Visual Industry Guide
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Tripurari Singh and Mritunjay Singh of Image Algorithmics presented a talk titled "Towards a Colorimetric Camera" at the recent Electronic Imaging 2023 symposium. They show that for low-light color imaging it is better to use a long/medium/short (LMS) filter that more closely mimics human color vision as opposed to the traditional RGB Bayer pattern.
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Link: https://www.jabil.com/news/swir-3d-camera-prototype.html
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Recent Will Semi report that includes some news about Omnivision (Howell): https://tech.ifeng.com/c/8MXij5vF1lP
It is worth noting that in December 2022, Howell Group, a subsidiary of Weir, issued an internal letter announcing cost control, with the goal of reducing costs by 20% by 2023.
In an internal letter, Howell Group said, "The current market situation is very serious. We are facing great market challenges, and prices, inventory and supply chains are under great pressure. Therefore, we must carry out cost control, with the goal of reducing costs by 20% by 2023.
In order to achieve this goal, Howell Group also announced: stop all recruitments and leave without substitutes; salary cuts for senior managers; stop work during the Spring Festival in all regions of the group; quarterly bonuses and any other form of bonuses will be discontinued; expenditure strictly controlled; and some R&D projects will also reduce NRE expenditure.
Howell Group said, "These measures are temporary, and we believe that business-level improvements will occur in the second half of next year, because we have a new product layout in the consumer market, while automobiles and emerging markets are rising steadily. We will reassess the situation at the end of the first quarter of next year (2023).
More related news from Counterpoint Research: : https://www.counterpointresearch.com/global-smartphone-cis-market-revenues-shipments-dip-2022/
Global Smartphone CIS Market Revenues, Shipments Dip in 2022
Compare Omnivision sales with its peers in this graphic:
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From Wiley industry news: https://www.wileyindustrynews.com/en/news/eu19m-project-set-enable-next-generation-ir-sensorsImage Sensors World Go to the original article...
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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In an arXiv preprint, Prof. Stanley Chan of Purdue University writes:
The one-bit quanta image sensor (QIS) is a photon-counting device that captures image intensities using binary bits. Assuming that the analog voltage generated at the floating diffusion of the photodiode follows a Poisson-Gaussian distribution, the sensor produces either a “1” if the voltage is above a certain threshold or “0” if it is below the threshold. The concept of this binary sensor has been proposed for more than a decade and physical devices have been built to realize the concept. However, what benefits does a one-bit QIS offer compared to a conventional multi-bit CMOS image sensor? Besides the known empirical results, are there theoretical proofs to support these findings? The goal of this paper is to provide new theoretical support from a signal processing perspective. In particular, it is theoretically found that the sensor can offer three benefits: (1) Low-light: One-bit QIS performs better at low-light because it has a low read noise and its one-bit quantization can produce an error-free measurement. However, this requires the exposure time to be appropriately configured. (2) Frame rate: One-bit sensors can operate at a much higher speed because a response is generated as soon as a photon is detected. However, in the presence of read noise, there exists an optimal frame rate beyond which the performance will degrade. A Closed-form expression of the optimal frame rate is derived. (3) Dynamic range: One-bit QIS offers a higher dynamic range. The benefit is brought by two complementary characteristics of the sensor: nonlinearity and exposure bracketing. The decoupling of the two factors is theoretically proved, and closed-form expressions are derived.
Pre-print available here: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2208.10350.pdf
The paper argues that, if implemented correctly, there are three main benefits:
1. Better SNR in low light
2. Higher speed (frame rate)
3. Better dynamic range
This paper has many interesting technical results and insights. It provides a balanced view in terms of the regimes where single-photon quanta image sensor provide benefits over conventional image sensors.
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Link: https://semiengineering.com/startup-funding-december-2022/#SensorsImage Sensors World Go to the original article...
The symposium has many co-located conferences with talks and papers of interest to image sensors community. Short courses on 3D imaging, image sensors and camera calibration, image quality quantification, ML/AI for imaging and computer vision are also being offered.
Please visit the symposium website at https://www.imaging.org/site/IST/IST/Conferences/EI/EI2023/EI2023.aspx for full program. Some interesting papers and talks are listed below.
Evaluation of image quality metrics designed for DRI tasks with automotive cameras, Valentine Klein, Yiqi LI, Claudio Greco, Laurent Chanas, and Frédéric Guichard, DXOMARK (France)
Driving assistance is increasingly used in new car models. Most driving assistance systems are based on automotive cameras and computer vision. Computer Vision, regardless of the underlying algorithms and technology, requires the images to have good image quality, defined according to the task. This notion of good image quality is still to be defined in the case of computer vision as it has very different criteria than human vision: humans have a better contrast detection ability than image chains. The aim of this article is to compare three different metrics designed for detection of objects with computer vision: the Contrast Detection Probability (CDP) [1, 2, 3, 4], the Contrast Signal to Noise Ratio (CSNR) [5] and the Frequency of Correct Resolution (FCR) [6]. For this purpose, the computer vision task of reading the characters on a license plate will be used as a benchmark. The objective is to check the correlation between the objective metric and the ability of a neural network to perform this task. Thus, a protocol to test these metrics and compare them to the output of the neural network has been designed and the pros and cons of each of these three metrics have been noted.
Designing scenes to quantify the performance of automotive perception systems, Zhenyi Liu1, Devesh Shah2, Alireza Rahimpour2, Joyce Farrell1, and Brian Wandell1; 1Stanford University and 2Ford Motor Company (United States)
We implemented an end-to-end simulation for perception systems, based on cameras, that are used in automotive applications. The open-source software creates complex driving scenes and simulates cameras that acquire images of these scenes. The camera images are then used by a neural network in the perception system to identify the locations of scene objects, providing the results as input to the decision system. In this paper, we design collections of test scenes that can be used to quantify the perception system’s performance under a range of (a) environmental conditions (object distance, occlusion ratio, lighting levels), and (b) camera parameters (pixel size, lens type, color filter array). We are designing scene collections to analyze performance for detecting vehicles, traffic signs and vulnerable road users in a range of environmental conditions and for a range of camera parameters. With experience, such scene collections may serve a role similar to that of standardized test targets that are used to quantify camera image quality (e.g., acuity, color).
A self-powered asynchronous image sensor with independent in-pixel harvesting and sensing operations, Ruben Gomez-Merchan, Juan Antonio Leñero-Bardallo, and Ángel Rodríguez-Vázquez, University of Seville (Spain)
A new self-powered asynchronous sensor with a novel pixel architecture is presented. Pixels are autonomous and can harvest or sense energy independently. During the image acquisition, pixels toggle to a harvesting operation mode once they have sensed their local illumination level. With the proposed pixel architecture, most illuminated pixels provide an early contribution to power the sensor, while low illuminated ones spend more time sensing their local illumination. Thus, the equivalent frame rate is higher than the offered by conventional self-powered sensors that harvest and sense illumination in independient phases. The proposed sensor uses a Time-to-First-Spike readout that allows trading between image quality and data and bandwidth consumption. The sensor has HDR operation with a dynamic range of 80 dB. Pixel power consumption is only 70 pW. In the article, we describe the sensor’s and pixel’s architectures in detail. Experimental results are provided and discussed. Sensor specifications are benchmarked against the art.
