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 APL Photonics paper "An optical chip for self-testing quantum random number generation" by  Nicolò Leone,  Davide Rusca,  Stefano Azzini,  Giorgio Fontana,  Fabio Acerbi,  Alberto Gola,  Alessandro Tontini, Nicola Massari,  Hugo Zbinden, and  Lorenzo Pavesi from University of Trento, FBK, and University of Geneva describes how photon shot noise-based RNG is built:

"We present an implementation of a semi-device-independent protocol of the generation of quantum random numbers in a fully integrated silicon chip. The system is based on a prepare-and-measure scheme, where we integrate a partially trusted source of photons and an untrusted single photon detector. The source is a silicon photomultiplier, which emits photons during the avalanche impact ionization process, while the detector is a single photon avalanche diode. The proposed protocol requires only a few and reasonable assumptions on the generated states. It is sufficient to measure the statistics of generation and detection in order to evaluate the min-entropy of the output sequence, conditioned on all possible classical side information. We demonstrate that this protocol, previously realized with a bulky laboratory setup, is totally applicable to a compact and fully integrated chip with an estimated throughput of 6 kHz of the certified quantum random bit rate."

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 MDPI paper "How Good Are RGB Cameras Retrieving Colors of Natural Scenes and Paintings?—A Study Based on Hyperspectral Imaging" by João M. M. Linhares, José A. R. Monteiro, Ana Bailão, Liliana Cardeira, Taisei Kondo, Shigeki Nakauchi, Marcello Picollo, Costanza Cucci, Andrea Casini, Lorenzo Stefani, and Sérgio Miguel Cardoso Nascimento from University of Minho, University of Lisbon, Portuguese Catholic University (Portugal), Toyohashi University of Technology (Japan), and Istituto di Fisica Applicata “Nello Carrara” del Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (Italy), describes an interesting experiment:

"RGB digital cameras (RGB) compress the spectral information into a trichromatic system capable of approximately representing the actual colors of objects. Although RGB digital cameras follow the same compression philosophy as the human eye (OBS), the spectral sensitivity is different. To what extent they provide the same chromatic experiences is still an open question, especially with complex images. We addressed this question by comparing the actual colors derived from spectral imaging with those obtained with RGB cameras. The data from hyperspectral imaging of 50 natural scenes and 89 paintings was used to estimate the chromatic differences between OBS and RGB. The corresponding color errors were estimated and analyzed in the color spaces CIELAB (using the color difference formulas ΔE*ab and CIEDE2000), Jzazbz, and iCAM06. In CIELAB the most frequent error (using ΔE*ab) found was 5 for both paintings and natural scenes, a similarity that held for the other spaces tested. In addition, the distribution of errors across the color space shows that the errors are small in the achromatic region and increase with saturation. Overall, the results indicate that the chromatic errors estimated are close to the acceptance error and therefore RGB digital cameras are able to produce quite realistic colors of complex scenarios."

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 IEEE JSSC publishes an open-access paper "Large-Area, Fast-Gated Digital SiPM With Integrated TDC for Portable and Wearable Time-Domain NIRS" by Enrico Conca, Vincenzo Sesta, Mauro Buttafava, Federica Villa, Laura Di Sieno, Alberto Dalla Mora, Davide Contini, Paola Taroni, Alessandro Torricelli, Antonio Pifferi, Franco Zappa , and Alberto Tosi from Politecnico di Milano.

