook sector.

In terms of our 8MP and 13MP CMOS image sensors with PDAF feature, we are catching up fast. We believe we will be one of the few players capable of providing PDAF-equipped CMOS image sensors in the very near future. We will report progress in due course."

Go to the original article...

Image Sensors World        Go to the original article...

BusinessWire: Panasonic develops a new WDR technology which can improve simultaneous-capture DR 100 times wider than the conventional results, using a CMOS image sensor with an organic photoconductive film (OPF). The Dual-Sensitivity WDR Pixel Technology has two sensitivity detection cells in each pixel, taking advantage of a high-saturation performance and flexibility of a sensitivity setting of OPF CMOS image sensor, in order to achieve simultaneous-capture 123dB WDR. Capacitive-Coupled Noise Canceller Technology cancels pixel reset noise, in order to improve SNR of dark objects.

Panasonic holds 58 Japanese patents and 44 overseas patents (including pending) related to this technology.


Update: Nikkei publishes a 3-page article on this sensor.

Go to the original article...

Image Sensors World        Go to the original article...

Businessire: Panasonic develops a new global shutter CMOS sensor using organic photoconductive film (OPF). The technology is said to enable capturing high speed moving object up to 10 times brighter scene in global shutter mode. In OPF CMOS image sensor, charge-storage function and photoelectric-conversion function can be set independently. Motion direction can be detected from acquired object's signal level in one picture by fine control of shutter sensitivity by changing applied voltage to OPF which is hardly realized by conventional CMOS image sensors.

The new technology has the following advantages:

1. Wide incident angle (60 degrees), high sensitivity, high saturation and highly-functional circuits due to a unique feature of OPF, in which an OPF for photoelectric-conversion and a readout circuits are independent.
2. High saturation signal up to 10 times larger than conventional image sensors with global shutter function due to Photoelectric Conversion Controlled Global Shutter Technology.

This development is based on the following new technologies:

1. CMOS Image Sensor Design Technology, in that, an OPF photoelectric-conversion part and a circuit part can be designed independently.
2. Photoelectric Conversion Controlled Global Shutter Technology that is realized by controlling of organic photoconductive film sensitivity.
3. Variable Sensitivity Multiple Exposure Technology which can detect the motion and its direction by changing image capturing sensitivity in each frame.

Panasonic holds 60 Japanese patents and 41 overseas patents (including pending) related to this technology.

Panasonic presented a part of the research at 2016 ISSCC.

Go to the original article...

Image Sensors World        Go to the original article...

BusinessWire: Panasonic developed APD CMOS sensor with avalanche photodiodes (APDs) in each pixel. The in-pixel APDs multiply the photoelectrons by 10,000 times. This is said to allow getting sharp color images even under starlight (illuminance of 0.01 lux) or in other similarly dark places. Variable sensitivity technology in which multiplication is controlled in a thousandth of a second by controlling the voltage applied to the APDs, realizing 30-fps video imaging that can follow the changes in illuminance.

The new sensor has been presented on the 2016 ISSCC on February 1, 2016.

This development brings the following advantages:

• Highly sensitive color imaging:
  40 million/lux・sec・μm2 (10,000 times sensitive in comparison to conventional devices)
• Wide dynamic range:
  100 dB (+ 40 dB in comparison to conventional CMOS image sensors)

Go to the original article...

Image Sensors World        Go to the original article...

Pixart reports that its Q4 2015 revenue increased by 1.2% QoQ to NT$1,078.7 million. Due to unfavorable change in product mix, the gross margin decreased from 51.2% in previous quarter to 50.5% in 2015Q4. The revenue for 2015 was NT$4,320.2 million, decreased by 9.0% YoY.

Go to the original article...

Image Sensors World        Go to the original article...

Nikkei: Panasonic developed an image sensor 100 times more sensitive to light than an existing technology. The new sensing layer is made from an organic material film rather than silicon. Panasonic developed the basic technology with Fujifilm. A proprietary readout circuit reduces noise, while a modified electrode structure helps detect even faint light efficiently.

The company says the new sensor does not suffer from blooming, and is aimed to automotive applications.

Blooming demo, Panasonic sensor is on the right.

Possibly, the article material is based Panasonic presentation at ISSCC 2016. The company aims to have a practical version ready as early as 2020 or so.

Go to the original article...

Image Sensors World        Go to the original article...

PRNewswire: Allied Market Research publishes "World 3D Camera Market - Opportunities and Forecasts, 2014 - 2021" report.

