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STMicro Q4 2015 earnings call gives few bits of info on its SPAD business: "in our Imaging business, we started to demonstrate success with our refocused strategy of specialized image and photonic sensors. In fact, our FlightSense technology was integrated in over 20 phones during 2015 and we passed the milestone of 50 million units shipped."

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McKinsey & Company comes with both more optimistic and less optimistic forecasts of self-driving car adoption - the next big market for image sensors:

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Videantis licenses Almalence image enhancement algorithms that increase resolution, improve low light sensitivity, and expand DR. Videantis licenses low-power vision/video processor IP suited to run such algorithms more efficiently in silicon, said to achieve up to 100x performance increase, and 1000x power reduction as compared to CPUs and GPUs. Besides targeting mobile phones, the purpose for cooperation is to bring Almalence’s SuperSensor technology to the automotive semiconductor market.

Hans-Joachim Stolberg, videantis CEO, said, “The next big increase in image quality will not come from new lenses or sensors, but from computational photography algorithms such as Almalence’s. Our customers are already experiencing the “wow” effect of the Almalence algorithms and we’re excited to bring their revolutionary software to the videantis processor architecture, enabling the low power and high performance levels that are needed to bring this technology to embedded camera devices.”

“As we started porting our algorithms to the videantis processor, we were impressed with the low power and high performance levels achievable. We can now run our most complex algorithms in higher resolutions and frame rates,” stated Eugene Panich, Almalence CEO. “It’s clear to us why several semiconductor companies have already adopted the videantis processor architecture for their visual processing needs.”

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EETimes publishes a nice summary of image and vision processor papers at the oncoming ISSCC:

"Image processing in fact is one of the most popular ISSCC topics, appearing in the session on “Digital Processors” and again in the session on “Next-Generation Processing.” While dramatic new application areas for image processors include gesture-recognition and augmented reality, automotive driving assistance systems (ADAS) are among the most popular. With research and development on autonomous vehicles increasing, the need for faster detection of obstacles in a vehicle’s path becomes acute. Head mounted displays with augmented reality (HMD/AR) systems are intended to calculate the scenario for what’s going to happen on the roadway ahead of a speeding car. Processors in the imaging sessions will describe the impact of deep learning algorithms (like convolutional neural networks, CNN or K-nearest-neighbors, KNN). These processers support a range of machine learning applications, including computer vision, object detection (apart from what’s on the roadway), and handwriting recognition."

"One paper from KAIST (in the “Next-Generation” session) will present a low-power natural user interface processor with an embedded deep learning engine. The device is fabricated in 65nm CMOS. It claims a higher recognition rate over the best-in-class pattern recognition. Another paper from KAIST presents a dedicated high-performance advanced driver assistance SoC, capable of identifying potentially “risky objects” in automotive systems. This chip is also implemented in 65nm CMOS, and, Kaist claims, was successfully tested in an autonomous vehicle."

"In the “Digital Processors” session, Renesas will present a 12-channel video-processing chip for ADAS — implemented in 16nm FinFET CMOS."

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CEI-Europe announces four Image Sensor courses to take place in Barcelona and Amsterdam in Q2 2016. The courses leader is Albert Theuwissen.

Introductory level courses, aimed at engineers, managers and product developers new to the field, are:

• Digital Imaging: Image Capturing, Image Sensors - Technologies and Applications, April 4 - 8, 2016, Barcelona, Spain
• Digital Camera Systems, June 14 - 16, 2016, Barcelona, Spain

And for those with a good understanding of electronics, physics and mathematics, advanced courses include

• Advanced Image Sensor Technology, May 23 - 25, 2016 . Amsterdam, The Netherlands
• Hands-on Characterization of Solid-State Image Sensors, May 26 - 27, 2016. Amsterdam, The Netherlands

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Robert Stead sent me an email clarifying the difference between IS Auto and AutoSens conferences:

"It has come to my attention recently that the position regarding IS Auto and AutoSens is not 100% clear, and there is some confusion as a result of both events being in the marketplace and who is organising each. As such I wanted to write to you personally to clarify the situation and ensure you have all the information so you can decide which event you attend in 2016.

