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ID Quantique S.A. ISSCC presentation "CMOS-based quantum random number generators" by Gianluca Boso is available on-line. Few slides:
IISW 2021 Teaser: Unravelling the Paradox of Intensity-Dependent Event-Based Sensor Noise
September 11, 2021 By Leave a Comment
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ETH Zurich team publishes a video summary of their 2021 International Image Sensor Workshop paper “Unravelling the paradox of intensity-dependent DVS noise,” by R. Graca and T. Delbruck.One still has a few days left to register for the Workshop that starts on September 20, with all papers available on-line a week before that.
2021 International Image Sensors Workshop – Last Days to Register
September 10, 2021 By Leave a Comment
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International Image Sensors Workshop 2021 starts on September 20. It's held in virtual space this year. The workshop materials are available on-line starting from September 13, just in a couple of days. Therethore, there are just a few days left to register. The registration fee is only $100, the lowest ever!
Smartsens Upgrades Two Sensors for Security and Automotive Applications
September 10, 2021 By Leave a Comment
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SmartSens releases the 1/3-inch, 2MP SC2336 and 1/2.8-inch, 3MP SC3336—two performance upgrade CMOS sensors with DSI-2 technology, aiming at surveillance and automotive camera applications. Benefiting from PixGain technology, the SC3336 supports High Gain and Low Gain to adjust to light changes between day and night.
Both SC2336 and SC3336 are equipped with an ultra-low-noise readout, combined with cinema-level color visual effects technology for more detailed and more realistic night vision full-color imaging. Taking SC2336's Chroma as an example, the low color temperature increased by 15% , and the high color temperature increased by 11.8%.
In addition, the electrical crosstalk (Blooming) of SC2336 and SC3336 is significantly reduced by 45% and 35% , respectively , compared with the previous generation products, which improves the flashing that is easily generated by the camera in backlit scenes and night shooting lights.
The SC2336 has achieved mass production and the SC3336 is available for sampling now, with mass production expected in Q4 of 2021.
ST Expands its dToF Sensors Resolution to 64 Zones
September 9, 2021 By Leave a Comment
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STMicroelectronics announces its first multi-zone FlightSense dToF sensor for general-purpose applications. The VL53L5CX sensor provides up to 64 sensing zones with multi-target detection, distance measurement up to four meters in each zone, and a wide square-edged field of view with 63° diagonal.
The sensor is suited to gesture recognition, complex scene analysis including 3D room mapping for robotics, storage-tank level monitoring to assist in inventory management, liquid-level control, and waste-bin-level monitoring to enable smart refuse collection for enhanced efficiency.
Featuring ST’s histogram processing, which greatly reduces the impact of cover-glass crosstalk, the sensor can be integrated and hidden behind various types of front panels. The new motion-indicator feature allows the sensor to detect if the target has moved or not.
The number of sensing arrays is programmable and the sensor can provide up to 60 fps in 16-zone (4×4) mode for fast-ranging mode. With simple software configuration to reach high resolution of 8×8 zones, the VL53L5CX can also assist keystone correction for video projectors and provide an accurate mini depth-map for AR/VR applications.
The VL53L5CX contains a low-power microcontroller and is capable of autonomous operation for power-saving applications. It comes in a fully integrated 6.4mm x 3.0mm x 1.5mm module that contains an infrared VCSEL and a receiver with embedded SPADs and histogram based ToF processing engine.
All parts are in production now, priced from $3.90.
Sony Announces Two 4.86um Pixel Event-Based Sensors Developed with Prophesee
September 9, 2021 By Leave a Comment
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Sony announces the upcoming release of two of stacked event-based vision sensors: 0.92MP IMX636 and 0.33MP IMX637. These sensors designed for industrial equipment are capable of detecting only subject changes, and achieve the industry’s smallest pixel size of 4.86μm.
These two sensors are a product of collaboration between Sony and Prophesee, by combining Sony's CMOS sensor technology with Prophesee's event-based method vision sensing technology. As part of the collaboration between Sony and Prophesee on these products, Metavision Intelligence Suite an event signal processing software optimized for sensor performance, is available from Prophesee. Combining Sony’s event-based vision sensors with this software will enable efficient application development and provide solutions for various use cases.