KEYNOTE: Deep optics: Learning cameras and optical computing systems, Gordon Wetzstein, Stanford University (United States)
Neural networks excel at a wide variety of imaging and perception tasks, but their high performance also comes at a high computational cost and their success on edge devices is often limited. In this talk, we explore hybrid optical-electronic strategies to computational imaging that outsource parts of the algorithm into the optical domain or into emerging in-pixel processing capabilities. Using such a co-design of optics, electronics, and image processing, we can learn application-domain-specific cameras using modern artificial intelligence techniques or compute parts of a convolutional neural network in optics with little to no computational overhead. For the session: Processing at the Edge (joint with ISS).
Computational photography on a smartphone, Michael Polley, Samsung Research America (United States)
Many of the recent advances in smartphone camera quality and features can be attributed to computational photography. However, the increased computational requirements must be balanced with cost, power, and other practical concerns. In this talk, we look at the embedded signal processing currently applied, including new AI-based solutions in the signal chain. By taking advantage of increasing computational performances of traditional processor cores, and additionally tapping into the exponentially increasing capabilities of the new compute engines such as neural processing units, we are able to deliver on-device computational imaging. For the session: Processing at the Edge (joint with ISS).
Analog in-memory computing with multilevel RRAM for edge electronic imaging application,
Conventional digital processors based on the von Neumann architecture have an intrinsic bottleneck in data transfer between processing and memory units. This constraint increasingly limits performance as data sets continue to grow exponentially for the various applications, especially for the Electronic Imaging Applications at the edge, for instance, the AR/VR wearable and automotive applications. TetraMem addresses this issue by delivering state-of-the-art in-memory computing using our proprietary non-volatile computing devices. This talk will discuss how TetraMem’s solution brings several orders of magnitude improvement in computing throughput and energy efficiency, ideal for those AI fusion sensing applications at the edge. For the session: Processing at the Edge (joint with ISS).
Processing of real time, bursty and high compute iToF data on the edge (Invited), Cyrus Bamji, Microsoft Corporation (United States)
In indirect time of flight (iToF), a depth frame is computed from multiple image captures (often 6-9 captures) which are composed together and processed using nonlinear filters. iToF sensor output bandwidth is high and inside the camera special purpose DSP hardware significantly improves power, cost and shuffling around of large amounts of data. Usually only a small percentage of depth frames need application specific processing and highest quality depth data both of which are difficult to compute within the limited hardware resources of the camera. Due to the sporadic nature of these compute requirements hardware utilization is improved by offloading this bursty compute to outside the camera. Many applications in the Industrial and commercial space have a real time requirement and may even use multiple cameras that need to be synchronized. These real time requirements coupled with the high bandwidth from the sensor makes offloading the compute purely into the cloud difficult. Thus, in many cases the compute edge can provide a goldilocks zone for this bursty high bandwidth and real-time processing requirement. For the session: Processing at the Edge (joint with ISS)..
A 2.2um three-wafer stacked back side illuminated voltage domain global shutter CMOS image sensor, Shimpei Fukuoka, OmniVision (Japan)
Due to the emergence of machine vision, augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and automotive connectivity in recent years, the necessity for chip miniaturization has grown. These emerging, next-generation applications, which are centered on user experience and comfort, require their constituent chips, devices, and parts to be smaller, lighter, and more accessible. AR/VR applications, especially demand smaller components due to their primary application towards wearable technology, in which the user experience would be negatively impacted by large features and bulk. Therefore, chips and devices intended for next-generation consumer applications must be small and modular, to support module miniaturization and promote user comfort. To enable the chip miniaturization required for technological advancement and innovation, we developed a 2.2μm pixel pitch Back Side Illuminated (BSI) Voltage Domain Global Shutter (VDGS) image sensor with the three-wafer stacked technology. Each wafer is connected by Stacked Pixel Level Connection (SPLC) and the middle and logic wafers are connected using a Back side Through Silicon Via (BTSV). The separation of the sensing, charge storage, and logic functions to different wafers allows process optimization in each wafer, improving overall chip performance. The peripheral circuit region is reduced by 75% compared to the previous product without degrading image sensor performance. For the session: Processing at the Edge (joint with COIMG).
A lightweight exposure bracketing strategy for HDR imaging without access to camera raw,
A lightweight learning-based exposure bracketing strategy is proposed in this paper for high dynamic range (HDR) imaging without access to camera RAW. Some low-cost, power-efficient cameras, such as webcams, video surveillance cameras, sport cameras, mid-tier cellphone cameras, and navigation cameras on robots, can only provide access to 8-bit low dynamic range (LDR) images. Exposure fusion is a classical approach to capture HDR scenes by fusing images taken with different exposures into a 8-bit tone-mapped HDR image. A key question is what the optimal set of exposure settings are to cover the scene dynamic range and achieve a desirable tone. The proposed lightweight neural network predicts these exposure settings for a 3-shot exposure bracketing, given the input irradiance information from 1) the histograms of an auto-exposure LDR preview image, and 2) the maximum and minimum levels of the scene irradiance. Without the processing of the preview image streams, and the circuitous route of first estimating the scene HDR irradiance and then tone-mapping to 8-bit images, the proposed method gives a more practical HDR enhancement for real-time and on-device applications. Experiments on a number of challenging images reveal the advantages of our method in comparison with other state-of-the-art methods qualitatively and quantitatively.
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Information and registration: https://www.espros.com/tof-lidar-technology-day-2023/
The TOF & LiDAR Technology Day — Powered by ESPROS, is carefully aimed at giving engineers and designers a very valuable hands-on, informative dive into the huge potential of TOF and LiDAR applications and eco-systems. Participants are assured of an eye-opening immersion into the ever expanding world of Time-of-Flight and LiDAR.
Thanks to the experience and quality of expert speakers who will be on hand to guide and inform everyone taking part, these comprise: Danny Kent, PhD, Co-Founder & President, Mechaspin, alongside Beat De Coi, CEO & Founder of ESPROS Photonics AG, and Len Cech, Executive Director, Safety Innovations at Joyson Safety Systems as well as Kurt Brendley, COO & Co-Founder, PreAct.
The TOF & LIDAR Technology Day event takes place on January 30th, 2023 in San Carlos California USA.
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Xenics acquired by Photonis
https://www.imveurope.com/news/xenics-bought-photonis-infrared-tech
Infrared imager maker, Xenics, has been acquired by Photonis, a manufacturer of electro-optic components.
Photonis’ components are used in the detection and amplification of ions, electrons and photons for integration into a variety of applications such as night vision optics, digital cameras, mass spectrometry, physics research, space exploration and many others. The addition of Xenics will bring high-end imaging products to Photonis’ B2B customers.
Jérôme Cerisier, CEO of Photonis, said: “We are thrilled to welcome Paul Ryckaert and the whole Xenics team in Photonis Group. With this acquisition, we are aiming to create a European integrated leader in advanced imaging in high-end markets. We will together combine our forces to strengthen our position in the infrared imaging market.”
Xenics employs 65 people across the world and its headquarters based in Leuven, Belgium.
Paul Ryckaert, CEO of Xenics, said: “By combining its strengths with the ones of Photonis Group, Xenics will benefit from Photonis expertise and international footprint which will allow us to accelerate our growth. It is a real opportunity to boost our commercial, product development and manufacturing competences and bring even more added value to our existing and future customers.”