"The global 3D camera market would garner revenue of $10.8 billion by 2021, registering a CAGR of 40.0% during 2016 - 2021. Professional 3D cameras would lead the market throughout the analysis period. The 3D cameras embedded in smartphones are expected to drive the 3D camera market significantly by 2021.

The 3D camera market is in its nascent stage; in 2015, it contributed to about 2-3% of the overall 3D technology market. However, its contribution to global markets, would increase significantly within the forthcoming decade. The market for 3D cameras is primarily driven by the requirement to record 3D content in media & entertainment applications. Other factors, driving the market growth include enhancement of 3D scanning technology, improved user preferences, increasing adoption of home automation applications and enhancement in virtual reality products.

Stereo vision is the largest revenue-generating technology segment of 3D camera market, which accounted for nearly 60% of the total market revenue in 2015. This segment is expected to maintain its dominance throughout the analysis period owing to its cost effectiveness and simplicity in implementation as compared to other technologies. However, time of flight technology is expected to grow at the highest CAGR of 44.6%, during the forecast period.

Among the key applications, professional 3D camera was the largest contributor, which accounted for around 65% share in 2015. However, the tablet applications would exhibit the highest CAGR of over the forecast period, owing to rising adoption of tablets as portable computing solutions."

Go to the original article...

Image Sensors World        Go to the original article...

ESPROS Photonics' mailed me the Jan. 2016 Newsletter updating on the company's ToF business success and technical challenges:

"The ESPROS TOF technology is gaining huge momentum. The delivery start of the 3D-TOF QVGA imager was excellent. Customers immediately recognized the performance of our OHC15L technology. A QE of more than 80% at 850nm wavelength and pixels with 100% fill factor provide unmatched sensitivity with very low illumination power. A reference design of a camera engine with a horizontal FOV of 94° achieves a 10m range in the full field. Ok, this is on a white target. But the exposure time is a few milliseconds only."

Then, the newsletter shares the company experience dealing with temperature drift challenges:

"Several components of a TOF system are temperature sensitive: On the 3D TOF chip e.g. pixel-field, LED driver and the phase detector (DLL), etc.; on camera level e.g. the illumination (e.g. LEDs, VCSELs), illumination driver, connectors, IR filters, lenses, etc. Figure 1 shows the signal path with the contributors to temperature drift.


The main contribution comes from the pixel-field which is approx. 85% of the total distance drift by temperature (Figure 2).


The temperature drift in the pixel field is related on the one hand to the drift speed of electrons in solid which changes by temperature. It is a physical constant so it can be compensated by simple temperature measurement of the chip temperature. On the second hand, the drift speed is also related to the field strength in the photodetector. This field is
generated by the the backside voltage VBS. A simple rule says the higher the voltage the faster the electrons (Figure 3). However, there is a voltage limit where other effects start to become dominant. It is to note that a variation of VBS varies the measured distance. Thus, an accurate and constant VBS voltage is mandatory for accurate measurement.


Figure 4 shows a 2nd order fit for the compensation of the temperature drift in the pixel field."

Go to the original article...

Image Sensors World        Go to the original article...

Shuzuoka University publishes an 2013 PhD thesis "A Study on Time-Resolved CMOS Image Sensors with Draining-Only Modulation Pixels for Fluorescence Lifetime Imaging Microscopy" by Zhuo Li. The pixel concept is shown below:

Concept of two-stage charge transfer pixel and draining only modulation (DOM) pixel.

DOM pixel layout

Photo charge modulation and sequential readout in the DOM pixel

Go to the original article...

Image Sensors World        Go to the original article...

BusinessWire: Pixium Vision says it is the only company in the world to develop in parallel two distinct retinal bionic implant platforms. IRIS II, the company’s first system, targeting retinitis pigmentosa, and PRIMA, the second generation miniaturized wireless implant, better suited for Age Related Macular Degeneration (AMD) will allow the company to address an estimated market of more than 4 million patients in Europe and North America.

Over the last quarter of 2015, the company made significant progress on IRIS II, its epi-retinal bionic system equipped with an asynchronous bioinspired image sensor. IRIS II is said to be the first epi-retinal device to be equipped with 150 electrodes worldwide. In December 2015, the company received the approval from the French regulatory authority ANSM to initiate clinical study for patients who have lost sight due to retinitis pigmentosa. The company has also received the Austrian approval. Further national approvals are expected in the coming months.

