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GizmoChina quotes a rumor that the next generation Kospet Prime 2 smartwatch will have a 3D camera. "The new sensor will improve the smartwatch’s camera support and will aid in measuring the size of any object more accurately."

The current generation Kospet Prime smartwatch released earlier this year already has a dual 5MP+2MP camera with software upscaling to 8MP:


TheElec updates on Samsung-Corephotonics patent infringement lawsuit against Apple camera module supplier LG Innotek:

"At their latest hearing on Friday at Seoul Central District Court, when asked by the judge on whether they have an outside appraiser to suggest, a LG InnoTek representative said they had someone in mind from overseas but not in South Korea and said they will look for one. LG also said that the patent invalidation judgment was expected at the end of August and asked the next hearing to be set in September.

The trial has been effectively put on hold for the past eight months due to the issue of choosing an appraiser to evaluate the patent in question.

Corephotonics filed the lawsuit back in November, 2018, alleging that LG InnoTek violated its patents related to small field of view lens assembly. LG countered with its own request to South Korea’s patent office to invalidate the patents in question on June, 2019."

Toshiba proposes a 3D camera based on a different blur for objects closer and farther than its focal plane:

"Until now, it was considered theoretically too difficult to measure distance based on the shape of the blur, which is the same for objects both near and far when they are equidistant from the focal point (Figure 3). However, analytical results revealed a substantial difference between the blur shapes of near and far objects, even when equidistant from the focal point (Figure 4). With that, Toshiba successfully analyzed blur data from captured images by a deep learning module trained with a deep neural network model.

When light passes through a lens, the shape of the blur created is known to change depending on the light's wavelength and its position in the lens. In the developed network, position and color data are processed separately to properly perceive changes in blur shape, and then, after passing through a weighted attention mechanism, are used to control where on the brightness gradient to focus in order to correctly measure the distance (Figure 5). Through learning, the network is then updated to reduce any error between the measured distance and actual distance.

Using this AI module, Toshiba has confirmed that a single image captured with a commercially available camera realizes the same distance measurement accuracy secured with stereo cameras.

Toshiba will confirm the versatility of the system with commercially available cameras and lenses and speed up the image processing, aiming for public implementation in fiscal year 2020."

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Toshiba announces a high-resolution, long-range technology for flash LiDAR, probably the next version of one presented at ISSCC 2020. At its heart is Toshiba’s compact, high-efficiency silicon photo-multiplier (SiPM).

In general, SiPM are suitable for long-range measurement as they are highly light sensitive. However, the light-receiving cells composed on SiPM require recovery time after being triggered, and in strong ambient light condition they also need a large number of cells, since they must have reserve cells to react to reflected laser light.

Toshiba’s SiPM applies a transistor circuit that reboots the cells to reduce the recovery time. The cells function more efficiently and fewer are needed, securing a smaller SiPM, as shown in Figure 1. This realizes a higher-resolution SiPM array while maintaining high sensitivity, as shown in Figures 2 and 3.


Field trials with a LiDAR prototype, shown in Figure 4, using commercially available lenses, from wide-angle to telephoto lenses, have demonstrated the system’s effectiveness over a maximum distance of 200m (Figure 5).

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SK Hynix publishes an article "Accelerated Multi-Camera Competition in Smartphone Market: Will Mobile-Centric CIS Demand Continue to Grow?" written by Yuak Pak, analyst at KIWOOM Securities. The analyst presents his view on the competition with Sony, among other things:

"For CIS, more demand for 12-inch wafers is being seen as focus shifts from 8-inch wafers. In addition, as the number of pixels increases to more than 40 million, the process started to move from 90nm to 32nm or less.

In particular, the manufacturing process of CIS is very similar to that of DRAMs, and the trench technology of DRAMs is applied to the process of high-pixel products. Therefore, it is highly likely that DRAM manufacturers will have a cost advantage over time.

SK hynix is actually applying DRAM trench process technology to eliminate light interference between pixels, while several experiments are underway to prevent the absorption of photons when using metal partition walls. In addition, ISOCELL of Samsung Electronics has also adopted DRAM process technology and is making efforts to refine their process to a 32nm level.

SK hynix, and Samsung Electronics, two of the world’s leading semiconductor memory manufacturers, are expected to close the technological gap with leading CIS players such as Sony thanks to their superior DRAM technology.

SK hynix is currently operating 8- and 12-inch CIS lines. This year’s capacity of the 12-inch CIS line has increased by more than 60% compared to last year. In addition, since some lines are being redeployed for CIS, actual performance is expected to become more visible from the end of this year.

Samsung Electronics is also expanding the capacity of its 12-inch line in addition to its existing 8-inch CIS line, mainly by utilizing old DRAM lines. Starting with 11 lines in 2018, the company is planning to convert 13 lines into a CIS line in 2020.