[Post title has been corrected as of January 8. Thanks to the commenters for pointing it out. Apologies for the error. --AI]
https://www.digitimes.com/news/a20221220PD210/cmos-image-sensor-omnivision.html
https://baijiahao.baidu.com/s?id=1752703911701757853&wfr=spider
According to domestic media reports, the world's top ten IC design company China Weir Semiconductor, and its CMOS image sensor subsidiary OmniVision recently announced that it will stop recruiting new employees, reduce salaries for senior management, stop work during the Spring Festival, and stop distributing various items. The bonus will be used to reduce the capital expenditure in 2023 by 20% in response to the impact of the current bad environment on the company's operations.
The report pointed out that according to the internal documents released by OmniVision Technology, the company has announced cost control, and the goal is to reduce costs by 20% in 2023! OmniVision said, "The current market conditions are very severe. We are facing great market challenges. Prices, inventories and supply chains are all under great pressure. Therefore, we must carry out cost control, and the goal is to reduce costs in 2023. 20%."
In order to achieve the goal of cost reduction, OmniVision announced that it will take a series of measures, including stopping all recruitment, no replacement for resignation, salary reduction for senior management, suspension of work in all regions of the group during the Spring Festival, suspension of quarterly bonuses and any other forms Bonuses, tight controls on spending, and some research and development programs will also reduce spending. OmniVision emphasized, "These measures are temporary. We believe that business-level improvements will occur in the second half of 2023, because we have a new product layout in the consumer market, while automobiles and emerging markets are rising steadily. We will be in 2023 The situation will be reassessed by the end of the first quarter of 2020."
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Original article available here: https://www.yolegroup.com/strategy-insights/cmos-image-sensor-snapshot-not-all-doom-and-gloom-good-news-is-also-stacking-up/
CMOS Image Sensor snapshot: not all doom and gloom, good news is also stacking up
In the CMOS Image Sensor Monitor Q4 2022, Yole Intelligence, part of Yole Group, announces it expects the CMOS Image Sensors (CIS) industry to show a slight revenue decrease of -0.7% YoY in 2022, with a market value of $21.2B. This estimate takes into account the many events in 2022’s first 3 quarters; the downward revision of smartphone sales, the ongoing inventory reduction from most players in the electronics supply chains, and the continued Covid-19-related disruptions in China.
2021 was a year of growth for CIS, reaching an all-time high of $21.3B in revenue with a relatively small annual growth of 2.8%. The key driver was the rebound in sales of smartphones, computer laptops, and tablets during the year amid the reopening of western economies after severe Covid-19-related lockdowns. Our hope for 2022 was a continuation of this improving trend. We knew the Huawei ban contributed to some inventory build-up in 2020, which had to be cleared in 2021 and maybe 2022. Our expectation for the smartphone market in 2022 was, unfortunately, too high, which translated directly into lost revenue for CIS.
In the past, the increase in the number of cameras per phone would more than compensate for smartphone volume sales declines, but not in 2022. Huawei was the actor adding the greatest number of cameras per phone, and losing such a player in the geopolitical battle has flattened the growth statistic of cameras per phone. Does it mean consumers have lost interest in high-quality phone cameras? Not at all!
Video creation using smartphones is at an all-time high due to the short-video craze. The emergence of TikTok, the favored social media of the younger generation, has been quickly copied by large incumbents, resulting in YouTube shorts and Facebook reels. This demand for high-quality video hardware was temporarily over-met during the out-of-Covid-19-lockdowns of 2021, and, therefore, the first 3 quarters of 2022 saw slightly less demand. We have seen even more dramatic but similar patterns with computer laptops and tablets in which cameras played a central role during remote work/school teleconferencing.
Another market that has explosive growth right now is Automotive CIS. The Covid-19 era signaled a turning point in consumer behavior, with demand switching to Connected Autonomous Shared and Electric (CASE) vehicles loaded with semiconductor-based features. Overall, the appetite for cameras remains high, but the dominance of the weakened smartphone market translates into the deceptive -0.7% CIS growth expected for 2022.
The smartphone market is down -10% but the sales of CIS have proven relatively resilient, while other semiconductor products, such as memory, are down -12%. The main reason is technical since we are currently experiencing a limited supply of 90nm to 40nm node wafers, the main nodes for CIS, and supporting logic wafers. The prices of these legacy nodes have increased significantly, and we observed, therefore, a continuation of high average selling prices (ASP) for CIS.
At the same time, we noted a product mix shift toward more resolution and larger optical formats; this means more silicon per die and higher ASPs. In this respect, the large smartphone OEMs have different approaches; Apple and Xiaomi favor 12Mp to 48Mp resolution with large pixels, which seems to be the ultra-premium favored approach, while Samsung, Oppo, and Vivo are increasing the resolution to 64Mp and even 108Mp with smaller pixels, which appears as the mid-end favored approach. The market is, therefore, relatively well educated and understands what a good picture means, as described in our publication with DXOMARK, “Ultra-Premium Flagship Smartphones Image Performance: End-User Perspective 2021”.
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A paper by Dodda et al. from a research group in the Material Science and Engineering department at Pennsylvania State University was recently published in Nature Materials.
Link: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41563-022-01398-9
Active pixel sensor matrix based on monolayer MoS2 phototransistor array
Abstract:
In-sensor processing, which can reduce the energy and hardware burden for many machine vision applications, is currently lacking in state-of-the-art active pixel sensor (APS) technology. Photosensitive and semiconducting two-dimensional (2D) materials can bridge this technology gap by integrating image capture (sense) and image processing (compute) capabilities in a single device. Here, we introduce a 2D APS technology based on a monolayer MoS2 phototransistor array, where each pixel uses a single programmable phototransistor, leading to a substantial reduction in footprint (900 pixels in ∼0.09 cm2) and energy consumption (100s of fJ per pixel). By exploiting gate-tunable persistent photoconductivity, we achieve a responsivity of ∼3.6 × 107 A W−1, specific detectivity of ∼5.6 × 1013 Jones, spectral uniformity, a high dynamic range of ∼80 dB and in-sensor de-noising capabilities. Further, we demonstrate near-ideal yield and uniformity in photoresponse across the 2D APS array.
Fig. 4: HDR and spectral uniformity. a–c, The post-illumination persistent photocurrent (IPH) read out using VBG = 0 V and VDS = 1 V under different exposure times (τexp) is plotted against Pin for Vexp = −2 V at red (a), green (b) and blue (c) wavelengths. Clearly, the 2D APS demonstrates HDR for all wavelengths investigated. d–f, However, the 2D APS displays spectral non-uniformity in the photoresponse, which can be adjusted by exploiting gate-tunable persistent photoconductivity, that is, by varying Vexp. This is shown by plotting IPH against Pin for different Vexp at red (d), green (e) and blue (f) wavelengths.
This work was covered in the IEEE Spectrum magazine in an article titled "New Pixel Sensors Bring Their Own Compute: Atomically thin devices that combine sensing and computation also save power".
Link: https://spectrum.ieee.org/active-pixel-sensor
In the new study, the researchers sought to add in-sensor processing to active pixel sensors to reduce their energy and size. They experimented with the 2D material molybdenum disulfide, which is made of a sheet of molybdenum atoms sandwiched between two layers of sulfur atoms. Using this light-sensitive semiconducting material, they aimed to combine image-capturing sensors and image-processing components in a single device.