The new sensors employ stacking technology leveraging Sony’s proprietary Cu-Cu connection. In addition to operating with low power consumption and delivering high-speed, low-latency, high-temporal-resolution data output, the new sensors also feature a high resolution for their small size. All of these advantages combine to ensure immediate detection of moving subjects in diverse environments and situations.
These sensors are equipped with event filtering functions developed by Prophesee for eliminating unnecessary event data, making them ready for various applications. Using these filters helps eliminate events that are unnecessary for the recognition task at hand, such as the LED flickering that can occur at certain frequencies (anti-flicker), as well as events that are highly unlikely to be the outline of a moving subject (event filter). The filters also make it possible to adjust the volume of data when necessary to ensure it falls below the event rate that can be processed in downstream systems (event rate control).
Sony Event-based Sensor Video
September 9, 2021 By Leave a Comment
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Sony publishes a video presenting event-based vision sensor. The video appears to be a product presentation but does not mention any specific part number. The software processing poart is based on Prophesee Metavision suite:Sony also publishes partial videos on applications and technology parts.
Barry Burke Passed Away
September 8, 2021 By Leave a Comment
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Barry E. Burke passed away on September 7, 2021, after a long illness.
Barry was a MIT Lincoln Laboratory Fellow. For most of his nearly 49-year career, he has worked on CCDs. Among the CCDs designed by Burke are those used in the space-borne soft-X-ray astronomy missions ASCA (Advanced Satellite for Cosmology and Astrophysics), Chandra, and Suzaku. Visible-band CCDs he developed are being used in several observatories, including the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System (Pan-STARRS) in Hawaii. He is the co-inventor of the orthogonal-transfer CCD (OTCCD), a device which can compensate for image motion by pixel shifting and which is used in the Pan-STARRS imagers. He recently completed design work on the CCD imagers used on the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) launched in April 2018.
Dr. Burke has authored or coauthored more than 100 publications and conference proceedings and is the inventor or co-inventor on 18 patents. His last papers have been published as recently as in August 2021. He was a Fellow of the IEEE.
Samsung 0.64um Pixel Presentation On-Line
September 8, 2021 By Leave a Comment
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Samsung ISSCC 2021 presentation "1/2.74” 32 Megapixel-Prototype CMOS Image Sensor with 0.64μm Unit Pixels Separated by Full-Depth Deep-Trench Isolation" with a list of 32 authors Jongeun Park, Sungbong Park, Kwansik Cho, Taehun Lee, Changkyu Lee, DongHyun Kim, Beomsuk Lee, SungIn Kim, Ho-Chul Ji, DongMo Im, Haeyong Park, Jinyoung Kim, JungHo Cha, Taehoon Kim, In-Sung Joe, Soojin Hong, Chongkwang Chang, Jingyun Kim, WooGwan Shim, Taehee Kim, Jamie Lee, Donghyuk Park, EuiYeol Kim, Howoo Park, Jaekyu Lee, Yitae Kim, JungChak Ahn, YoungKi Hong, ChungSam Jun, HyunChul Kim, Chang-Rok Moon, and Ho-Kyu Kang is available one-line. Few slides:
Omnivision is Reported to Scale Down Foundry Orders by 50,000 Wafers per Month
September 8, 2021 By Leave a Comment
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YahooTaiwan, UnitedDailyNews, Digitimes, SinaFinance: Omnivision reduces its 2022 foundry orders by 50,000 wafers per month. Reportedly, the main reason is the weakness of the smartphone market in China.MoneyDJ reports that Taiwan imaging community does not believe this news: "The industry believes that it is unlikely to cut the scale of 50,000 pieces/month at a time. It is more likely to be adjusted according to the current market conditions and the allocated production capacity. At most 30,000 to 50,000 pieces per year will be reduced, and the reduction is mainly on Omnivision's mainland-based fabs, rather than in Taiwan-based manufacturing."