In early 2016, the company announced positive preclinical safety and feasibility data for PRIMA, its second generation bionic system. Stanford University, demonstrated thermal safety of near infrared stimulation of PRIMA in a well-established animal model for retinal damage assessment in laser treatment.

A Vimeo video explains the company's technology"

Pixium IRIS implant

Pixium PRIMA implant

Go to the original article...

Image Sensors World        Go to the original article...

SeekingAlpha publishes Sony quarterly earnings call transcript. Few quotes on the company's image sensor and camera module business status:

"We believe that demand for our devices could decelerate in the near term. In our image sensor business, we have changed our forecast to assume a slowdown in the growth of the market for smartphones. In fact, there's a risk that the market for high-end smartphones might decrease due to the issue in emerging markets I just mentioned.

In light of this situation, the management team of Sony is taking quick action. We have instructed our sales team to more aggressively approach smartphone makers, particularly those we had to turn away last year when we were supply-constrained. We have made the decision to postpone our plan to reach production capacity of 87,000 wafers per month by the end of September 2016.

Finally, we are seriously considering utilizing a portion of our facility in Oita we bought from Toshiba to manufacture logic instead of photodiodes which could lead to a reduction in the cost of our sensors. Although we are taking these actions so as to mitigate the downsized rate in this business, we are confident that in the long-term prospects of image sensors, because we think there is room to expand their use in [indiscernible] cameras, automobiles and the Internet of Things.

We also believe that one of our competitive advantage in the image sensor space comes from the fact that we manufacture the sensor in-house. Thus, we believe that the investments we have made in production capacity for sensors will be variable going forward."

"The possibility that we might have to impair assets in our camera module business comes from problems we had when we're starting up this business. And the decrease in projected future demand from high-end smartphone makers."

"Last fiscal year, we received larger orders than expected in image sensor business. This cause our ability to supply the market to be constrained, a situation that continued through the beginning of current fiscal year.

Then, in the summer of 2015, we had an issue with our production equipment, which resulted in our having to decline orders from the 13 customers. After we resolved this production issue and after new capacity had just come online orders from our customers started to decline due to softer end-user demand for smartphones.

Further complicating matters were the fact that we supply custom design sensors to some of our major customers, and there is an approximately five-month lead time to manufacture our sensors. As a result, it is difficult to switch our products in line over the other customers quickly. We believe that image sensor business will start to recover from the first quarter of next fiscal year, but we will formulate our business plan based on an assumption that growth of the smartphone market will slow."

Quotes from Q&A sennsion:

"Well, we expect to make some recovery in first quarter in fiscal year 2016 because we already have orders for that. And as I said, we are expecting now almost no growth in the smartphone market. So, I think we are currently conservative about the prospect of the fiscal year 2016.

However, currently, we are aggressively doing the promotion of the image sensor business particularly for the Chinese player which we lost when our production is constrained. So, at this moment, we are in the middle of the budget process. So I cannot specify the prize of worrying over utilization as this point in time."

"Well, in capacity, we have a plan to increase our capacity to 87,000 by September this year and approximately 20% of that capacity increase here so-called half portion. So, currently we are evaluating the current production and I think the production adjustment would be quite concentrated in that 20% portion. However, we haven't decided whether we will reduce or we will change the current planned expansion [indiscernible] at this point in time."

"Well, for next year, our so-called dual lens – dual camera platform will be launched by, we believe, from major smartphone players. However, as I said previously, recently, our smartphone market is growing and particularly, our high-end smartphone market is now slowing down. So, that may impact the demand or production schedule of dual camera smartphones by the major smartphone manufacturers. So, we believe the real start, the takeoff of smartphone with dual lens camera will be in the year of 2017."

"And as for the modules, as you may know, we are a newcomer in this business. And two years ago, we started this business. However, at the beginning, we had failed to supply the initial product. And after that, we are gradually improving our production itself. And now we are keeping very high yield level. At this moment, the forecast for the smartphone business itself is now declining. That's why we explained about the possibility of the impairment of the module.

And as for the size or timing of the impairment of the module, at this point in time, we cannot comment on that. But as Takeda-san said, approximately a little bit less than 15% of the Device asset is in module."

Go to the original article...

Image Sensors World        Go to the original article...

Sony reports its earnings for the fiscal quarter ended on Dec. 31, 2015. For the Device segment, "Sales decreased 12.6% year-on-year (a 16% decrease on a constant currency basis) to 249.9 billion yen (2,082 million U.S. dollars). This decrease was primarily due to a significant decrease in sales of image sensors, reflecting a decrease in demand for mobile products, and a significant decrease in battery business sales. This sales decrease was partially offset by an increase in sales of camera modules which were lower than originally forecasted and the impact of foreign exchange rates. Sales to external customers decreased 7.5% year-on-year.

