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PR Newswire: Sony announces a mirrorless Alpha 7R II camera featuring a world's first full frame BSI image sensor. The newly developed 42.4 MP back-illuminated CMOS sensor is said to be "the most advanced, versatile and highest resolution full-frame image sensor that Sony has ever created."

The new sensor combines gapless on-chip lens and AR coating on the surface of the sensor’s glass seal to improve light collection efficiency, resulting in high sensitivity with low-noise performance and wide dynamic range. This allows the camera to shoot at an impressive ISO range of 100 to 25600 that is expandable to ISO 50 to 1024002.

Additionally, the sensor’s back-illuminated structure, with an expanded circuit scale and copper wiring design, enables faster transmission speed, approximately 3.5x faster than the original α7R.

The new full frame sensor features 399 focal-plane phase-detection AF points, said to be the world’s widest AF coverage on a full-frame sensor – that work together with 25 contrast AF points to achieve focus response that is about 40% faster than the original model.

The sensor supports 4K (QFHD 3840×2160, 30fps) video recording in either Super 35mm crop mode or full-frame mode. In Super 35mm mode, the camera uses information from approximately 1.8x as many pixels as 4K by using full pixel readout without pixel binning and oversamples the information to produce 4K movies with minimal moire and ‘jaggies’.

In full-frame mode, the α7R II utilizes the full width of the 35mm sensor for 4K/30fps recording. It is said to be the world’s first digital camera to offer this in-camera full-frame format 4K recording capability.

PRNewswire: The second Sony announcement is the world's first 1-inch stacked sensor featuring in compact DSC-RX100M4 and DSC-RX10M2 cameras. The stacked Exmor RS CMOS sensor is said to have "advanced signal processing and an attached DRAM memory chip. The high speed signal processing and DRAM memory chip work together to enable more than 5x faster readout of image data and are responsible for a variety of standout features that have previously been available in only a select few professional-level video cameras. These impressive capabilities include 40x super slow motion video capture at up to 960 fps, an ultra-fast Anti-Distortion Shutter with a maximum speed of 1/32000 second, high resolution 4K movie shooting and more."

"Additionally, the ultra-fast readout of the image sensor is responsible for the high speed Anti-Distortion Shutter (maximum speed of 1/32000 second), which allow the new cameras to capture sharp, crystal clear images with a wide open aperture at brightness levels up to EV197. It also minimizes the “rolling shutter” effect commonly experienced with fast moving subjects."

DPReview states that the 4K video mode frame rate is 30fps, the same as with the previous generation non-stacked 1-inch sensor.

Sony posts Youtube videos demoing the new sensor slow-motion video capabilities:




Update: Additionaly, Sony says it "is the world’s No. 1 manufacturer of image sensors for digital cameras and video recorders, with over 50% market share. Data based on Sony research from April 2014 to March 2015."

Imaging Resource posts pictures taken on today's Sony press conference in NYC:


Update #2: DPReview writes "Internally, we're told, Sony's engineers judge that their new 1-inch-type stacked CMOS sensor is roughly five years ahead of anything else on the market, and on paper at least, it's hard to argue with that assessment."

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Reuters: Tomoyuki Suzuki, head of Sony's device solutions business, said he expected sensor sales to grow about 100 billion yen ($804 million) to 550 billion in the year ending March 2016. That would be slower than the 40% rise of the previous year. But Suzuki said demand was so strong that Sony was struggling to keep up.

"We're seeing very good demand at the moment," he told Reuters in an interview. "We don't have slack."

Apple is Sony's top customer, followed by Samsung. Chinese handset makers such as Xiaomi also use Sony sensors for high-end models, analysts said.

"We want to be inside a variety of customers," Suzuki said. "When it comes to semiconductors, if you can't make use of production capacity you quickly end up with a loss. So if you want to avoid that volatility the important thing is to have good balance with several customers."

"Of course we will meet the requirements of our top customer, but we are expanding capacity with orders from Chinese smartphone makers in mind," Suzuki said.

The superior low-light sensitivity would give Sony an advantage as it expands into automobile-related products, Suzuki said.

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Espros Photonic sent me its June 2015 Newsletter which, I guess, will eventually appear on its web site. The company CEO, Beat De Coi, tells about their ToF sensor product, and promises to tell more in the next Newsletter edition:

"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."