In 2014, I was working with Smithers and set up the IS Auto conference along with conference chairman Patrick Denny, and several other advisors including Sven Fleck, Alain Dunoyer, Martin Edney, Martin Punke and Mike Brading. We ran two very successful events in 2014 and 2015.

In July 2015 I decided to leave the Smithers company and set up my own business (Sense Media) in order to focus on events in digital imaging and other sensor fields. The first of these events is AutoSens, which will retain focus on automotive imaging as a core topic, but which will broaden the scope slightly to include RADAR and LiDAR sensors, as well as more in depth discussion of image processing, standards, system architecture, computer vision and more.

My company will focus on growing this event and community year-round, and broaden the coverage for automotive imaging with increased engagement with the academic community, more international attendance and several new initiatives designed to benefit the engineering community.

All of the advisors who have worked with me previously have all decided to join the AutoSens board and prioritise this event, I am delighted and humbled to have their support and we all believe that AutoSens is the best way to support the automotive imaging community. In Patrick Denny's words, “I believe what Rob is doing with AutoSens is in the best interests of my customers, my suppliers, and my competitors and I give my full backing to this project”.

Other figures in the digital imaging world who have backed AutoSens include Albert Theuwissen, who will deliver an expert workshop at the AutoSens conference.

This message is just intended to present you with the facts, and clarify who is behind the AutoSens event. The AutoSens team and Advisory Board are highly motivated to deliver an event that is of high technical quality and helps engineers throughout the supply chain who are working to develop and improve automotive vision systems. We hope you will join us on this journey.

A full speaker announcement will come next week including confirmed speakers from both established and new entrant OEMs, as well as news about other exciting developments."

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Sony has reached an agreement with Israeli LTE modem maker Altair Semiconductor to acquire the company for $212M.

"By combining Sony's sensing technologies - such as GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) and image sensors - with Altair's high-performance, low power consumption and cost-competitive modem chip technology, and by further evolving both, Sony will strive to develop a new breed of cellular-connected, sensing component devices."

"With the acquisition of Altair, Sony aims to not only expand Altair's existing business, but also to move forward with research on and development of new sensing technologies."

"With the markets for wearable and IoT devices expected to continue to expand, Sony aims to deliver component devices that feature both sensing and communication capabilities."

Sony expects to complete the acquisition in early February, 2016.

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BusinessWire: Heptagon introduces SHILAH and TRINITY ToF 3DRanger sensors. Each sensor can be dynamically configured for a single point or a range of independent measurement points. SHILAH provides 12 measurement points with a 70-degree wide field of view, and TRINITY provides 9 measurement points in a 30-degree field of view. Both are complete modules with an integrated microprocessor, algorithms, optics, a ToF sensor and a light source. Heptagon patented “phase modulation” ToF pixel measures the distance up to 3 meters in normal lighting conditions depending on configuration.

The new multipoint rangers enable applications like scene analysis, edge extrapolation or advanced object detection. In smartphones, for example, these 3DRangers will allow fast autofocus lock for primary and front-facing cameras.

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Austrian JOANNEUM RESEARCH Forschungsgesellschaft mbH publishes ESSCIRC 2015 tutorial on ToF imaging by David Stoppa, FBK, delivered on Sept. 18, 2015. Few slides:

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Sony publishes an overview of its CPSE 2015 exhibition booth with info on its new sensors, some to be announced in 2016:

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As Lindsay Grant shows on his LinkedIn page, he has left ST Imaging after 16 years, and joined Omnivision in Santa Clara, CA as VP of Process Engineering.

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EETimes reports from FD-SOI Forum held on Jan 21 in Tokyo, Japan: "the biggest FD-SOI news, which surfaced as chatter and whispering during coffee breaks at the Forum (rather than on the formal agenda), is that Sony is looking to use FD-SOI for the image signal processor (ISP) on stacked CMOS Image Sensors (CIS).