The industry’s number one CIS manufacturer Sony continues to increase its 12-inch capacity in Japan, which is expected to intensify the competition for market share from the second half of this year. While Sony has to construct a new line, SK hynix and Samsung Electronics are converting and deploying existing DRAM lines, which would make their products highly competitive at cost, advantaging them in competition to secure market share."

The article is complemented by the CIS market data from KIWOOM Securities:


"As of 2018, the share of demand for CIS by major industries shows the mobile industry dominating at an unbeatable 68% – followed by compute (9%), consumer (8%), security (6%), automotive (5%), and industrial (4%). In the future, this demand is expected to grow mainly within the mobile, automotive, and industrial sectors, while the market’s size – which was valued around USD 13.7 billion in 2018 – is expected to increase to USD 19 billion by 2022.

In addition to this, packaging technology integrating CIS, ISP, and DRAM is now being introduced to ultra-high-speed cameras, which is proving to be a beneficial change for companies producing both DRAMs and CIS in the mid to long term."

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Image Algorithmics kindly sent me a presentation with the company view on RGBW CFA advantages:

"There is a strong preconception in the market that RGBW does not work well. This is understandable given the failure of previous attempts. What's worse, many engineers now believe that it fundamentally cannot work well. I am attaching a slide deck to address this misconception.

We have tested our algorithms on 0.8u, 1.0u, 1.12u and 2.8u RGBW sensors. RGBW has a 6dB+ SNR advantage over Bayer in low light, read noise limited conditions and 3dB+ SNR advantage over Bayer in bright light, shot noise limited conditions. RGBW also has a 6dB dynamic range advantage."

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Delft University of Technology and Harvest Imaging publish MDPI paper "In-Pixel Temperature Sensors with an Accuracy of ±0.25 °C, a 3σ Variation of ±0.7 °C in the Spatial Domain and a 3σ Variation of ±1 °C in the Temporal Domain" by Accel Abarca, and Albert Theuwissen.

"This article presents in-pixel (of a CMOS image sensor (CIS)) temperature sensors with improved accuracy in the spatial and the temporal domain. The goal of the temperature sensors is to be used to compensate for dark (current) fixed pattern noise (FPN) during the exposure of the CIS. The temperature sensors are based on substrate parasitic bipolar junction transistor (BJT) and on the nMOS source follower of the pixel. The accuracy of these temperature sensors has been improved in the analog domain by using dynamic element matching (DEM), a temperature independent bias current based on a bandgap reference (BGR) with a temperature independent resistor, correlated double sampling (CDS), and a full BGR bias of the gain amplifier. The accuracy of the bipolar based temperature sensor has been improved to a level of ±0.25 °C, a 3σ variation of ±0.7 °C in the spatial domain, and a 3σ variation of ±1 °C in the temporal domain. In the case of the nMOS based temperature sensor, an accuracy of ±0.45 °C, 3σ variation of ±0.95 °C in the spatial domain, and ±1.4 °C in the temporal domain have been acquired. The temperature range is between −40 °C and 100 °C."

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EETimes publishes an article about Waymo Laser Bear Honeycomb LiDAR:

"It’s been well over 16 months since Waymo announced a plan to license its lidar, called Laser Bear Honeycomb, to non-automotive companies.

Waymo is promising that its perimeter lidars, placed at four points around a vehicle, offer “an unparalleled field of view including up to 95 ° vertical field of view, and up to 360 ° horizontal field of view.”

This translates into fewer sensors for AVs to see more area. Waymo also claims that its lidars suffer little interference regardless of proximity; they are able to detect and avoid objects at very close range.

Leading AV companies — Waymo, GM Cruise and Argo AI — have either already acquired lidar technology companies or have developed lidars internally. Even Mobileye, an Intel company, is crafting its own lidar tech, Amnon Shashua, Mobileye’s CEO acknowledged, in a recent interview with EE Times.

Most industry analysts agree that many of the 70-plus lidar startups that have sprung up in the past several years are unlikely to survive in the Covid-19 economy. The public health crisis exacerbates the reality that the arrival of commercial AVs is no longer as imminent as once predicted."


TheVerge: A number of US-based LiDAR companies uses federal Paycheck Protection Program:

• Velodyne, the top LIDAR manufacturer in the US, received a loan in the range of $5M to $10M to retain 450 jobs.
• Luminar, an Orlando-based company that is making LIDAR laser sensors for Volvo, Toyota, and other automakers working on autonomous vehicles, got a loan between $5M and $10M to retain 341 jobs.
• Aeye got a loan in the $2M to $5M range to save 85 jobs.