"We present the design and characterization of a large-area, fast-gated, all-digital single-photon detector with programmable active area, internal gate generator, and time-to-digital converter (TDC) with a built-in histogram builder circuit, suitable for performing high-sensitivity time-domain near-infrared spectroscopy (TD-NIRS) measurements when coupled with pulsed laser sources. We used a novel low-power differential sensing technique that optimizes area occupation. The photodetector is a time-gated digital silicon photomultiplier (dSiPM) with an 8.6-mm 2 photosensitive area, 37% fill-factor, and ~300 ps (20%–80%) gate rising edge, based on low-noise single-photon avalanche diodes (SPADs) and fabricated in 0.35- μm CMOS technology. The built-in TDC with a histogram builder has a least-significant-bit (LSB) of 78 ps and 128 time-bins, and the integrated circuit can be interfaced directly with a low-cost microcontroller with a serial interface for programming and readout. Experimental characterization demonstrated a temporal response as good as 300-ps full-width at half-maximum (FWHM) and a dynamic range >100 dB (thanks to the programmable active area size). This microelectronic detector paves the way for a miniaturized, stand-alone, multi-wavelength TD-NIRS system with an unprecedented level of integration and responsivity, suitable for portable and wearable systems."

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Korea IT News: SK Hynix introduces its TOF image sensor at “SEDEX 2020” exhibition this week. Its sensor has 10µm BSI pixels and QVGA resolution in 1/4.5-inch format. The sensor is still in development and its release date has not been disclosed.

SK Hynix TOF sensor is a part of its plan to grow its image sensor business. The company opened a R&D center in Japan last year that primarily focuses on image sensor technology. It also reorganized its lineup of image sensors for smartphone cameras this year. It supplies sensors with increased pixel numbers and smaller pixel size to major smartphone manufacturers. It is currently working on sensors with high pixel numbers such as 48MP and 64MP sensors.

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 SK Hynix Head of CIS ISP Taehyun (Ted) Kim publishes a post "The Visual Evolution & Innovation of Image Sensors." Few quotes:

"...this trend for high pixels in CIS is expected to face technical difficulties soon, and the innovation for a high level of functions centered on the ISP will be in full swing.

This is due to the limits of miniaturization of CIS pixels due to the diffraction limit. It is possible to reduce the critical dimension of electric circuits to several nanometers with the current semiconductor technology; however, since the light reception amount decreases as the pixel size decreases, the sensitivity and the signal level is reduced, resulting in the decline in SNR and the image quality degradation.

Currently, SK hynix’s CIS has built-in image processing functions such as phase detection auto focus (PDAF), Quad pixel processing, and high dynamic range (HDR) processing, and new functions are constantly being added to it.

Currently, SK hynix’s CIS, mainly the Black Pearl product line, is widely used in smartphone cameras and the application field is expected to expand to various fields such as bio, security, and autonomous vehicles.

In the future, CIS is expected to evolve into an information sensor that supports advanced additional functions, without being limited to image quality improvement. SK hynix’s stack sensor is already capable of embedding a simple AI hardware engine inside the ISP on the lower substrate, based on the advanced semiconductor process. Based on this, SK hynix is currently developing new machine learning-based technologies such as super resolution, color restoration, face recognition, and object recognition."

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OSA Optics Express paper "Snapshot multispectral imaging using a pixel-wise polarization color image sensor" by Shuji Ono, Fujifilm, uses polarization to separate multispectral filter bands:

"This study proposes a new imaging technique for snapshot multispectral imaging in which a multispectral image was captured using an imaging lens that combines a set of multiple spectral filters and polarization filters, as well as a pixel-wise color polarization image sensor. The author produced a prototype nine-band multispectral camera system that covered from visible to near-infrared regions and was very compact. The camera’s spectral performance was evaluated using experiments; moreover, the camera was used to detect the freshness of food and the activity of wild plants and was mounted on a vehicle to obtain a multispectral video while driving."

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Sensing and Imaging An International Journal publishes a paper "On Wide Dynamic Range Tone Mapping CMOS Image Sensor" by Waqas Mughal and Bhaskar Choubey from University of Southampton, UK, and Universitat Siegen, Germany.