Although this buzz was also confirmed outside the Forum, neither Globalfoundries nor Sony is talking.

Three industry sources, however, independently told EE Times that chip stack CIS will open FD-SOI’s much needed, genuine volume market. Sony, today, is the world’s largest CIS supplier.

Word on the street is that Sony will be working with Globalfoundries on chip stack CIS, instead of Samsung. The Japanese consumer electronics giant wants to avoid any potential conflict with Samsung (who is also in the CIS business)."

Ray Fontaine, Senior Technology Analyst at Chipworks, said that Sony is using its 65nm process for some of its stacked chip ISPs and TSMC 40nm for the ISPs of others (including recent iPhone stacked chip CIS).

Pierre Cambou, activity leader, Imaging & Sensors at Yole Développement, said that using FD-SOI for ISPs “would be a very interesting technical option to minimize the heat generated by the ‘ISP’ secondary chip.”

Presently, Sony uses Globalfoundries FD-SOI process for its 10mW low power GPS chip, with main end application being Casio GPS watches. However, its next generation has been reported to use ST 28nm FD-SOI process.

Update: Samsung FD-SOI slide suggests that there is an activity on integrating it with CIS:

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Rochester Democrat & Chronicle publishes a report from the Dynamax Imaging CEO Jim Tan murder trial. "Tan's son, Charlie, was charged with second-degree murder in the death. The trial ended in a mistrial as jurors did not reach a unanimous verdict and County Court Judge James Piampiano later made the startling ruling to dismiss the charges against the 20-year-old Cornell University sophomore altogether."

"Coworkers — who later either couldn’t be reached or declined to discuss Jim Tan — testified that the 49-year-old could be tyrannical and brow-beating.

Michael Sullivan, a senior production manager at Dynamax who’d worked with Jim Tan even before Tan founded Dynamax in 2003, said Jim Tan was a bully who tried to intimidate him and would “tell people different stories to pit them against each other” and would gather workers together to belittle them in front of their coworkers.

Meghan Johnson, a 27-year-old production technician at Dynamax and likely the last person to communicate with Tan through email, said she largely avoided Tan’s tantrums, but that she had seen them — seen him yell, belittle people and throw things around the office."

Thanks to MJ for the link!

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The 8th Fraunhofer IMS CMOS Imaging Workshop in Duisburg, Germany will takes place on May 9-10, 2016. The workshop agenda includes a lot of interesting stuff:

Advances in CMOS Imaging

• CMOS Image Sensors: Masterpieces of 3D-Integration
  Albert Theuwissen, Harvest Imaging
• Improving Customization by Image Simulations
  Karsten Sengebusch, Eureca
• Switching from Sensing for Imaging to Imaging for Sensing
  Pierrre Cambou, Yole

Technology and Testing

• Foundry Services for CIS
  Gerhard Spitzlsperger, LFoundry
• Test Solutions for High End Imagers
  Marcus Verhoeven, Aspect Systems

Single-Photon Sensing

• SPADs in CMOS Technology
  Alexander Schwinger, Fraunhofer IMS
• SPAD Sensors for 3D Range Finding
  Carl Jackson, SensL
• Time-Correlated Single Photon Counting with SPAD Arrays
  Simone Tisa, MPD

3D-Imaging

• Miniaturization of 3D sensors
  Markus Rossi, Heptagon
• Practical Depth Imaging
  Giora Yahav, Microsoft

Automotive Sensors

• Driving Vision Applications in ADAS
  Heinrich Gotzig, Valeo
• Optical Sensors for ADAS
  Thomas Fechner, Continental

Advanced Applications

• Embedded Cameras for Drones
  Benoit Pochon, Parrot
• Image Sensors for Space Applications
  Bart Dierickx, Caeleste
• Trends in the Industrial Camera Market
  René von Fintel, Basler

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Korea-based SD Optics publishes a demo video of its MALS focusing system in AR applications:

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AppleInsider reports that the recent versions of iOS code have been found to contain references to Li-Fi. "In addition to the software references, Apple is known to be working on hardware implementations for light-based wireless data transfer, or optical wireless communication."