Samsung Aims to 576MP Mobile Sensors in 2025
September 7, 2021 By Leave a Comment
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Samsung SVP & Head of Automotive Sensors Haechang Lee presented the company's small pixel history and roadmap at SEMI Europe Summit on Sept. 1, 2021. The 576MP mobile sensor is planned for 2025:
Sony to Start Sampling SPAD LiDAR Sensor for Automotive Applications in March 2022
September 6, 2021 By Leave a Comment
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Sony announces the upcoming release of the IMX459 stacked SPAD depth sensor for automotive LiDAR applications, expected to become the industry first stacked SPAD in production.
This product packs 10 μm pixels and distance measuring processing circuit onto a single chip, making for a compact 1/2.9-type form factor. By leveraging Sony's technologies such as a BSI pixel structure, stacked configurations, and Cu-Cu connections created in the development of CMOS image sensors, Sony delivers 24% PDE at 905nm wavelength and improved responsiveness, enabling distance measuring at 15-centimeter range resolutions from long-range to short -range distances.
This product is set to be certified as meeting the requirements of the AEC-Q100 Grade 2 automotive electronic component reliability tests. Sony has also introduced a development process that complies with ISO 26262 automobile functional safety standards and supports functional safety requirement level ASIL- B(D) for functionalities such as failure detection, notification, and control.
Sony publishes a video explaining its sensor features in a popular form:
Sony has also developed a mechanical scanning LiDAR reference design equipped with this new SPAD sensor, which is now being offered to customers and partners. Providing the design will help customers and partners save on man-hours in the LiDAR development process as well as reduce costs by optimizing device selection.
Samsung Expects LiDAR Market to Overgrow CIS in 2026
September 6, 2021 By Leave a Comment
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SEMI Europe Summit publishes a couple of slides from the presentations including Samsung prediction about LiDAR market:
Once we are at LiDARs, Yole Developpement publishes its estimations of design wins for LiDAR companies:
SEMI Europe also publishes few other interesting slides:
MIPI D-PHY v.3.0 Standard Increases Speed to 11Gbps per Lane
September 5, 2021 By Leave a Comment
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The MIPI Alliance announces a major update to its MIPI D-PHY specification for connecting megapixel cameras and high-resolution displays to application processors. Version 3.0 doubles the data rate of D-PHY’s standard channel to 9 Gbps for the standard channel (and 11 Gbps for its short channel), while extending the power efficiency of the specification.
In tandem with the boost in data rate, D-PHY v3.0 introduces a Continuous-Time Linear Equalizer (CTLE) on the receiver side of a connection to maintain the interface’s superior power efficiency. D-PHY v3.0 is fully compatible with previous versions of the MIPI specification.
“Pixel rates in camera and display applications are constantly increasing, and v3.0 of D-PHY provides the leap in data rate necessary to support next-generation image sensors while extending the specification’s low-power attribute,” said Joel Huloux, chairman of MIPI Alliance. “MIPI continues to innovate its PHY interfaces to enable advancements in camera and display applications and emerging market dynamics.”
In conjunction with the release of D-PHY v3.0, MIPI Alliance also announces version 2.1 of MIPI C-PHY, which provides high throughput and superior power efficiency to connect displays and cameras to application processors. The specification supports symbol rates up to 6 Gigasymbols per second (Gsps), equivalent to 13.7 Gbps, over the standard channel and up to 8 Gsps over the short channel. A new 64-bit PHY Protocol Interface (PPI) in v2.1 provides a wider bus between C-PHY and a chip’s core logic for better support of higher-performance applications. The new version of the interface is fully compatible with previous versions of C-PHY.
Smartsens Launches its First 1um Pixel Product
September 4, 2021 By Leave a Comment
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SmartSens launches the SC1600CS, a 16MP CMOS sensor with a 1.0 µm pixel, targeting at front-facing cellphone camera applications.
