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ST has released a new line of global shutter image sensors with embedded optical flow feature which is fully autonomous with no need for host computing/assistance. This can provide savings in power and bandwidth and free up host resources that would otherwise be needed for optical flow computations. From this optical flow data, it is possible for a host processor to compute the visual odometry (SLAM or camera trajectory), without the need for the full RGB image. The optical flow data can be interlaced with the standard image stream, with any of the monochrome, RGB Bayer or RGB-IR sensor versions. 

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With the increasingly widespread use of monitoring cameras in recent years, there has been a corresponding growth in demand for image sensors that can capture high-quality images in environments with significant differences in brightness, such as stadium entrances and nighttime roads. Canon has developed a new sensor for such applications, and will continue to pursue development of sensors for use in a variety of fields.

The new sensor realizes a dynamic range of 148 dB—the highest-level performance in the industry among image sensors for monitoring applications. It is capable of image capture at light levels ranging from approximately 0.1 lux to approximately 2,700,000 lux. The sensor's performance holds the potential for use in such applications as recognizing both vehicle license plates and the driver's face at underground parking entrances during daytime, as well as combining facial recognition and background monitoring at stadium entrances.

 1Among market for CMOS sensors used in monitoring applications. As of January 11, 2023. Based on Canon research.

 2Dynamic range at 30 fps is 148 dB. Dynamic range at approx. 60 fps is 142 dB.

In order to produce a natural-looking image when capturing images in environments with both bright and dark areas, conventional high-dynamic-range image capture requires taking multiple separate photos under different exposure conditions and then synthesizing them into a single image. Because exposure times vary in length, this synthesis processing often results in a problem called "motion artifacts," in which images of moving subjects are merged but do not overlap completely, resulting in a final image that is blurry. Canon's new sensor divides the image into 736 distinct areas, each of which can automatically be set to the optimal exposure time based on brightness level. This prevents the occurrence of motion artifacts and makes possible facial recognition with greater accuracy even when scanning moving subjects. What's more, image synthesizing is not required, thereby reducing the amount of data to be processed and enabling high-speed image capture at speeds of approximately 60 frames-per-second3 (fps) and a high pixel count of approximately 12.6 million pixels.

 3Dynamic range at 30 fps is 148 dB. Dynamic range at approx. 60 fps is 142 dB.

Video is comprised of a series of individual still images (single frames). However, if exposure conditions for each frame is not specified within the required time for that frame, it becomes difficult to track and capture images of subjects in environments with subject to significant changes in brightness, or in scenarios where the subject is moving at high speeds. Canon's new image sensor is equipped with multiple CPUs and dedicated processing circuitry, enabling it to quickly and simultaneously specify exposure conditions for all 736 areas within the allotted time per frame. In addition, image capture conditions can be specified according to environment and use case. Thanks to these capabilities, the sensor is expected to serve a wide variety of purposes including fast and highly accurate subject detection on roads or in train stations, as well as stadium entrances and other areas where there are commonly significant changes in brightness levels.

Example use case for new sensor

• Parking garage entrance, afternoon: With conventional cameras, vehicle's license plate is not legible due to whiteout, while driver's face is not visible due to crushed blacks. However, the new sensor enables recognition of both the license plate and driver's face.
• The new sensor realizes an industry-leading high dynamic range of 148 dB, enabling image capture in environments with brightness levels ranging from approx. 0.1 lux to approx. 2,700,000 lux. For reference, 0.1 lux is equivalent to the brightness of a full moon at night, while 500,000 lux is equivalent to filaments in lightbulbs and vehicle headlights.

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NSC2001 is the NIT Triple H SWIR sensor:

• High Dynamic Range operating in linear and logarithmic mode response, it exhibits more than 120 dB of dynamic range
• High Speed, capable of generating up to 1K frames per second in full frame mode, and much more with sub windowing
• High Sensitivity and low noise figure (< 50e-)

NSC2001 fully benefits from NIT’s new manufacturing factory installed in their brand-new clean room, which includes their high-yield hybridization process. The new facility allows NIT to cover the entire design and manufacturing cycle of these sensors in volume with a level of quality never achieved before.