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GlobeNewsWire: Himax Imaging announces the HM01B0, an ultra-low power QVGA sensor that consumes less than 700µW when operating at QQVGA resolution of 30 fps, and less than 2mW when operating at QVGA resolution with support for even lower power modes.

The HM01B0 ultra-low power consumption allows the sensor to be placed in a constant state of operation, enabling “always on”, contextually aware, computer vision capabilities such as feature extraction, proximity sensing, gesture recognition, object tracking and pattern identification.

The HM01B0 integrates a motion detection circuit with an interrupt output pin, and an automatic exposure and gain control loop to minimize host processor computation as well as data communication to reduce system power. The sensor utilizes an advanced 3.6µm pixel technology that offers sensitivity of below 1 lux. The sensor’s reflowable chip scale package measures less than 5mm2 and requires only three passive components to support a highly compact camera module and miniature wafer level module assembly.

“Our image sensors for notebook and smartphone applications, such as our ¼" 8MP MIPI sensor, have been among the lowest power in the industry,” stated Jordan Wu, CEO of Himax Technologies. “We believe that the HM01B0 is the lowest power CMOS image sensor in the industry with similar resolution, while offering outstanding sensor performance and high level of feature integration. We are excited to build upon our core competence to develop a new class of sensors that will support very low power computer vision to enable new applications across smartphones, tablets, AR/VR devices, IoT, and artificial intelligence for consumer, medical, and industrial markets. With this new ultra-low power sensor, Himax has been working with leading consumer electronic brand customers and major platform providers to help develop innovative features and reduce power consumption of existing cameras. We have received a good level of interest from quite a few of the industry’s leading players.”

Himax believes its HM01B0 is the best solution on the market to meet the ever-growing computer vision and power saving expectations and can be universally adopted for mobile devices, AR/VR devices, IoT, and artificial intelligence applications. The HM01B0 will be available in both monochrome and color options. The sensor can also integrate into Wafer Level Modules to be available for selected customers and partners in Q1 2016.

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FlexEnable (used to be Plastic Logic) and ISORG reveal the world’s first large area flexible fingerprint sensor on plastic designed for biometric applications. With an 8.6 cm x 8.6 cm active area, 84µm pitch (78µm pixel size with 6µm spacing) and 1024 x 1024 = 1048576 pixel resolution, the flexible sensor is 0.3 mm thick and can operate in visible and NIR up to wavelengths of 900 nm. Other that fingerprint, the technology is also capable of measuring the configuration of veins in the fingers, providing additional security versus that of a surface fingerprint alone.

This new sensor is made by deposition of organic printed photodetectors (OPD) by ISORG onto a plastic organic thin-film transistor (OTFT) backplane, developed by FlexEnable. The large label-thin sensing area can be applied to almost any surface – and even wrapped around the objects in our daily lives that we typically come into contact with – such as a car steering wheel that recognises the driver as soon as the wheel is touched, or a credit card with integrated biometric detection.

Chuck Milligan, CEO of FlexEnable, said: “FlexEnable’s ground-breaking flexible electronics technology in combination with ISORG’s unrivalled expertise in OPDs and large area image sensors brings game-changing capabilities for biometric detection that can be applied to almost any surface – anything from door handles to wrists. For example, imagine a mobile device whose surface or edges know who is holding or touching the device. Such capabilities are viable because of the flexibility, thinness, and much lower cost per unit area compared to silicon area sensors.“

Jean-Yves Gomez, CEO of ISORG, said: “This break-through development will spark the creation of next-generation products in biometrics. No other solution can offer large area sensing as well as finger print and veins recognition while being flexible, light and robust. Moreover, our team is able to provide reference design as well as image improvement algorithms and illumination solutions to ease the sensor integration into new applications.”