The scientists developed a 2D active pixel sensor array in which each pixel possessed a single programmable phototransistor. These light sensors can each perform their own charge-to-voltage conversion without needing any extra transistors.
The prototype array contained 900 pixels in 9 square millimeters, with each pixel about 100 micrometers large. In comparison, state-of-the-art CMOS sensors from Omnivision and Samsung have reached about 0.56 µm in size. However, commercial CMOS sensors also require additional circuitry to detect low light levels, increasing their overall area, which the new array does not... .
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BRUSSELS, Belgium and ITZEHOE, Germany, Dec. 20, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- VoxelSensors, the inventor of Switching Pixels®, a revolutionary 3D perception technology, and OQmented, the technology leader in MEMS-based AR/VR display and 3D sensing solutions, have entered a strategic partnership. The collaboration focuses on the system integration and commercialization of a high-performance 3D perception system for AR/VR/MR and XR devices. Both companies will demonstrate this system and their technologies during CES 2023 in Las Vegas.
Switching Pixels® resolves major challenges in 3D perception for AR/VR/MR/XR devices. The solution is based on laser beam scanning (LBS) technology to deliver accurate and reliable 3D sensing without compromising on power consumption, data latency or size. VoxelSensors’ key patented technologies ensure optimal operation under any lighting condition and with concurrent systems. Their new sensor architecture provides asynchronous tracking of an active light source or pattern. Instead of acquiring frames, each pixel within the sensor array only generates an event upon detecting active light signals, with a repetition rate of up to 100 MHz.
This system is enabled through OQmented’s unique Lissajous scan pattern: in contrast to raster scanning which works line by line to complete a frame, the Lissajous trajectories scan much faster and are created very power efficiently. They can capture complete scenes and fast movements considerably quicker and require less data processing. That makes this particular technique essential for the low latency and the power efficiency of the combined perception system.
“The partnership with VoxelSensors is a great opportunity to unlock the potential of Lissajous laser beam scanning for 3D perception in lightweight Augmented Reality glasses,” said Ulrich Hofmann, co-CEO/CTO and co-founder of OQmented. “We are proud to deliver the most efficient scanning solution worldwide which enables the amazing products of our partner, bringing us one step closer to our goal of allowing product developers to build powerful but also stylish AR glasses.”
“At VoxelSensors, we wanted to revolutionize the perception industry. For too long, innovation in our space has focused on data processing, while there is so much efficiency to gain when working on the boundaries of photonics and physics. Combined with OQmented technology, we have the ability to transform the industry, enabling strong societal impact in multiple verticals, such as Augmented and Virtual Reality,” explains Johannes Peeters, founder and CEO of VoxelSensors. “Blending the physical and virtual worlds will create astonishing experiences for consumers and productivity gains in the enterprise world.”
This cooperation between two fabless deep tech semiconductor startups demonstrates Europe’s innovation capabilities in the race to produce next-generation technologies for AR/XR/VR and many other applications. These are crucial to Europe’s strategic objective of increasing its market share in semiconductors through key contributions of EU fabless companies as part of the European Chips Act.
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https://www.espros.com/espros-voted-no-1-optoelectronic-company-of-2022/
The Swiss company has been voted by the influential Semiconductor Review publication, going so far as to say ESPROS is “shaping a new paradigm of Time of Flight technologies”, with exceptional performance under full sunlight with moving objects and varying target reflectivity. ESPROS’ unique technology and its ability to help clients analyze an application and offer proven engineering solutions have ensured its growth as a custom ASIC chip manufacturer and 3D TOF module designer.
The company’s true system-on-chip TOF imager enables improved time delayed imaging and fluorescent lifetime imaging outcomes.
In the current scenario merging 3D imaging and optical sensors for mass applications requires very fast time resolving capabilities plus high sensitivity in NIR, conventional manufacturing processes are not robust enough dealing with background light movement and reflectivity. That’s where ESPROS has a major advantage having developed a backside-illuminated imager that merges CCD and CMOS technology.
The ESPROS approach means expensive peripheral components such as FPGAs and A/D converters are not required. This also means ESPROS products are both more cost effective and compact. ESPROS Photonics offers a wide range of TOF chips and line imagers as well as sensor modules, using its proprietary OHC15L silicon imager technology. Meanwhile, its off the shelf reference design 3D modules speed up a customer’s time to market.
Full article in Semiconductor Review available here: https://www.semiconductorreview.com/espros-photonics
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From Businesswire: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221220005152/en/MagikEye-to-Present-Disruptive-3D-Sensing-with-Invertible-Light%E2%84%A2-Image-Sensor-Technology-at-CES
STAMFORD, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Magik Eye Inc. (www.magik-eye.com), an innovative 3D sensing company will be holding demonstrations for its latest Invertible Light™ Technology (ILT) at the 2023 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas Nevada. ILT is a patented alternative to older Time of Flight and Structured Light solutions, enabling the smallest, fastest and most power-efficient 3D sensing method. At its essence, ILT uses a patent protected regular dot projector pattern versus current random dot projection used by Structured Light. This allows for transformative simplicity of design, compute and form factor. “We see that the simplicity of ILT is driving demand for automotive and smarter home use cases. As we see more use cases opening up for the robotics age that lies ahead, we envision a world where there is 3D everywhere with ILT” said Takeo Miyazawa, Founder & CEO of MagikEye.
CES 2023 will take place in Las Vegas on Jan. 5-8, 2023. Attendees will experience new technologies from global brands, hear about the future of technology from thought leaders and collaborate face-to-face with other attendees. Live demonstrations of MagikEye’s latest ILT solutions for next-gen 3D sensing solutions will be held from January 5-8 at the Luxor Hotel. Demonstration times are limited and private reservations will be accommodated by contacting ces2023@magik-eye.com.
About Magik Eye Inc. www.magik-eye.com
Founded in 2015, Magik Eye Inc. has a family of 3D depth sensing solutions that support a wide range of applications for smartphones, robotic and surveillance. Magik Eye’s patent protected technology is based on Invertible Light™ that enables the smallest, fastest & most power-efficient 3D sensing.
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Yole published a webinar on SWIR imaging potential applications for mass market:Image Sensors World Go to the original article...
Coverage in Wall Street Journal [paywalled]: https://www.wsj.com/articles/sensor-startup-files-for-bankruptcy-10-months-after-spac-merger-11670975713
From Businesswire:
Quanergy to Facilitate Sale of Business Through Voluntary Chapter 11 Process, Announces Leadership Changes
SUNNYVALE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Quanergy Systems, Inc. (OTC: QNGY) (“Quanergy” or the “Company”), a leading provider of LiDAR sensors and smart 3D solutions, today announced that the Company initiated an orderly sale process for its business. To facilitate the sale and maximize value, the Company filed for protection under Chapter 11 (“Chapter 11”) of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code (the “Bankruptcy Code”) in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware (the “Bankruptcy Court”) and intends to pursue a sale of the business under section 363 of the Bankruptcy Code.
Quanergy also announced today that Kevin Kennedy, Chief Executive Officer, will retire effective December 31, 2022, but will continue to serve as non-executive Chair of the Board of Directors. Mr. Kennedy will transition executive leadership to a newly appointed Chief Restructuring Officer and President, Lawrence Perkins.