Moreover, NSC2001 was designed with the objective of addressing new markets that could not invest in expensive and difficult-to-use SWIR cameras. The result is that our WiDy SenS 320 camera based on NSC2001 exhibits the lowest price point on the market even in unit quantity.

Typical applications for NSC2001 are optical metrology and testing, additive manufacturing, welding, & laser communication, etc.

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CNES, ESA, ONERA, CEA-LETI, Labex Focus, Airbus Defence & Space and Thales Alenia Space are pleased to inform you that they are organising the second workshop dedicated to Infrared Detection for Space Applications, that will be held in Toulouse from 7th to 9th, June 2023 in the frame of the Optics and Optoelectronics Technical Expertise Community (COMET).

The aim of this workshop is to focus on Infrared Detectors technologies and components, Focal Plane Arrays and associated subsystems, control and readout ASICs, manufacturing, characterization and qualification results. The workshop will only address IR spectral bands between 1μm and 100 μm. Due to the commonalities with space applications and the increasing interest of space agencies to qualify and to use COTS IR detectors, companies and laboratories involved in defence applications, scientific applications and non-space cutting-edge developments are very welcome to attend this workshop.

The workshop will comprise several sessions addressing the following topics:

• Detector needs for future space missions,
• Infrared detectors and technologies including (but not limited to):
• Photon detectors: MCT, InGaAs, InSb, XBn, QWIP, SL, intensified, SI:As, ...
• Uncooled thermal detectors: microbolometers (a-Si, VOx), pyroelectric detectors ...
• ROIC (including design and associated Si foundry aspects).
• Optical functions on detectors
• Focal Plane technologies and solutions for Space or Scientific applications including subassembly elements such as:
• Assembly techniques for large FPAs,
• Flex and cryogenic cables,
• Passive elements and packaging,
• Cold filters, anti-reflection coatings,
• Proximity ASICs for IR detectors,
• Manufacturing techniques from epitaxy to package integration,
• Characterization techniques,
• Space qualification and validation of detectors and ASICs,
• Recent Infrared Detection Chain performances and Integration from a system point of view.

Three tutorials will be given during this workshop.

Please send a short abstract giving the title, the authors’ names and affiliations, and presenting the subject of your talk, to following contacts: anne.rouvie@cnes.fr and nick.nelms@esa.int.

The workshop official language is English (oral presentation and posters).

After abstract acceptance notification, authors will be requested to prepare their presentation in pdf or PowerPoint format, to be presented at the workshop. Authors will also be required to provide a version of their presentation to the organization committee along with an authorization to make it available for Workshop attendees and on-line for COMET members. No proceedings will be compiled and so no detailed manuscript needs to be submitted.

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Sony separates production of cameras for China and non-China markets

Link: https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Electronics/Sony-separates-production-of-cameras-for-China-and-non-China-markets

Sony Group has transferred production of cameras sold in the Japanese, U.S. and European markets to Thailand from China, part of growing efforts by manufacturers to protect supply chains by reducing their Chinese dependence. Sony’s plant in China will in principle produce cameras for the domestic market. Sony offers the Alpha line of high-end mirrorless cameras. The company sold roughly 2.11M units globally in 2022, according to Euromonitor. Of those, China accounted for 150,000 units, with the rest, or 90%, sold elsewhere, meaning the bulk of Sony’s Chinese production has been shifted to Thailand. Canon in 2022 closed part of its camera production in China, shifting it back to Japan. Daikin Industries plans to establish a supply chain to make air conditioners without having to rely on Chinese-made parts within fiscal 2023.

TOKYO -- Sony Group has transferred production of cameras sold in the Japanese, U.S. and European markets to Thailand from China, part of growing efforts by manufacturers to protect supply chains by reducing their Chinese dependence.

Sony's plant in China will in principle produce cameras for the domestic market. Until now, Sony cameras were exported from China and Thailand. The site will retain some production facilities to be brought back online in emergencies. 

After tensions heightened between Washington and Beijing, Sony first shifted manufacturing of cameras bound for the U.S. The transfer of the production facilities for Japan- and Europe-bound cameras was completed at the end of last year. 