Espros also opens a Youtube channel with a video demo of its epc660 ToF imager:

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No Film School: It appears that Youtube has quietly prepared an 8K video infrastricture. The first such video has been published, made by stitching of two 6K videos streams shot on RED Epic Dragon 6K camera:

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Anandtech posts a nice chart benchmarking AF speed of different smartphones. The top three group on the chart features phase detect pixel AF, but farther down, the results are less conclusive:


Correction: Samsung Galaxy S5 has PDAF too - added to the picture. This makes the chart even less conclusive.

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I've just noticed that a year ago Korean SETi had been reverse merged with G-SMATT Global. The LED panel glass manufacturer G-SMATT is now trading under the former SETi ticker at KOSDAQ. G-SMATT is still selling the older SETi image sensors, but its main business is in glass manufacturing. This is pretty sad news for a company that once controlled a significant portion of Chinese image sensor market. Thanks to BS for the info confirmation!

In spite of SETi demise, Korea still has a relatively large number of smaller image sensor companies: Pixelplus, Clairpixel, ZeeAnn, Maru LSI, and Rayence.

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Aptina patent application US20150146054 "Image sensors with color filter elements of different sizes" by Brian Vaartstra, Mitchell J. Mooney, and Stanley Micinski describes the small pixel challenges "Typically, each color filter element in a conventional color filter array has the same size and shape (i.e., each of color filter elements R, G, and B are square and occupy the same area). As pixel size becomes smaller with each successive generation of imaging sensor devices, one problem that may arise is the diffraction limit of red light. Due to this diffraction limitation, the quantum efficiency may be significantly degraded for pixels that are smaller than 0.7 microns on one side (as an example). It may therefore be desirable to form color filter elements of varying sizes optimized for the wavelength(s) of interest."

So, Aptina proposes to increase red color filter at the expense of the blue one:


"Color filter element 102-X may be a yellow color filter element, a green color filter element, a cyan color filter element, a magenta color filter element, an infrared-pass filter element (e.g., a filter that passes infrared light), an IR-block filter element (e.g., a filter that blocks infrared light), a clear color filter element (e.g., a filter that passes all visible light), or any combination of color filter elements (e.g., in each unit cell, one X pixel containing a green color filter and the other containing an IR pass filter)."

Another Aptina patent application US20150146055 "Imaging pixels with improved analog-to-digital circuitry" by Parthasarathy Sampath proposes a digital correction to compensate the capacitor mismatches in column-parallel SAR ADC:

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It came to my attention that a group of three engineers that "worked for many years in Silicon Valley leader in CMOS image sensor chip technology" has founded Jiangsu SmartSens Electronic Technology Co. in Changshu City, China, in August 2011. The company's about page explains its positioning:

"The company has first-class experts from the field of CMOS image sensor chip technology leader in the Silicon Valley office of the composition. The team members all have not only a doctorate, has a wealth of theoretical knowledge, but also a world-class company after years of working experience in the accumulation and mastered from the imaging system architecture, pixel design, analog circuit design skills to all aspects of digital control, also has first-hand experience in the production and design of the product. The team has applied for and has more than 20 U.S. patents and more than 40 scientific papers, led a dozen leading international product development and design."

The company's products include the following core technologies:

• Low power consumption: In the current industry, due to the conversion efficiency of solar devices generally not high, huge system equipment, small-scale, small-sized applications still remain in the primary stage. Our solar power system is cleverly designed to get the chip implanted into tiny, effectively improve the conversion rate, low-power chip to achieve security monitoring and even self-supply purposes.
• High dark light response: dark light, the image quality under low light conditions is another important indicator to measure the image sensing device security monitoring. We will use a double conversion rate of pixels to obtain information and to store different dynamic range. The technology was awarded the 2010 American industry's most famous product design award (EDN's 2010 Annual Innovation Awards).
• Speed​​: low-noise read our proposed fast parallel system architecture is the world's leading read architecture, not only to meet the current requirements of speed and also saves power and reduces noise, while also selectively read through intelligent control, achieve the double effect.