“It has been my honor to serve as CEO at Quanergy for the past 2.5 years,” said Kevin Kennedy, Chief Executive Officer of Quanergy. “During this time, the company shifted our technology focus towards security and industrial applications which enabled the company to grow revenue by serving customer needs in a new marketplace. The Board and I have agreed that it is an appropriate time for me to transition day-to-day leadership to our capable newly appointed Chief Restructuring Officer. I will continue to provide guidance, continuity, and support as non-executive Board Chair.”
Mr. Perkins is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of SierraConstellation Partners, an interim management and advisory firm, which he founded in 2013. Mr. Perkins has served in a variety of senior-level positions, including interim CEO/President, Chief Restructuring Officer, board member, financial advisor, strategic consultant, and investment banker, to numerous private and public middle-market companies.
Prior to the filing of the Company’s Chapter 11 case, the Board of Directors and management evaluated a wide range of strategic alternatives to maximize value for all stakeholders. The Company also significantly reduced operating expenses and resolved significant patent litigation with Velodyne. Now with the protections afforded by the Bankruptcy Code, the Company intends to broaden its marketing efforts to potential purchasers interested in specific business segments or assets as well as continuing to seek a going concern sale of the business.
The Company expects to continue operations during the Chapter 11 process and seeks to complete an expedited sale process with Bankruptcy Court approval. To help fund and protect its operations, Quanergy intends to use available cash on hand along with normal operating cash flows to fund post-petition operations and costs in the ordinary course.
“Quanergy has made considerable efforts to address ongoing financial challenges stemming from volatile capital market conditions,” said Lawrence Perkins, Chief Restructuring Officer and President of Quanergy. “Despite these challenges, the Company has seen improving demand in the security, smart spaces, and industrial markets, and improvements in supply chain conditions. We are confident that Quanergy’s efforts have positioned the Company for a value-maximizing transaction during the Chapter 11 sale process. During the process, we will continue to prioritize the needs of our customers and I am thankful to the entire Quanergy team for their continued efforts and contributions to the business.”
The Company has filed customary motions with the Bankruptcy Court intended to allow Quanergy to maintain operations in the ordinary course including, but not limited to, paying employees and continuing existing benefits programs, meeting commitments to customers and fulfilling go-forward obligations, including vendor payments. Such motions are typical in the Chapter 11 process and Quanergy anticipates that they will be heard in the first few days of its Chapter 11 case.
For more information about the Company’s Chapter 11 case, including claims information, please visit https://cases.stretto.com/Quanergy or call our hotline at 855-613-0451 (for toll-free U.S. and Canada calls) or 949-889-0181 (for tolled international calls).
Cooley LLP is serving as counsel, Young Conaway Stargatt & Taylor LLP is serving as co-counsel, Raymond James & Associates, Inc. is serving as investment banker, and FTI Consulting is serving as financial advisor to Quanergy.
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From Businesswire:
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aeva® (NYSE: AEVA), a leader in next-generation sensing and perception systems, today announced that its Aeries™ II sensor has been named a CES® 2023 Innovation Awards Honoree. The prestigious CES Innovation Awards honor outstanding design and engineering in consumer technology products, and were given in advance of CES 2023.
The CES Innovation Award builds on growing recognition for Aeries II and its innovative 4D LiDAR™ technology, which were recently chosen as one of TIME’s Best Inventions of 2022.
“Our next-generation 4D LiDAR technology goes beyond legacy 3D LiDAR systems because of its unique instant velocity detection and long range performance capabilities, in addition to Ultra Resolution,” said Mina Rezk, Co-Founder and CTO at Aeva. “We are honored that Aeries II continues to receive further recognition with this CES Innovation Award because, put simply, we believe Aeva 4D LiDAR has the potential to change the game for passenger cars, commercial vehicles and robotaxis by making vehicle automation safer and more reliable.”
Aeva’s Aeries II 4D LiDAR sensor delivers breakthrough sensing and perception performance using Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave (FMCW) technology to directly detect the instant velocity of each point, in addition to precise 3D position at long range. Its capabilities go beyond legacy time-of-flight 3D LiDAR sensors to enable the next generation of driver assistance and autonomous vehicle capabilities, including:
Aeries II is the first sensor on the market to integrate Aeva’s unique LiDAR-on-chip technology which integrates all key sensor components including transmitters, receivers and optics onto silicon photonics in a compact module. This design uses no fiber optics, resulting in a highly automated manufacturing process that allows Aeva to scale deployment of its products and lower costs to meet the needs of automotive OEMs and other volume customers.
Detailed information about the CES 2023 Innovation Awards honorees can be found at CES.tech/innovation. In January 2023, Aeva will join other honorees to display their products in the Innovation Awards Showcase area at CES 2023. At the Aeva Booth (#6001, LVCC – West Hall), Aeva will showcase its Aeries II 4D LiDAR sensor alongside its unique LiDAR-on-chip technology that integrates all key LiDAR components onto a silicon photonics chip in a compact module.
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Link: https://www.eetimes.com/improving-sensor-fusion-for-neuromorphic-vision/
Improving Sensor Fusion for Neuromorphic Vision (Nov 21, 2022)
The article links two videos about event cameras. The first one is a tutorial about event cameras from 2020:
The second video shows an example of a commercially available event camera called Davis camera (made by iniVation AG) which has a CMOS image sensor together with an event sensor and allows sensor fusion, giving the best of both worlds:
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Single-photon avalanche diodes (SPADs) are novel image sensors that record the arrival of individual photons at extremely high temporal resolution. In the past, they were only available as single pixels or small-format arrays, for various active imaging applications such as LiDAR and microscopy. Recently, high-resolution SPAD arrays up to 3.2 megapixel have been realized, which for the first time may be able to capture sufficient spatial details for general computer vision tasks, purely as a passive sensor. However, existing vision algorithms are not directly applicable on the binary data captured by SPADs. In this paper, we propose developing quanta vision algorithms based on burst processing for extracting scene information from SPAD photon streams. With extensive real-world data, we demonstrate that current SPAD arrays, along with burst processing as an example plug-and-play algorithm, are capable of a wide range of downstream vision tasks in extremely challenging imaging conditions including fast motion, low light ($<5$ lux) and high dynamic range. To our knowledge, this is the first attempt to demonstrate the capabilities of SPAD sensors for a wide gamut of real-world computer vision tasks including object detection, pose estimation, SLAM, and text recognition. We hope this work will inspire future research into developing computer vision algorithms in extreme scenarios using single-photon cameras.
Full paper is available here: https://wisionlab.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/burst_vision_wisionlab.pdf
The paper will be presented at the upcoming Winter Conference on Applications of Computer Vision (WACV) conference in January 2023.
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Research Nester recently published a report on "CMOS Image Sensor Market Analysis by Technology; and by End Use Industry – Global Supply & Demand Analysis & Opportunity Outlook 2018-2031."
The Global CMOS Image Sensor Market is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 6.32% over the forecast period, i.e., 2022-2031. Rising demand for high-definition image-capturing devices is expected to propel the market growth. For instance, Sony Corporation unveiled the IMX485 type 1/1.2 4K-resolution back-illuminated CMOS image sensor and the IMX415 type 1/2.8 4K CMOS image sensor in June 2019. Sony created these two security camera sensors to address the constantly growing demand for security cameras in a range of monitoring applications, such as anti-theft, disaster warning, and traffic monitoring systems, or commercial complexes.