Operating loss of 11.7 billion yen (97 million U.S. dollars) was recorded, compared to an operating income of 53.8 billion yen in the same quarter of the previous fiscal year. This significant deterioration was primarily due to the deterioration in the operating results of the battery business, including the recording of a 30.6 billion yen (255 million U.S. dollars) impairment charge related to long-lived assets, increases in depreciation and amortization expenses as well as in research and development expenses for image sensors and camera modules, and the impact of the decrease in sales of image sensors."

Sony also revises its future sales forecast:

"Sales are expected to be lower than the October forecast primarily due to significantly lower than expected sales of image sensors and camera modules, reflecting a decrease in demand for mobile products and lower than expected sales in the battery business. The forecast for operating income is expected to be significantly lower than the October forecast primarily due to the impact of the above-mentioned decrease in sales and the recording of an impairment charge related to long-lived assets in the battery business during the current quarter.

Sony is currently formulating its business plan for all of its business segments for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2017. With regard to the camera module business, there is a possibility that factors such as a decrease in projected future demand, which caused a downward revision in the forecast for the current fiscal year for the business, could continue to have a negative impact on the business going forward. It is therefore possible that the above-described business environment might result in an impairment charge against long-lived assets in the camera module business."


Update: Few more slides from the Sony earnings webcast:


The webcast gives quite many details and explanations on the image sensor and camera module business, starting from time 6:49 to 12:26. In Q&A #1, Sony says that it expects the business recovery to start in Q1 next fiscal year, beginning in April 2016.

Go to the original article...

Image Sensors World        Go to the original article...

EETimes publishes its analysis of stacking and FD-SOI trends in image sensors, helped by Yole Developpement. Few quotes:

"Yole estimated that in 2015, 27% of CIS revenues were generated from stacked chips, which the firm described as “roughly the market share of Sony.”

It is [Pierre Cambou's, activity leader, Imaging & Sensors at Yole Développement] opinion that “up to now, only Sony is mastering the [chip stacking] technique.” Although Samsung and Omnivision publicized stacked chip releases, they have not been able to scale up, Cambou observed.

One Japanese industry source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told EE Times that he suspects Sony is likely well advanced in its FD-SOI project for CMOS image sensors.

Yole’s Cambou believes that FD-SOI could open a host of new possibilities for next-generation CIS. The challenge of FDSOI is the added cost (per mm2) that puts even more strain on the yield issue, said Cambou. At the same time, it is “probably a good opportunity for Sony to deepen the gap with its competitors.”

Two Yole's slides from the article:

Go to the original article...

Image Sensors World        Go to the original article...

Chipworks publishes Samsung S5K3P3SX and OmniVision OV23850 1st generation stacked sensors analysis reports. Few slides from the Chipworks' presentation:

Go to the original article...

Image Sensors World        Go to the original article...

PRNewswire: OmniVision and a consortium composed of Hua Capital, CITIC Capital, and Goldstone Investment announce completion of the previously announced acquisition of OmniVision. Trading of OmniVision common stock on NASDAQ has been halted before the opening of the market today and will be suspended effective as of the close of business today. OmniVision stockholders will receive $29.75 per share in cash, or a total of approximately $1.9 billion.

Go to the original article...

Image Sensors World        Go to the original article...

Independent: Movidius signes a "substantial" sales deal with Google. The deal is said to be the first in an expected series of announcements to be made by Movidius with big international companies as it seeks to establish a global position at the top of the emerging IoT market.

Google intends to use Movidius vision processor to build as-yet unnamed products that can handle large amounts of computer processing by themselves without having to beam the raw data back to servers or data centres for interpretation.

"Think of a security camera," Sean Mitchell, co-founder and CEO of Movidius. "Using our chip, it can understand what it's seeing or hearing without being told by a more powerful machine in a data centre. In this way it can act with more autonomy and in a more unsupervised way."

"What Google has been able to achieve with neural networks is providing us with the building blocks for machine intelligence, laying the groundwork for the next decade of how technology will enhance the way people interact with the world," said Blaise Agϋera y Arcas, head of Google's machine intelligence group in Seattle. "By working with Movidius, we're able to expand this technology beyond the data center and out into the real world, giving people the benefits of machine intelligence on their personal devices."

Update: Movidius publishes a Youtube video with explanations:

Go to the original article...