The SC1600CS offers 16MP resolution with the smallest pixel size in SmartSens’ products at 1.0 µm. It also features SFCPixel technology and low noise reading circuit design to deliver full-color night vision. Furthermore, the SC1600CS integrates QCell technology to provide QCell Bin mode. The QCell color filter array on the SC1600CS uses QCell binning to output 4MP images with 3x the sensitivity, improving the SNR and dynamic range by 13% and 8.5dB respectively.
The SC1600CS is currently available for sampling and expected to start mass production in Q4 of 2021.
SkyWater Foundry Announces 90nm MPW Program
September 4, 2021 By Leave a Comment
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SkyWater Technology, an ex-Cypress fab located in Minneapolis area, MN, is accepting design submissions for its 90 nm readout integrated circuit (S90ROIC) MPW program, including support for ITAR designs. The program is targeted for specialized aerospace and defense applications, LIDAR and LADAR and other applications ranging from automotive sensing, microbolometers and medical x-ray to augmented reality, industrial machine vision and security, among others. Design submissions for SkyWater’s initial enhanced S90ROIC MPW shuttle are now being accepted with a GDS-II cutoff date in November 2021.
SkyWater’s updated S90ROIC platform provides low noise performance buried channel transistors as well as native transistors, seven layers of metal interconnect, MIM capacitors (oxynitride and high-k), and both room temperature and cryogenic models (77-150K), which are necessary for use in space, aviation, and other high-performance applications. For production designs or dedicated tape-outs, the process also supports stitching for large-format imagers, topside planarized contacts, TSVs for in-pixel backside contact and radiation-tolerant options. Volume ROIC manufacturing is available at SkyWater’s ISO 9001, ITAR-compliant and DMEA-accredited Trusted U.S. production facility.
“We are pleased to offer our S90ROIC MPW program to provide secure design support for customers to achieve prototyping, device characterization, and IP validation quickly,” said John Kent, EVP, technology development and design enablement at SkyWater. “Our MPW program addresses our growing aerospace and defense customer demand and provides a secure avenue for creating critical applications for national defense. The program also offers commercial customers the reliability, IP security and high-quality manufacturing that we provide in our U.S.-owned and operated facility.”
Era of 2.2V Supply Coming?
September 3, 2021 By Leave a Comment
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It appears that Samsung starts to use 2.2V supply in its new pixel designs:
- Samsung newly announced 0.64um pixel in 200MP sensor uses 2.2V supply, while the "old" 0.64um pixel in 50MP sensor announced in June 2021 still relies on 2.8V supply:
- Samsung new 1um pixel in 50MP sensor with "all-directional" PDAF uses 2.2V supply too.
- Apparently Samsung modifies its "older" pixels to adopt low voltage supply, similar to the 0.7um pixel presented at EI 2021:
SUSS MicroTec and SET Form a Hybrid Bonding Partnership
September 3, 2021 By Leave a Comment
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SUSS MicroTec and SET signed a joint development agreement to develop a cluster, including several modules such as surface preparation, cleaning, bonding and metrology.
As part of this partnership, SUSS MicroTec’s high-efficiency surface preparation modules and throughput-optimized metrology solutions for post bond overlay verification will be combined with SET’s latest ultra-high accuracy D2W hybrid bonding platform.
Goetz M. Bendele, CEO of SUSS MicroTec, says: “With our partnership with SET, we will be able to offer our customers a complete suite of both die-to-wafer and wafer-to-wafer hybrid bonding solutions for the broadest set of heterogeneous integration applications in the advanced backend space. Our die-to-wafer bonding solution, leveraging the combination of SET’s leading-precision die placement technology with SUSS’s proven surface activation, automation, and metrology capabilities, will deliver additional customer value through differentiation in terms of throughput and yield, while at the same time enabling friction-less integration into our customers’ fabrication sites.”
Pascal Metzger, CEO of SET, says: “Thanks to several partnerships we had & our more than 10 years experience in hybrid bonding, we have succeeded in taking hybrid bonding from a purely laboratory state to an industrial state. Thus in September 2019, SET launched a stand-alone machine – the NEO HB. Thanks to our new partnership with SUSS MicroTec, we are now going to accelerate the integration and automation phase of the process.”