Furthermore, there has been growing demand for CMOS image sensor in healthcare industry. They are usually used in observing patient during the surgeries. A recent report by the National Library of Medicine states that a staggering 310 million major procedures are carried out year around the world, with between 40 to 50 million taking place in the United States and 20 million in Europe.
Global CMOS Image Sensor Market: Key Takeaways
Rising Demand for Security & Surveillance to Drive Market Growth
CMOS image sensor is extensively used for the purpose of security and surveillance. CMOS image sensor has an ability to convert the photoelectrical signal into digital signal. Security is the major concern for everyone. Hence owing to increasing instances of theft and crime, more security cameras having CMOS senor are expected to be installed, allowing market growth. As it is estimated that approximately 82% of burglars check the presence of alarm system before breaking in.
However, they can’t be installed everywhere owing to privacy concerns. Hence many organizations have come up with innovative ideas which are anticipated to fuel the market. For instance, in December 2021, Canon revealed a brand-new outdoor 4K camera that can be used as both a conventional camera and a security camera. Additionally, it can combine every 4K UHD pixel that the 4K UHD CMOS image sensor has ever captured.
Global CMOS Image Sensor Market: Regional Overview
The global CMOS image sensor market is segmented into five major regions including North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and the Middle East and Africa region.
Government Initiative for Smart Cities to Drive Growth in Asia Pacific Region
The CMOS image sensor market in Asia Pacific region is anticipated to garner the largest revenue of USD 17,759.3 Million by the end of 2031. Government initiatives for smart cities is expected to fuel the growth in the market. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology in India has tasked ERNET India and IISc with developing the LoRa gateway (pole gateway), a low-cost compute device that can connect to cameras, temperature, humidity, air quality, and other sensors. This is part of the
Internet of Things (IoT) Management Framework for Smart Cities.
Growing Demand for Consumer Electronics to Favour Growth in North America Region
Further, North America Region is expected to grow further by garnering revenue of USD 12579.0 Million by the end of 2031, growing at a CAGR of 6.14% during 2022-2031. Increase in demand for smartphones to drive the market growth. Approximately 85% percent of all mobile users in the US are expected to have a smartphone by 2025. Various electronics item including smart phones, TVs, wearable gadgets and more consist of senor which is in huge demand in this region. Many smartphones manufacturers use image sensor in their smartphones. For instance, the Xiaomi 12S Ultra smartphone contains the world's biggest sensor in a smartphone. As part of the new line, Xiaomi has launched the 12S Series, which includes the Leica-engineered Ultra.
The study further incorporates Y-O-Y growth, demand & supply and forecast future opportunity in:
The consumer electronics segment is estimated to hold the largest revenue of USD 27010.4 Million by the end of 2031. Increasing demand for CMOS in consumer electronics is expected to boost the market growth. This CMOS technology is extensively used in smartphones. CMOS are known for using less power and hence their demand in smartphones are increasing. Instead of capturing the whole image in a single instance it captures image in scanning type way. Moreover, cameras with CMOS sensor gives better saturation capacity owing to which many manufacturers are installing it in their smartphones. For instance, the newest CMOS image sensor in the XGS series was unveiled by ON Semiconductor. A 16Mp sensor called the XGS 16000 offers excellent global shutter imaging for robotics and inspection systems in factories. The XGS 16000 delivers great performance at low power while giving the highest resolutions for typical 29 x 29 mm industrial cameras, consuming just 1 Watt at 65FPS. In North America, the segment generated the largest revenue of USD 8576.4 Million by the end of 2031, while in the Asia Pacific, the segment is projected to register the largest revenue of USD 12124.3 Million by the end of 2031.
Global CMOS Image Sensor Market, Segmentation by Technology
The back side illumination (BSI) segment is anticipated to garner the largest revenue by the end of 2031, growing at the highest CAGR of 6.68% over the forecast period. The growth can be attributed to the increasing use of BSI technology in high quality and higher pixel cameras. The preference of smartphones producer is increasing for BSI technology which is also expected to lead a boost in demand. For instance, with the 42 megapixel Sony Alpha A7R Mark II, Sony has added a BSI Full-Frame sensor. The Sony Cyber-shot RX10 II and RX100 IV both have "stacked" sensors that enable even faster continuous shooting and high speed video recording. In the Asia Pacific, the segment is projected to grow with a CAGR of 7.34% during the forecast period, while in North America, the front side illumination (FSI) segment is projected to grow with a CAGR of 5.41% during the forecast period.
Few of the well-known market leaders in the global CMOS image sensor market that are profiled by Research Nester are STMicroelectronics International NV, Samsung Electronics America, Inc., Sony Semiconductor Solutions Corporation, ON Semiconductor Components Industries, LLC, Canon, Inc., SK Hynix Inc., OMNIVISION Technologies Inc., Hamamatsu Photonics K.K., Panasonic Industry Co. Ltd., and Teledyne Technologies Inc. and other key players.
Recent Development in in the Global CMOS Image Sensor Market
In December 15, 2021, Canon creates the world's highest resolution 3.2 megapixel SPAD sensor and introduces a breakthrough low-light imaging camera that achieves outstanding colour reproduction even in dimly lit conditions.
In February 14, 2018, Panasonic Corporation revealed that it has created a breakthrough technology that enables simultaneous 450k high-saturation electrons, global shutter photography with sensitivity modulation, and 8K high-resolution (36M pixels) imaging using a CMOS image sensor with an organic photoconductive layer (OPF).
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New Mira global shutter image sensor from ams OSRAM advances 2D and 3D sensing with high quantum efficiency at visible and NIR wavelengths. The Mira sensors come supplied in a chip-scale package, with an optimized footprint and an industry-leading ratio of size to resolution empowered by state-of-the-art stacked back-side illumination technology to shrink package footprint, giving greater design flexibility to manufacturers of smart glasses and other space-constrained products. The Mira image sensors are super small and offer superior image quality in low light conditions and with its many on-chip operations, our image sensors open up many new possibilities for developers.Image Sensors World Go to the original article...
Press release from NIT (New Imaging Technologies) about their wide range of SWIR offerings:
NIT is widely known for its large range of SWIR cameras designed for industrial, defense, and medical markets. Less known is that NIT designs and manufactures in-house all the InGaAs sensors embedded into our cameras. We master the design of silicon read-out circuits, InGaAs photodiode arrays, and assembly technologies such as 3D stacking.
Our recent investment into a new clean room facility and back-end process machines will bring our production capacity to several ten thousand sensors per year with the highest quality.
Such vertical integration allows us to offer a line of cameras with specific features, all adapted to our customer markets and applications. Our cameras and their performances are unique as they don’t use third-party sensors. The sensitivity, noise level, frame rate, pitches, dynamic range, and pixel numbers of our InGaAs sensors make our cameras the best in their class.
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ISSCC will be held as an in-person conference Feb 19-23, 2023 in San Francisco.The advance program is available here: http://submissions.mirasmart.