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National Geographic publishes a nice article on biological eye evolution and vision of different animals:


The magazine also publishes a short video on that:



Thanks to DSSB for the link!

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ResearchInChina publishes the 2015 update of its "Global and China CCM (CMOS Camera Module) Industry Report." Few quotes, starting from CMOS image sensor market overview:

"In CIS field, shipments are expected to amount to 4,196 million units in 2015 and 4,390 million units in 2016, up 8.8% and 4.6% against the previous year, respectively, compared with annual growth of 11.5% in 2014, indicating a further slowdown. The market size is predicted to be USD9.16 billion in 2015 and USD9.628 billion in 2016, a year-on-year rise of 4.6% and 5.1%, respectively, compared with annual increase of 10.7% in 2014. Except for On-Semi, Sony and Sharp, all other vendors experienced declines... On-Semi is a bellwether in automotive CIS field, seizing nearly 50% market share. As integration went well very after acquisition of Aptina by On-Semi, combined with explosive growth in automotive camera market, On-Semi embraced rapid development in its CIS business, and is expected to record revenue of USD720 million in 2015, including USD400 million from automotive field, a surge of more than 100%.

Global CCM market size was worth USD16.247 billion in 2015, a year-on-year rise of 3.8% from 2014, the slowest rate since 2010. It is expected that growth rate will continue to decelerate in 2016, only 1.3%, but bounce back slightly to 1.6% in 2017 with a market size of USD16.732 billion.

Largan Precision still outshined others in Lens field with high-speed growth, while the rest of vendors almost all suffered setback in Lens business, except for the vendors with automotive Lens business which witnessed significant growth in such field but with a low ASP. Sunny Optical still ranked first globally in automotive Lens; Kantatsu, a subsidiary of Sharp, made its way into the supply chain of Apple with considerable performance growth.

Japanese companies dominated OIS market with Alps and Mitsumi tied for the first place and both being major suppliers for Apple. In addition, Mitsumi also aggressively marched into Chinese mainland market, planning to invest JPY25 billion to expand capacity over the next two years with the aim of competing for the global champion with Alps.

Bi-Direction and Close-Loop have become two main technologies in VCM field. Japanese vendors exited from low-end VCM field and focused on OIS or Bi-Direction and Close-Loop. The emergence of mainland Chinese companies in low-end market resulted in fierce competition.

In an increasingly competitive CCM field, the majority of companies were caught in the price war and the market became more concentrated. Many vendors registered higher shipments but smaller revenue, even the number of pixel increased. Sharp, performing the best, became the second largest supplier for Apple that placed more orders with Sharp so as to reduce its reliance on LG-INNOTEK, but LG-INNOTECK was still the largest supplier for Apple and ranked first by revenue globally. Cowell, the third largest supplier for Apple, also did very well, and was one of few companies with improved gross margin. SEMCO won more orders from Samsung. Sunny Optical, the No. 1 mainland Chinese vendor, maintained the momentum of strong growth but with a stagnant gross margin, and started shifting its focus to Lens field in the hope of raising its overall growth margin. LITEON selectively gave up low-end business and saw a decline in orders from its major customer Samsung, leading to a collapse in revenue. MCNEX found strong growth in revenue by relying on automotive business."

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MarketWired: The Linley Group announces the winners of its annual Analysts' Choice Awards which recognize the top semiconductor products of 2015. Ceva XM4 vision processor won the Award in Best Processor IP category.

"Our awards program not only recognizes excellence in chip design and innovation, but also recognizes the products that our analysts believe will have an impact on future designs," said Linley Gwennap, founder and principal analyst at The Linley Group. "These products significantly improve the design of systems in their target applications."