It looks like somebody has already asked Chipworks to analyse SmartSens' first product - 1.3MP, 4um pixel SC1035 aimed to automotive, security, and surveillance markets:

SmartSens SC1035

Update: As the company English site seems to be off, here is a snapshot of About page, taken from Google cache on June 6, 2015:

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LIPS Taiwan posts another Youtube video showing its ToF camera with FOV 88, at 6m distance. The demo is supposed to show no jumping edge and flying pixels and reduced multi-path interference:

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GlobeNewswire: TowerJazz-Panasonic foundry (TPSCo) announces that it has qualified a 65nm CMOS image sensor interoperable process design kit (iPDK) for Synopsys’ custom design flow. The qualified iPDK complements TPSCo’s advanced 65nm CIS process technologies and provides support for Synopsys’ custom solution that includes; the Galaxy Custom Designer schematic editor and simulation environment, Laker layout editor, HSPICE, CustomSim and FineSim circuit simulators, IC Validator physical verification, and StarRC parasitic extraction.

TPSCo’s CIS technology is aimed to mobile, high-end photography, security, surveillance, medical and industrial applications. TPSCo’s 65nm 1.12um pixel process is said to have the world leading figures of merit, and is already in mass production for mobile camera applications.

“TowerJazz and Synopsys have been collaborating for many years to create and promote iPDKs to assist with the design and development of mutual customers’ innovative devices and we are pleased this partnership has been extended to TPSCo to meet the needs of our customers and address the increasing complexity of CMOS image sensor design,” said Tomoyuki Sasaki, CTO of TPSCo.

“The CMOS image sensor market is an ideal fit for Synopsys’ custom design solutions,” said Bijan Kiani, VP of product marketing at Synopsys. “Through close collaboration with TowerJazz Panasonic Semiconductor Co. on iPDK development, we are able to expand our offering in the CIS market and ensure that our mutual customers have access to a qualified solution that provides increased custom design productivity.”

Update: TowerJazz-Panasonic has a nice technology page explaining its 1.12um pixel advantages:


Other production-ready pixel offerings are in the table below:

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MarketWired: Mantis Vision, a developer of structured light 3D vision technologies, raises $9.7M strategic investment round from Formation 8, existing investor Qualcomm Ventures, and additional investors. Mantis Vision intends to use the funds to establish a leading position in its emerging markets using its core MV4D technology platform.

"We believe that our superior 3D technology will become the platform of choice for accurately capturing depth and motion in a way that best portrays reality. This investment helps us drive our dream, innovations and technology to many new products both in the consumer and in the professional markets," said Mantis Vision new CEO Tzach Hadas. Tzach Hadas recently joined Mantis Vision and serves as the company's CEO since March 2015. Before joining Mantis Vision, Tzach held the position of COO at PrimeSense (acquired by Apple). Before joining PrimeSense, Tzach served as VP Operations for Zoran and as GM of Zoran Microelectronics.

"We are very excited to be partnering with the team at Mantis Vision. As we learned from our investment in Oculus, content is a critical driver for the emerging VR and AR ecosystems. We believe Mantis Vision will be enabling tremendous content creation to empower the next generation 3D world," says Lior Susan, Partner at Formation 8.

"Qualcomm's follow-on investment in Mantis Vision aims to accelerate the mobile penetration of MV4D," says Mony Hassid, senior director, Qualcomm Ventures. "The drive is to introduce new use cases and applications in advanced mobile platforms."

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One of Apple recruiters posted an emotional ad in LinkedIn CCD/CMOS Image Sensor Group titled "Calling all Camera & Imaging Experts! Apple is growing like crazy! Camera/Sensor Engineer Roles in Cupertino!"

A quote: "Apple has openings for upwards of 10 Sensor Calibration & Characterization Experts here in our Cupertino offices, we're looking for people who are true Thought Leaders who can take our sensor driven products like the Apple Watch & iPhone into the future. Perhaps that could be you!

The ideal candidate will have a passion for CMOS technologies, along with relevant work experience designing, developing and deploying sensor calibration solutions used for product and manufacturing processes. We're looking for someone who can drive sensor development efforts, define test & calibration requirements, debug devices from the systems level down to the sensor components, while also being able to run meetings with vendor partners. This will be a role with a HUGE amount of visibility across Apple, so you'll get an opportunity to shine and grow your career in ways you may not have thought possible before. If the idea of designing the Next Big Thing in sensors (CMOS/CCD/Motion/Gyro, etc,) then we should chat!"

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PRNewswire: OmniVision announces OV9734, the company's smallest 720p sensor for consumer applications built on OmniVision's 1.4um PureCel pixel technology.