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ESPROS supplies world leader for delivery robots
Sargans, 2022/11/29
Starship Technologies' autonomous delivery robots implement ESPROS’ epc660 Time-of-Flight chip ESPROS' epc660 chip is used by Starship Technologies, a pioneering US robotics technology company, headquartered in San Francisco, with its main engineering office in Estonia, is the world’s leading provider of autonomous last mile delivery services.
What was once considered science fiction is now a fact of modern life: in many countries robots deliver a variety of goods, such as parcels, groceries, medications. Starship’s robots are a common sight on University campuses and also in public areas.
Using a combination of sensors, artificial intelligence, machine learning and GPS to accurately
navigate, delivery robots face the need to operate in darkness, but also in bright sunlight. ESPROS sensors excel in both conditions.
The outstanding operation of the ambient light of ESPROS’ epc660 chip, together with its very high quantum efficiency, provided a valuable breakthrough that Starship Technologies needed to further increase autonomy in all ambient light conditions. It wasn’t possible to achieve the same level of performance, implementing other technologies.
ESPROS’ epc660 is able to detect objects over long distances, using very low power. This, together with its small size, results in lower system costs. The success of this chip lies in the years of development by ESPROS and in its strong technological know-how. The combination of its unique Time-Of-Flight technology, with Starship Technologies' position as the leading commercial autonomous delivery service, lies at the heart of over 3.5 million commercial deliveries and over 4 million miles driven around the world.
"The future of delivery, today: this is our bold promise," says Lauri Vain (VP of Engineering at Starship), adding, "With a combination of mobile technology, our global fleet of autonomous robots, and partnerships with stores and restaurants, we are helping to make the local delivery industry faster, cleaner, smarter and more cost-efficient, and we are very excited about our partnership with ESPROS and its unique chip technology."
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IEDM conference will be held December 3-7, 2022 at the Hilton San Francisco Union Square. Starting December 12, the full conference will be on-demand. The full technical program is available here:
https://www.ieee-iedm.org/s/program2022-webiste-rev-002-779a.pdf
There are a couple of sessions of potential interest to the image sensors community.
Session 37: ODI - Silicon Image Sensors and Photonics
Wednesday, December 7, 1:30 p.m.
37.1 Coherent Silicon Photonics for Imaging and Ranging (Invited), Ali Hajimiri, Aroutin Khachturian, Parham Khial, Reza Fatemi, California Institute of Technology
Silicon photonics platform and their potential for integration with CMOS electronics present novel opportunities in applications such as imaging, ranging, sensing, and displays. Here, we present ranging and imaging results for a coherent silicon-imaging system that uses a two-path quadrature (IQ) approach to overcome optical path length mismatches.
37.2 Near-Infrared Sensitivity Enhancement of Image Sensor by 2 ND -Order Plasmonic Diffraction and the Concept of Resonant-Chamber-Like Pixel, Nobukazu Teranishi, Takahito Yoshinaga, Kazuma Hashimoto, Atsushi Ono, Shizuoka University
We propose 2 nd -order plasmonic diffraction and the concept of a resonant-chamber-like pixel to enhance the near-infrared (NIR) sensitivity of Si image sensors. Optical requirements for deep trench isolation are explained. In the simulation, Si absorptance as high as 49% at 940 nm wavelength for 3.25-µm-thick Si is obtained.
37.3 A SPAD Depth Sensor Robust Against Ambient Light: The Importance of Pixel Scaling and Demonstration of a 2.5µm Pixel with 21.8% PDE at 940nm, S. Shimada, Y. Otake, S. Yoshida, Y. Jibiki, M. Fujii, S. Endo, R. Nakamura, H. Tsugawa, Y. Fujisaki, K. Yokochi, J. Iwase, K. Takabayashi*, H. Maeda*, K. Sugihara*, K. Yamamoto*, M. Ono*, K. Ishibashi*, S. Matsumoto, H. Hiyama, and T. Wakano, Sony Semiconductor Solutions, *Sony Semiconductor Manufacturing
This paper presents scaled-down SPAD pixels to prevent PDE degradation under high ambient light. This study is carried out on Back-Illuminated structures with 3.3, 3.0, and 2.5µm pixel pitches. Our new SPAD pixels can achieve PDE at ?=940nm of over 20% and a peak of over 75%, even 2.5µm pixel.
37.4 3-Tier BSI CIS with 3D Sequential & Hybrid Bonding Enabling a 1.4um pitch,106dB HDR Flicker Free Pixel, F. Guyader, P. Batude*, P. Malinge, E.Vire, J. Lacord*, J. Jourdon, J. Poulet, L. Gay, F. Ponthenier*, S. Joblot, A. Farcy, L. Brunet*, A. Albouy*, C. Theodorou**, M. Ribotta*, D. Bosch*, E. Ollier*, D.Muller, M.Neyens, D. Jeanjean, T.Ferrotti, E.Mortini, J.G. Mattei, A. Inard, R. Fillon, F. Lalanne, F. Roy, E. Josse, STMicroelectronics, *CEA-Leti, Univ. Grenoble Alpes, **Univ. Grenoble Alpes, Univ. Savoie Mont Blanc, CNRS, Grenoble INP, IMEP-LAHC
A 3-tier CIS combining 3D Sequential Integration for the 2-tier pixel realization & Hybrid Bonding for the logic circuitry connection is demonstrated. Thin film pixel transistors are built above photo-gate without
congestion. Dual carrier collection 3DSI pixel offers an attractive dynamic range (106dB, Single Exposure) versus pixel pitch (1,4µm) trade-off
37.5 3-Layer Stacked Voltage-Domain Global Shutter CMOS Image Sensor with 1.8µm-Pixel-Pitch, Seung-Sik Kim, Gwi-Deok Ryan Lee, Sang-Su Park, Heesung Shim, Dae-Hoon Kim, Minjun Choi, Sangyoon Kim, Gyunha Park, Seung-Jae Oh, Joosung Moon, Sungbong Park, Sol Yoon, Jihye Jeong, Sejin Park, Sanggwon Lee, HaeJung Lee, Wonoh Ryu, Taehyoung Kim, Doowon Kwon, Hyuk Soon Choi, Hongki Kim, Jonghyun Go, JinGyun Kim, Seunghyun Lim, HoonJoo Na, Jae-kyu Lee, Chang-Rok Moon, Jaihyuk Song, Samsung Electronics
We developed a 1.8µm-pixel GS sensor which is suitable for mobile applications. Pixel shrink was possible by the 3-layer stacking structure with pixel-level Cu-to-Cu bonding and high-capacity DRAM capacitors. As a result, excellent performances were achieved i.e. -130dB, 1.8e-rms and 14ke- of PLS, TN and FWC, respectively.
37.6 Advanced Color Filter Isolation Technolgy for Sub-Micron Pixel of CMOS Image Sensor, Hojin Bak, Horyeong Lee, Won-Jin Kim, Inho Choi, Hanjun Kim, Dongha Kim, Hanseung Lee, Sukman Han, Kyoung-In Lee, Youngwoong Do, Minsu Cho, Moung-Seok Baek, Kyungdo Kim, Wonje Park, Seong-Hun Kang, Sung-Joo Hong, Hoon-Sang Oh, and Changrock Song SK hynix Inc.
The novel color filter isolation technology, which adopts the air, the lowest refractive index material on the earth, as a major component of an optical grid for sub-micron pixels of CMOS image sensors, is presented. The image quality improvement was verified through the enhanced optical performance of the air-grid-assisted pixels.