8th Harvest Imaging Forum
September 2, 2021 By Leave a Comment
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8th Harvest Imaging Forum is to be held on December 9-10, 2021 in Delft, the Netherlands. The Forum will be a hybrid one meaning that both in-person and remote attendances are possible:
- One can attend in-person and benefit in an utmost way of the live interaction with the speakers and audience,
- There will be also a live broadcast of the forum, still interactions with the speakers through a chat box will be made possible,
- Finally the forum also can be watched on-line at a later date.
- "Dark current, dim points and bright spots : coming to the dark side of image sensors"
Daniel McGrath (GOODiX, USA)
- "Random Telegraph Signal and Radiation Induced Defects in CMOS Image Sensors"
Vincent Goiffon (ISAE-SUPAERO, France)
Samsung Announces 50MP 1um Pixel Sensor with All-Direction PDAF
September 2, 2021 By Leave a Comment
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BusinessWire: Samsung introduces the ISOCELL GN5, the first image sensor to adopt all-directional focusing Dual Pixel Pro technology with two photodiodes in a single 1.0μm pixel.The ISOCELL GN5 is the industry’s first 1.0μm image sensor to integrate Dual Pixel Pro, an all-directional autofocusing technology. This technology places two photodiodes, the smallest in the industry, within each 1.0μm pixel of the sensor either horizontally or vertically to recognize pattern changes in all directions. With one million phase-detecting multi-directional photodiodes covering all areas of the sensor, the ISOCELL GN5’s autofocusing becomes instantaneous, enabling sharper images in either bright or low-lit environments.
The image sensor also makes use of Samsung’s proprietary pixel technology, which applies Front Deep Trench Isolation (FDTI) on a Dual Pixel product for the first time in the industry. Despite the microscopic photodiode size, FDTI enables each photodiode to absorb and hold more light information, improving the photodiodes’ FWC and decreasing crosstalk within the pixel.
Samples of GN5 are currently available.
Samsung Announces 200MP 0.64um Pixel Mobile Sensor
September 2, 2021 By Leave a Comment
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BusinessWire: Samsung introduces the ISOCELL HP1, the industry’s first 200MP sensor with 0.64μm pixels. For low-light photography, the ISOCELL HP1 features a newly developed ChameleonCell technology, a pixel-binning that uses a two-by-two, four-by-four or full pixel layout depending on the environment. In a low-lit environment, the HP1 transforms into a 12.5MP image sensor with large 2.56μm pixels by merging 16 neighboring pixels. In bright outdoor environments, the sensor’s 200MP can capture high-definition photos on mobile devices.
The ISOCELL HP1 can take 8K videos at 30 fps with minimum loss in FoV. The HP1 merges four neighboring pixels to bring the resolution down to 50MP or 8,192 x 6,144 to take 8K (7,680 x 4,320) videos without the need to crop or scale down the full image resolution.
Samples of ISOCELL HP1 are currently available.
Samsung also publishes a video PR:
Samsung 108MP Sensor was Designed in India
September 1, 2021 By Leave a Comment
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GadgetsNow quotes Balajee Sowrirajan, MD of Samsung Semiconductor India Research (SSIR), saying that Samsung’s R&D center in Bengaluru, India, led the development of the mobile 108MP ISOCELL HMX sensor launched two years ago.“We did the entire product planning, details of the product, kind of image quality, performance in terms of frame rate, dark light performance, and power dissipation. Our team designed the specifications, did the hardware design, and then sent it to South Korea for manufacturing. It was then sent back to us to develop the software that runs on the product. It was an end-to-end effort.”
The key challenge is said to be the uniform power distribution across the sensor to get good sensor pixel characteristics and ensure uniform noise distribution. Time to market was also a huge challenge. The project was initiated in 2018 and needed to be completed by the end of 2019.
SSIR is the largest Samsung R&D center outside of South Korea, with over 2,700 employees. Other than image sensor design, the center develops mobile SOCs, TC chips, software, etc.