"According to industry reports, high demand for HD sensors is expected in the mobile devices markets over the next three years, with approximately 400 million units per year for camera phones and 164 million units per year for notebooks," said Arun Jayaseelan, product marketing manager of front facing cameras at OmniVision. "The OV9734 can be integrated into an extremely compact camera module, making it a highly competitive, no compromise camera solution for the growing markets of slim notebooks and mobile devices."

The OV9734 requires approximately 25% less power than previous generation OmniVision HD sensors, at just 70mW. To fit into ultra-thin bezel devices, the OV9734 comes in a package than can meet 2.5mm z-hight and with a y-dimension that is 47% smaller than the previous generation OmniVision 720p sensors. The OV9734 is currently available for sampling, and is expected to enter volume production in Q3 2015.

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Chipworks was quick to analyse the new 13MP stacked Sony sensor with 1.12um RGBW pixels from Huawei P8 smartphone. The reverse engineering revealed a new TSV process and a backside DTI for better crosstalk:

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Google has published a video on status of its Project Tango dealing with mobile 3D tracking and perception. The latest version of Tango smartphone includes PMD ToF camera (see PMD PR here), together with two other rear side cameras, see minute 31 in the video:

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FrinGOe announces a cheap Fourier Transform spectrometer of consumer applications. The optical part of the spectrometer is a passive add-on for iPhone or Raspberry Pi camera. The company's whitepaper explains how it works:

Regular FTIR spectrometer

Mach-Zehnder FTIR spectrometer with moving mirrors

Passive array of Mach Zehnder interferometers with path difference fixed at different values.

"FrinGOe uses innovative crystal technology to create a low cost 2D array of Mach Zehnder Interferometers and patented optical configuration to map the array onto the camera sensor. This allows an all-passive and compact optical add-on (as small as 4mm by 4mm by 2mm) that can be mounted onto any imaging platforms such as a mobile phone camera, Raspberry Pi camera or other OEM devices." One of the prototypes of the FT spectrometer has a spectral resolution of ~1 nm @ 400nm wavelength.

FrinGOe on the back of iPhone 5s is switchable between spectroscopic and imaging modes

In June, the company plans to launch FrinGOe at the Laser World of Photonics (Munich) exhibition and at the same time start an Indiegogo campaign to kick-start the mass production efforts. FrinGOe's Youtube video shows the spectrometer operation:

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Techcrunch reports that Apple has apparently acquired a German AR company Metaio. The company has a number of AR projects, one of them being Thermal Touch covered in this blog a year ago. Another interesting project out of many was an AR application for camera-equipped smart watch (Youtube link):

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Electronics360: Carrefour SA, the largest retailer in Europe, is experimenting with visible light communications, becoming the first major retailer to install Philips’ connected lighting system with LED-based indoor positioning at its newly refurbished supermarket in Lille, France. The Carrefour news comes about a month after it was reported that U.S. retailer Target will use indoor positioning, widely believed to be VLC-based, to power its in-store app to help customers navigate its stores.

The Carrefour supermarket system has 800 LED fixtures that use Philips VLC technology to transmit location. Philips software and cloud-based location database are integrated into Carrefour’s mobile app.

Update: Philips posted infographics of how it works:


Philips also posted a Youtube video showing its Carrefour trial:



“We are leading the way with connected lighting for retail with Carrefour,” comments Gerben van der Lugt, Head of LED-based indoor positioning at Philips Lighting. “Our connected lighting system has the potential to transform shopping into a more interactive and personalized experience. At the same time it will enable retailers to differentiate themselves, enhance customer loyalty and provide new services to shoppers.”

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PRNewswire: Omnivision reports quarterly results for its fiscal quarter ended on April 30, 2015.

Revenues for the fiscal year ended April 30, 2015 were $1.4 billion, as compared to $1.5 billion in fiscal 2014. GAAP net income for fiscal 2015 was $93.4 million, as compared to $95.0 million a year ago.

Revenues for the last quarter were $285.9 million, as compared to $292.3 million in the previous quarter, and $331.0 million a year ago. GAAP net income in the last quarter was $6.0 million, as compared to net income of $14.0 million in the previous quarter, and $15.1 million a year ago. GAAP gross margin for the last quarter was 22.4%, as compared to 22.1% for the previous quarter and 20.1% a year ago. The Company ended the period with cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments totaling $524.2 million, an increase of $11.4 million from the previous quarter.

Based on current trends, the Company expects revenues for the next quarter will be in the range of $310 million to $340 million.