37.7 A 140 dB Single-Exposure Dynamic-Range CMOS Image Sensor with In-Pixel DRAM Capacitor, Youngsun Oh, Jungwook Lim, Soeun Park, Dongsuk Yoo, Moosup Lim, Joonseok Park, Seojoo Kim, Minwook Jung, Sungkwan Kim, Junetaeg Lee, In-Gyu Baek, Kwangyul Ryu, Kyungmin Kim, Youngtae Jang, Min-SunKeel, Gyujin Bae, Seunghun Yoo, Youngkyun Jeong, Bumsuk Kim, Jungchak Ahn, Haechang Lee, Joonseo Yim, Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
A CMOS image sensor with a 2.1 µm pixel for automotive applications was developed. With a sub-pixel structure and a high-capacity DRAM capacitor, a single exposure dynamic range achieves 140 dB at 85, supporting LED flicker mitigation and blooming free. SNR stay above 23 dB at 105
Session 19: ODI - Photonic Technologies and Non-Visible Imaging
Tuesday, December 6, 2:15 p.m.
19.1 Record-low Loss Non-volatile Mid-infrared PCM Optical Phase Shifter based on Ge2Sb2Te 3S2, Y. Miyatake, K. Makino*, J. Tominaga*, N. Miyata*, T. Nakano*, M. Okano*, K. Toprasertpong, S. Takagi, M. Takenaka, The University of Tokyo, *National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST)
We propose a low-loss non-volatile PCM phase shifter operating at mid-infrared wavelengths using Ge 2Sb 2Te 3S2 (GSTS), a new selenium-free widegap PCM. The GSTS phase shifter exhibit the record-low optical loss for p phase shift of 0.29 dB/p, more than 20 times better than reported so far in terms of figure-of-merit.
19.2 Monolithic Integration of Top Si3N4-Waveguided Germanium Quantum-Dots Microdisk Light Emitters and PIN Photodetectors for On-chip Ultrafine Sensing, C-H Lin, P-Y Hong, B-J Lee, H. C. Lin, T. George, P-W Li, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University
An ingenious combination of lithography and self-assembled growth has allowed accurate control over the geometric with high-temperature thermal stability. This significant fabrication advantage has opened up the 3D integration feasibility of top-SiN waveguided Ge photonics for on-chip ultrafine sensing and optical interconnect applications.
19.3 Colloidal quantum dot image sensors: a new vision for infrared (Invited), P. Malinowski, V. Pejovic*, E. Georgitzikis, JH Kim, I. Lieberman, N. Papadopoulos, M.J. Lim, L. Moreno Hagelsieb, N. Chandrasekaran, R. Puybaret, Y. Li, T. Verschooten, S. Thijs, D. Cheyns, P. Heremans*, J. Lee, imec,
*KULeuven
Short-wave infrared (SWIR) range carries information vital for augmented vision. Colloidal quantum dots (CQD) enable monolithic integration with small pixel pitch, large resolution and tunable cut-off wavelength, accompanied by radical cost reduction. In this paper, we describe the challenges to realize manufacturable CQD image sensors enabling new use cases.
19.4 Grating-resonance InGaAs narrowband photodetector for multispectral detection in NIR-SWIR region, J. Jang, J. Shim, J. Lim, G. C. Park*, J. Kim**, D-M Geum, S. Kim, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), *Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI), **Korea Advanced Nano Fab Center (KANC)
We proposed grating-resonance narrowband photodetector for the wavelength selection functionality at the range of 1300~1700 nm. Based on parameters designed from the simulation, we fabricated an array of pixels to selectively detect different wavelengths. Our device showed great wavelength selectivity and tunability depending on grating design with a narrow FWHM.
19.5 Alleviating the Responsivity-Speed Dilemma of Photodetectors via Opposite Photogating Engineering with an Auxiliary Light Source beyond the Chip, Y. Zou, Y. Zeng, P. Tan, X. Zhao, X. Zhou, X. Hou, Z. Zhang, M. Ding, S. Yu, H. Huang, Q. He, X. Ma, G. Xu, Q. Hu, S. Long, University of Science and Technology of China
The dilemma between responsivity and speed limits the performance of photodetectors. Here, opposite photogating engineering was proposed to alleviate this dilemma via an auxiliary light source beyond the chip. Based on a WSe 2/Ga 2O3 JFET, a >103 times faster speed towards deep ultra-violet has been achieved with negligible sacrifice of responsivity.
19.6 Experimental Demonstration of the Small Pixel Effect in an Amorphous Photoconductor using a Monolithic Spectral Single Photon Counting Capable CMOS-Integrated Amorphous-Selenium Sensor, R. Mohammadi, P. M. Levine, K. S. Karim, University of Waterloo
We directly demonstrate, for the first time, the small pixel effect in an amorphous material, a-Se. The results are also the first demonstration of the transient response of a-Se monolithically combined with a CMOS, with and without SPE, and the first aSe/CMOS PHS results, offering a-Se/CMOS for photon counting applications.
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https://harvestimaging.com/forum_introduction_2023_new.php
After the Harvest Imaging forums during the last decade, a next and nineth 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:
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 :
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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Link: https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2022
/10/28/2543724/8267/en/Himax-Technologies-Inc-Announces-Divestiture-of-Emza-Visual-Sense-Subsidiary.html
TAINAN, Taiwan, Oct. 28, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Himax Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq: HIMX) (“Himax” or “Company”), a leading supplier and fabless manufacturer of display drivers and other semiconductor products, today announced that it has divested its wholly owned subsidiary Emza Visual Sense Ltd. (“Emza”), a company dedicated to the development of proprietary vision machine-learning algorithms. Following the transaction, Himax will continue to partner with Emza. The divestiture will not affect the existing business with the leading laptop customer where Himax continues to be the supplier for the leading-edge ultralow power AI processor and always-on CMOS image sensor.
WiseEyeTM, Himax’s total solution for ultralow power AI image sensing, includes Himax proprietary AI processors, CMOS image sensors, and CNN-based machine-learning AI algorithms, all featuring unique characteristics of ultralow power consumption. For the AI algorithms, Himax has historically adopted a business model where it not only develops its own solutions through an in-house algorithm team and Emza, a fully owned subsidiary before the divestiture, but also partners with multiple third-party AI algorithm specialists as a way to broaden the scope of application and widen the geographical reach. Moving forward, the AI business model will be unchanged where the Company will continue to develop its own algorithms and work with third-party algorithms partners, including Emza.
The Company continues to collaborate with its ecosystem partners to jointly make the WiseEye AI solution broadly accessible to the market, aiming to scale up adoption in numerous relatively untapped end-point AI markets. Tremendous progress has been made so far in areas such as laptop, desktop PC, automatic meter reading, video conference device, shared bike parking, medical capsule endoscope, automotive, smart office, battery cam and surveillance, among others. Additionally, Himax is committed to strengthening its WiseEye product roadmap while retaining its leadership position in ultralow power AI processor and image sensor. By targeting even lower power consumption and higher AI inference performance that leverage integral optimization from hardware to software, the Company believes it can capture the vast end-point AI opportunities presented ahead.
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From: https://www.thelec.net/news/articleView.html?idxno=4281