Innoviz announces samples availability of its antomotive qualifies Innoviz One product:




SystemPlus Consulting publishes a reverse engineering of Hamamatsu edge-emitting laser diode and a photodiode inside Livox Horizon LiDAR:

"LiDARS are manufactured around four main components: the pulsed laser diode, avalanche photodiodes, opto-mechanical system (to scan the environment in front of the car), and the processor.

System Plus Consulting proposes an analysis of the pulsed laser and the photodiode in the Horizon LiDAR from Livox: a Chinese company that sells a LiDAR system for automotive ADAS.
The LiDAR sensing module includes a custom six-photodiode array die from Hamamatsu, specifically developed for this LiDAR application. The design is particularly optimized to increase the sensibility of the six avalanche photodiodes. The photodiode dies are assembled in a package with a 905nm narrow bandpass filter.

This LiDAR uses six edge-emitting lasers designed to have three epitaxially stacked emitters. The six laser dies are assembled horizontally with an inclined mirror to send the light perpendicular. Thermal management is performed by a sophisticated substrate."


Aurora announces its FirstLight Lidar based on Blackmore acquired technology and intended for Aurora’s next-generation test vehicles:

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Vision System Design: A new Japan-based camera company Aval Data announces the first camera based on Sony IMX990 sensor, the ABA-013VIR.


Thanks to TL for the link!

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iniVation introduces the Foveator eye tracking technology. Foveator uses AI-enabled neuromorphic technology to follow your eye movements at fast speed, with high accuracy and near-zero latency. Working like a tiny version of retina and visual system, Foveator powers tracking up to 1 kHz with latency below 3 ms.
Foveator technology enables next-generation VR and AR experiences, including:

• Foveated rendering
  Better graphics and huge improvements in battery life
• Foveated streaming
  Save >50% of bandwidth across 4G/5G networks
• Foveated graphics transport
  Reduce graphics bandwidth needs
• Ultra-low-power human interaction
  Lower speeds for lightweight, all-day AR battery life

Foveator is powered by the iniVation neuromorphic Dynamic Vision Platform.

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JENOPTIK AG acquires TRIOPTICS GmbH known for its active alignment and lens testing technology. Both parties to the contract have agreed not to disclose details of the purchase price.

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BusinessWire: On July 5, 2020, X-FAB Group was the target of a cyber security attack. Following the advice of leading security experts engaged by X-FAB, all IT systems have been immediately halted. As an additional preventive measure, production at all six manufacturing sites has been stopped.

X-FAB has promptly engaged with the relevant authorities to investigate the unprecedented incident. In addition, a team of internal and external security experts has been put in place to resolve the problem and to recover all systems. X-FAB also decided to immediately start the temporary fabrication facility shutdowns that were initially planned to take place later in the third quarter in the context of X-FAB's Covid-19 cost-saving initiative.

At this stage, it cannot be estimated for how long and to which degree X-FAB's operations will be disrupted. It is also too early to assess if there will be any financial impact.

Due to the current unavailability of X-FAB's IT systems, this press release was distributed via Business Wire only and is available on the Company's website.

X-FAB foundry manufactures CMOS image sensors, among other products. As far as I know, this is the first time when a semiconductor fab has been been halted due to hackers.


Thanks to BB for the link!

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IFNews reports that TSMC will build a OEM production line exclusively for Sony to produce high-end CIS in 28nm process at the Nanke 14B fab. Also, TSMC is planning to build a new CIS packaging capacity in Zhunan. The plan will be officially started in the beginning of July 2020. It is expected to be completed in mid-2021 and costs NTD300B. In the past, the 14B fab in Nanke used to manufacture 12nm and 16nm chips for HiSilicon, Nvidia, and Mediatek.

Chinese-language UDN site writes (in Bing translation):

"Japanese sources familiar with the situation revealed that TSMC and Sony are very confidential about this cooperation, the two sides signed the first batch of cooperation content at the beginning of this year, first in TSMC Nanke 14A plant for Sony to build a monthly production of 20,000 pieces of CIS foundry line, cooperation is very smooth, Sony further asked TSMC to provide exclusive, equal to the contract factory area, monthly orders and increase several times.

TSMC is actively engaged in the "Cage for Birds" project in order to meet this "super-large single", including the purchase of the Nanke plant adjacent to TSMC, and asked Homeden to move at the fastest speed, that is, to split the 14B plant and 14A plant public plant, in order to create 14B plant for Sony's higher-level CIS replacement plant.

Japanese people familiar with the situation revealed that Sony is already TSMC customers, the past cooperation to logic chip-based, early this year Sony changed the past CIS full home-made strategy, breaking the ground will be CIS to TSMC power workers, by force TSMC all-out market occupation, shocked the industry.

It is understood that Sony's previous CIS order to TSMC, is in TSMC South Branch 14A plant to 40 nanometer process production, TSMC and for this purpose to purchase new equipment designated by Sony, is intensive installation, scheduled for August trial production, the first quarter of next year mass production, the initial monthly production capacity of 20,000 pieces.