Sony offers the Alpha line of high-end mirrorless cameras. The company sold roughly 2.11 million units globally in 2022, according to Euromonitor. Of those, China accounted for 150,000 units, with the rest, or 90%, sold elsewhere, meaning the bulk of Sony's Chinese production has been shifted to Thailand. 

On the production shift, Sony said it "continues to focus on the Chinese market and has no plans of exiting from China."

Sony will continue making other products, such as TVs, game consoles and camera lenses, in China for export to other countries. 

The manufacturing sector has been working to address a heavy reliance on Chinese production following supply chain disruptions caused by Beijing's zero-COVID policy.

Canon in 2022 closed part of its camera production in China, shifting it back to Japan. Daikin Industries plans to establish a supply chain to make air conditioners without having to rely on Chinese-made parts within fiscal 2023.

Sony ranks second in global market share for cameras, following Canon. Its camera-related sales totaled 414.8 billion yen ($3.2 billion) in fiscal 2021, about 20% of its electronics business.

SK Hynix reshuffles CIS team to focus on high-end products

Link: https://www.thelec.net/news/articleView.html?idxno=4379

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Cameras that sense wavelengths between 1000 and 2500 nm can often pick up details that would otherwise be hidden in images captured by conventional CMOS image sensors (CIS) that operate in the visible range. SWIR cameras can not only view details obscured by plastic sunglasses (a) and packaging (b), they can also peer through silicon wafers to spot voids after the bonding process (c). QD: quantum dot. Courtesy of mec.

A SWIR imaging forecast shows emerging sensor materials taking a larger share of the market, while incumbent InGaAs sees little gain, and the use of other materials grows at a faster rate. OPD: organic photodetector. Courtesy of IDTechEx.

Quantum dots act as a SWIR photodetector if they are sized correctly. When placed on a readout circuit, they form a SWIR imaging sensor.

The price for SWIR cameras today can run in the tens of thousands of dollars, which is too expensive for many applications and has inhibited wider use of the technology.

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When: April 5 and 6, 2023
Where: Delft, the Netherlands
Forum Topic: Imaging Beyond the Visible
Speaker: Prof. dr. Pierre Magnan (ISAE-SUPAERO, France)
Registration link: https://harvestimaging.com/forum_registration_2023_new.php

More information can be found here: https://harvestimaging.com/forum_introduction_2023_new.php

After the Harvest Imaging forums during the last decade, a next and ninth one will be organized on April 5 & 6, 2023 in Delft, the Netherlands. The basic intention of the Harvest Imaging forum is to have a scientific and technical in-depth discussion on one particular topic that is of great importance and value to digital imaging. The forum 2023 will again be organized in a hybrid form:

• You can attend in-person and can benefit in the optimal way of the live interaction with the speakers and audience,
• There will be also a live broadcast of the forum, still interactions with the speakers through a chat box will be made possible,
• Finally the forum also can be watched on-line at a later date.

The 2023 Harvest Imaging forum will deal with a single topic from the field of solid-state imaging and will have only one world-level expert as the speaker.

Register here: https://harvestimaging.com/forum_registration_2023_new.php

"Imaging Beyond the Visible"
Prof. dr. Pierre MAGNAN (ISAE-SUPAERO, Fr)
 

Abstract:
Two decades of intensive and tremendous efforts have pushed the imaging capabilities in the visible domain closer to physical limits. But also extended the attention to new areas beyond visible light intensity imaging. Examples can be found either to higher photon energy with appearance of CMOS Ultra-Violet imaging capabilities or even to other light dimensions with Polarization Imaging possibilities, both in monolithic form suitable to common camera architecture.

But one of most active and impressive fields is the extension of interest to the spectral range significantly beyond the visible, in the Infrared domain. Special focus is put on the Short Wave Infrared (SWIR) used in the reflective imaging mode but also the Thermal Infrared spectral range used in self-emissive ‘thermal’ imaging mode in Medium Wave Infrared (MWIR) and Long Wave Infrared (LWIR). Initially mostly motivated for military and scientific applications, the use of these spectral domains have now met new higher volume applications needs.

This has been made possible thanks to new technical approaches enabling cost reduction stimulated by the efficient collective manufacturing process offered by the microelectronics industry. CMOS, even no more sufficient to address alone the non- visible imaging spectral range, is still a key part of the solution.