CEVA XM4 applications

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e2v patent application US20160005785 "Image sensor with anti-blooming gate" by Frédéric Barbier and Frédéric Mayer gives the following explanation of the excessive dark current resulting from a positive bias of the antiblooming gate G5:


"If the potential applied to the gate G5 is 0.6 to 1.1 volts, the potential in the active layer 12 beneath the gate G5 will be positive, equal to around 0.2 volts for example. There then exists a strong local electric field beneath the gate at the surface of the silicon towards the edge of the photodiode which is maintained at 0 volts by the surface region 16. This electric field acts by lowering the forbidden band of the semiconductor and by therefore increasing the probability of electrons passing into the conduction band. This is a physical effect of band-to-band tunnelling, which creates a leakage current. Electrons are generated beneath the gate without the lighting being the cause; they will go to be stored in the photodiode with the highest potential. This current can be likened to a dark current since it exists independently of the lighting. This dark current, specifically due to the presence of a difference between the potential beneath the gate and the surface potential of the photodiode, is particularly bothersome when detection of weak lighting is desired. It can be several hundred times higher than if the potential beneath the gate was nil."

Whether this explanation is correct or not, the patent application proposes a pulsed anti-blooming bias to minimize the dark current:

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Nikkei reports that Sony plans to start mass production of its automotive CMOS image sensor in May 2016. Initially, Sony planned to start volume production in December 2015. Slightly delayed, the first automotive product is expected to be IMX224MQV, a 1/3-inch 1.27MP CMOS sensor, announced in Oct 2014 and sampled since Nov 2014. Sony says that the sensor is able to shoot "high-quality color video" even with a luminance of 0.005lx, which is equivalent to a luminance on a dark night (darker than starlight).

If the mass production begins in May 2016 as scheduled, the IMX224MQV might be used in vehicles to be released in 2018. EuroNCAP (European New Car Assessment Programme) will start to evaluate the capability of avoiding collision with passengers and bicycles at night in 2018. "The year 2018 is especially important," Sony said. "High sensitivity for nighttime shooting is important, and we will utilize our strength improved in the smartphone market."

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New Imaging Technologies announces new analog WDR InGaAs cameras series in 320x256 pixel (QVGA) or 640x512 pixels (VGA). The analog WiDy SWIR cameras are available in CCIR (25fps) or EIA (30fps) version with either rolling QVGA 320A or global/snapshot QVGA 320A-S and VGA 640A-S. The cameras are TECless and feature over 140dB intra-scene DR.

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Optics.org: Researchers at SINTEF, Norway, are working with partners across Europe to develop sensors and lasers for under water ToF camera. The EU project UTOFIA (Underwater Time Of Flight Image Acquisition) has a budget of €5.7M, and will continue till 2018 as part of the European research program Horizon 2020. The other partners in the project are Bright Solutions (Italy), a Fraunhofer research center (Germany), Odos Imaging (UK), Subsea Tech (France), AZTI (Spain) and DTU Aqua (Denmark).

“The biggest problem with traditional cameras is that their range is reduced in poor visibility, particularly in coastal waters made turbid by suspended sand and clay particles. Such cameras have a very limited range under these conditions”, said Project Manager Jens Thielemann at SINTEF.

The camera shutter is kept closed for approximately 50ns before it opens. When the first 50 ns is gated out, most of the backscattering contribution to the noise is removed.

Thanks to SO for the link!

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DARPA scientists suspect that the performance of light-based applications could improve by orders of magnitude if they could get beyond conventional photon detector designs—perhaps even to the point of being able to identify each and every photon relevant to a given application.

DARPA’s Fundamental Limits of Photon Detection—or Detect—program aims to establish the first-principles limits of photon detector performance by developing new fully quantum models of photon detection in a variety of technology platforms, and by testing those models in proof-of-concept experiments.

“The goal of the Detect program is to determine how precisely we can spot individual photons and whether we can maximize key characteristics of photon detectors simultaneously in a single system,” said Prem Kumar, DARPA program manager. “This is a fundamental research effort, but answers to these questions could radically change light detection as we know it and vastly improve the many tools and avenues of discovery that today rely on light detection.”

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ON Semiconductor’s KAE-02150 EMCCD wins Electronic Products Magazine 2015 Product of the Year Award:

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Invisage publishes media responses on its demos at CES 2016:

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