SeekingAlpha publishes a trascript of Omnivision's earnings call. There was no Q&A session for some reason. Shaw Hong, Chairman and CEO, says on the acquisition news: "by partnering with the consortium and operating as a private company, we will have more flexibility to innovate and develop new solutions for our customers, which will benefit our employees, customers and business partners. We expect the transaction will close within the next nine to 12 months.

As of today, we have not obtained all the necessary approval, nor have we met the closing conditions. As such, there's no assurance that the proposed acquisition by the consortium will close."

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Google presents 16-GoPro-cameras JUMP setup for shooting VR video at its I/O conference:


Cnet video shows how it works:

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Up to now, Pelican Imaging camera components in the array had the same FOV and viewing direction. Its new patent application US20150146029 "Array Camera Configurations Incorporating Multiple Constituent Array Cameras" by Kartik Venkataraman and Jacques Duparré, presents integration of "a plurality of constituent array cameras, where each constituent array camera has a distinct field of view and/or a distinct viewing direction." The main advantage of that is implementation of zoom feature:


Now it becomes fairly similar to Corephotonics and Linx Imaging proposals.

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German machine vision camera vendor Ximea CEO Max Larin discusses hyperspectral imagers approaches and applications in this Youtube video:

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Sony has held a 2015 Investor Relations Day today. Device Segment presentation by Tomoyuki Suzuki, Executive Deputy President and Corporate Executive Officer responsible for the Device business, has a lot of info on Sony image sensor business:

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PhoneArena quotes Chinese-language MyDrivers.com posting pictures from Samsung image sensor seminar. Samsung presents its 1um RWB color patterned sensors, said to provide much better low light sensitivity:

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Delaware Intellectual Property Litigation publishes a detailed document on trial where Intellectual Ventures accuses Canon in patent infringement, including two image sensor patents: US6,221,686 "Method of making a semiconductor image sensor" and US6,023,081 "Semiconductor image sensor." Canon has lost the battle, in spite of Eric Fossum and Albert Theuwissen trying to defend it, see pp. 11-19 in the document.

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Hamamatsu reports its quarterly results, including image sensor sales:

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China Galaxy International comes with a wide collection of market data, primarily about Apple camera module supplier Cowell and the camera module industry in general:

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gestigon announces that they provide the gesture control software used in Audi’s booth at the CES ASIA in Shanghai. The first result of this cooperation is to, initially, provide an unique user experience for the rear seat passengers of Audi’s luxury car models enabling the user interaction with the multimedia device in front of them.

Moritz von Grotthuss, CEO of gestigon, says, “we are excited to have won AUDI AG as a partner to develop gesture control solutions for automotive. The application for the rear passengers is a first, appealing step into a multitude of use cases based on ‘active control’ to enable new, innovative and easy-to-use functionalities. With Audi’s unique positioning as one of the leading global premium manufacturers we have found a partner that shares our vision and excitement in regard of skeleton tracking- and gesture control for automotive in their broadest sense.”

Michael Schlittenbauer, Developer at AUDI AG confirms, „gestigon was able to provide a customized software solution for our targeted use case in the rear of the cabin. We are working on a number of concepts to integrate gesture control into our models and are looking forward to continue to explore the technology as well as use cases to enable a unique driving experience to our customers.”

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Sony patent application US20150129943 "Solid-state imaging device, method of manufacturing a solid-state imaging device, and electronic apparatus" by Nanako Kato and Toshifumi Wakano, presents a stacked global shutter pixel where the storage diode is shielded from the backside illumination:

Sony stacked GS pixel

Sony's idea looks quite similar to the one presented by Apple in US20150035028 application:

Apple stacked GS pixel

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IC Insights posts its updated list of top 20 semiconductor companies. This time, Sharp has entered the list as #19. IC Insight writes: "Although Sharp as a whole is having a difficult time, its semiconductor group, which represents only about 14% of the company’s corporate sales, posted a whopping 62% growth rate (an 88% increase in yen), the best 1Q15 sales increase of any top-20 semiconductor supplier. This sales surge was almost entirely due to the company’s success in the CMOS image sensor market."


Update: Sharp's medium term management plan dated by May 14, 2015, reveals quite ambitious plans over the next few years:


The company notes: "Sharp has the leading share in the industry for smartphone camera devices, but since specific customers weight a large proportion of our business, we will aggressively work to expand our sales to new customers, and target 3 times the net sales of Fiscal 2014 by Fiscal 2017."

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