The goal of this Harvest Imaging forum is to go through the various aspects of imaging concepts, device principles, used materials and imager characteristics to address the beyond-visible imaging and especially focus on the infrared spectral bands imaging.

Emphasis will be put on the material used for both detection :

• Germanium, Quantum Dots devices and InGaAs for SWIR,
•  III-V and II-VI semiconductors for MWIR and LWIR
•  Microbolometers and Thermopiles thermal imagers

Besides the material aspects, also attention will be given to the associated CMOS circuits architectures enabling the imaging arrays implementation, both at the pixel and the imager level.
A status on current and new trends will be provided.
 

Bio:
Pierre Magnan graduated in E.E. from University of Paris in 1980. After being a research scientist involved in analog and digital CMOS design up to 1994 at French Research Labs, he moved in 1995 to CMOS image sensors research at SUPAERO (now ISAE-SUPAERO) in Toulouse, France. The latter is an Educational and Research Institute funded by the French Ministry of Defense. Here Pierre was involved in setting up and growing the CMOS active-pixels sensors research and development activities. From 2002 to 2021, as a Full Professor and Head of the Image Sensor Research Group, he has been involved in CMOS Image Sensor research. His team worked in cooperation with European companies (including STMicroelectronics, Airbus Defense& Space, Thales Alenia Space and also European and French Space Agencies) and developed custom image sensors dedicated to space instruments, extending in the last years the scope of the Group to CMOS design for Infrared imagers.
In 2021, Pierre has been nominated Emeritus Professor of ISAE-Supaero Institute where he focuses now on Research within PhD work, mostly with STMicroelectronics.

Pierre has supervised more than 20 PhDs candidates in the field of image sensors and co-authored more than 80 scientific papers. He has been involved in various expertise missions for French Agencies, companies and the European Commission. His research interests include solid-state image sensors design for visible and non-visible imaging, modelling, technologies, hardening techniques and circuit design for imaging applications.

He has served in the IEEE IEDM Display and Sensors subcommittee in 2011-2012 and in the International Image Sensor Workshop (IISW) Technical Program Committee, being the General Technical Chair of 2015 IISW. He is currently a member of the 2022 IEDM ODI sub-committee and the IISW2023 Technical Program Committee.

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Images defocus over wide temperature range is a challenge in many applications. poLight's TLens technology behaves the opposite of plastic lenses over temperature, so just adding it to the optics stack addresses this issue.

A whitepaper is available here: [link]

Abstract: poLight ASA is the owner of and has developed the TLens products family as well as other patented micro-opto-electro-mechanical systems (MOEMS) technologies. TLens is a focusable tunable optics device based on lead zirconium titanate (PZT) microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) technology and a novel optical polymer material. The advantages of the TLens have already been demonstrated in multiple products launched on the market since 2020. Compactness, low power consumption, and fast speed are clear differentiators in comparison with incumbent voice coil motor (VCM) technology, thanks to the patented MEMS architecture. In addition, the use of TLens in the simple manner by adding it onto a fixed focus lens camera, or inserting the TLens inside the lens stack, enables stable focusing over an extended operating range. It has been demonstrated that the TLens passively compensates the thermal defocus of the plastic lens stack/camera structure. The fixed focus plastic lens stack cameras, usually used in consumer devices, typically exhibits a thermal defocus of a few diopters over the operating temperature range. Results of simulations as well as experimental data are presented together with a principal athermal lens design using TLens in only a passive manner (without the use of its electro-tunablity) while the electro-tunability can be used to additionally secure an extended depth of focus with further enhanced image quality.

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Flexible Image Sensor Fabrication Based on NIPIN Phototransistors

Hyun Myung Kim, Gil Ju Lee, Min Seok Kim, Young Min Song
Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology, School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science;

We present a detailed method to fabricate a deformable lateral NIPIN phototransistor array for curved image sensors. The phototransistor array with an open mesh form, which is composed of thin silicon islands and stretchable metal interconnectors, provides flexibility and stretchability. The parameter analyzer characterizes the electrical property of the fabricated phototransistor.

ISOCELL Image Sensor: Ultra-fine Pixel Technologies | Samsung

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