Now the cooperation between the two sides extended to 28 nanometers, and decided to build Sony's exclusive foundry area at TSMC Nanke 14B, Sony is equal to the Bao-Yuan 14B plant, the number of orders will be 14A factory several times.

In the face of Samsung's close pursuit, Sony decided to expand its partnership with TSMC, hoping to win 60% of the global Market Share of CIS Image Sensors by 2025."

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Nanophotonics publishes a paper "Visible to long-wave infrared chip-scale spectrometers based on photodetectors with tailored responsivities and multispectral filters" by Jasper J. Cadusch, Jiajun Meng, Benjamin J. Craig, Vivek Raj Shrestha, and Kenneth B. Crozier from University of Melbourne, Australia.

"Chip-scale microspectrometers, operational across the visible to long-wave infrared spectral region will enable many remote sensing spectroscopy applications in a variety of fields including consumer electronics, process control in manufacturing, as well as environmental and agricultural monitoring. The low weight and small device footprint of such spectrometers could allow for integration into handheld, unattended vehicles or wearable-electronics based systems. This review will focus on recent developments in nanophotonic microspectrometer designs, which fall into two design categories: (i) planar filter-arrays used in conjunction with visible or IR detector arrays and (ii) microspectrometers using filter-free detector designs with tailored responsivities, where spectral filtering and photocurrent generation occur within the same nanostructure."

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BrightWay Vision CEO Ofer David presents the company's gated vision technology and explains how it works:

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Counterpoint Research estimates that the sales volume of CIS for smartphones increased eightfold over the past decade, reaching more than 4.5b units in 2019. Senior Analyst Ethan Qi, notes, “Although the strong growth momentum is expected to soften amid the pandemic fallout, thanks to the irreversible trend towards multi-camera setups and the spreading adoption of 3D sensing systems, the smartphone CIS segment will likely still register high-single-digit shipment growth in 2020, hitting an all-time high of close to 5.0 billion units.”

According to the findings of Counterpoint’s Component Tracker, each smartphone shipped in 1Q20 packed more than 3.5 image sensors on average. The growth is primarily driven by the rising penetration of quad-camera designs in the high- to mid-end smartphones, which jumped to nearly 20% during the period.

Commenting on the importance of camera in smartphones, Research Director, Tom Kang, says, “As camera function has become a key differentiator in smartphones, we expect the quad-camera feature will become a standard moving forward. Leading smartphone brands will continue enriching and enhancing the photography and video capture experiences, as well as exploring AR applications, by leveraging diversified lens and sensor combinations along with the increasing AI computing power.”

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Paul Gallagher, VP of Strategic Marketing at Airy3D, talks about challenges and solutions in marketing of the company's 3D platform in "Episode 4: Depth Perception" of The Launch podcast.

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It's official now: Velodyne LiDAR becomes a public company through reverse merging with Graf Industrial.

"Graf Industrial Corp. (NYSE: GRAF). GRAF and Velodyne have successfully raised $150MM in equity from a group of institutional investors, subject to completion of the transaction. This transaction is being structured as a reverse merger where existing Velodyne shareholders will own the majority of the go-forward company. The funds raised will be combined with up to $117M that GRAF had already raised from its existing investors. We are targeting to finalize the combination toward the end of Q3 2020, following approval by GRAF’s shareholders. At that time, Velodyne will become a publicly-traded company and we expect to be listed on the NYSE under a new ticker symbol, VLDR."

Why should it be interesting for everybody? Because Velodyne becomes the first pure-play LiDAR company that would disclose its financial results every quarter. Now, everybody can see how LiDAR business looks from inside and dynamics of the LiDAR market. The first public disclosure is below:

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ResearchGate publishes a paper "Design and Optical Simulation of a Sensor Pixel for an Optical Readout-Based Thermal Imager" by Ambali Odebowale and Mohamed Ramy Abdelrahman from King Saud University.

"In this paper, we present an optical design and analysis of a single pixel element detector in an optical readout-based infrared imaging system. The proposed thermal imaging system contains no readout integrated circuitry and thus can be considered as a low cost alternative to typical thermal imaging systems. In this paper, we present the design and optical simulation details for a fabry perot cavity filter (FPCF)-based sensor configuration operating in the transmission mode at 650nm and as a Long Wave Infrared (LWIR) absorber in the 8000nm-12000nm band. The temperature tuning of the FPCF resonant frequency is dependent on the thermo-optic sensitivity of its cavity layer. The performance of the FPCF sensor is considered at different cavity layer thermo-optic coefficients (TOCs) and for different thermal scene temperature variations. The proposed sensor was found to be sensitive to 25mK thermal scene temperature variations."

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