"The dynamic range of a natural scene often covers over 6 decades of intensity from bright to dark areas. Typical image sensors, however, have limited ability to capture this dynamic range available in nature. Even after designing specific wide dynamic range (WDR) image sensors, displaying them on conventional media with limited ability requires computationally complex tone mapping. This paper proposed a novel CMOS pixel which can capture and perform tone mapping during data acquisition. The pixel requires a reference voltage to generate tone mapped response. A number of different reference signals are proposed and generated which can perform WDR operation. Nevertheless, fixed pattern noise (FPN) effects the performance of these pixel. A pixel model with simple parameter extraction procedure is described for a typical tone mapping operator. This model is then used to obtain a simple procedure for pixel calibration leading to reduced FPN. The new proposed pixel response is able to capture upto 6 decades of light intensity and reported FPN correction procedure produces 1% of FPN contrast error."

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NikkeiAsia: "I believe the next megatrend [after mobile phones] will be mobility," said Sony Chairman and President Kenichiro Yoshida as he unveiled the Vision-S concept car at the CES tech show in the U.S. in January.

The Vision-S will have 33 sensors, including image sensors, a Sony specialty. Izumi Kawanishi, Sony's SVP who is shepherding development of the car, said the sensors "give passengers and pedestrians a sense of security thanks to the 360-degree vision it provides."

NikkeiAsia says that Sony controls about 70% of the global market for the image sensors used in smartphone cameras, but its share for automotive image sensors is only 9%. The Vision-S is an exploratory effort by the company as it taps into a market led by ON Semi. According to NikkeiAsia, ON Semi has been producing automotive image sensors for over 50 years (since 1970?) and controls 45% of the market.

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Nikkei reports that Sony and Omnivision have been granted licenses by the U.S. government to resume some shipments to China's Huawei.

"What we learned was that some... image sensor related suppliers are receiving some licenses from the U.S. government as those components are viewed as less related to cybersecurity concerns, and Sony is among those who received approval," an unnamed chip industry executive told Nikkei Asia.

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 Light Co. announces its automotive 3D depth Clarity platform:

"Lidars do a great job, but they don’t do the whole job. Their range is often limited to ~250 meters. Class 8 trucks need at least 400+ meters to come to a complete stop, safely. Lidar as well as monocular camera-based systems can get confused as to whether they’re seeing a person painted on the side of a truck or an actual person.

Clarity is a camera-based perception platform that’s able to see any 3D structures in the road from 10 centimeters to 1000 meters away — three times the distance of the best-in-class lidar with 20 times the detail."

“There is nothing else like the Clarity platform with its combination of depth range, accuracy, and density per second. It enables a new generation of vehicles that can be made safer, without having to compromise on cost, quality, or reliability,” said Prashant Velagaleti, Chief Product Officer of Light. “Rather than only minimizing the severity of a collision, having high fidelity depth allows any vehicle powered by Clarity to make decisions that can avoid accidents, keeping occupants safe as well as comfortable.” 

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 AWE publishes a panel discussion "AWE Nite NYC: Will the iPhone LiDAR Change AR Forever? With Snap, Niantic, Occipital."

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BusinessWire: Infineon and pmdtechnologies developed a 3D ToF sensor which is claimed to outperform other solutions in the market and aims for a wider spectrum of consumer applications. The 3D sensor market in smartphones for rear side cameras is expected to grow up to more than 500M units per year until 2024.

“The latest 3D image sensor from Infineon and pmdtechnologies enables a new generation of applications”, says Philipp von Schierstaedt, SVP Infineon. “It aims to create most immersive and smarter AR experiences as well as better photography results with a faster autofocus in low-light conditions or more beautiful night mode portraits based on picture segmentation. This latest chip development is truly setting standards when it comes to improvements of the imager, the driver and processing as well as unprecedented ten meters long range capabilities at lowest power.”

The new chip allows the integration into miniaturized camera modules, accurately measuring depth in short and long range for AR while meeting low power consumption requirements with more than 40% power saving on the imager.

Furthermore seamless augmented reality sensing experiences are being achieved, allowing for high quality 3D depth data capture up to a distance of 10m (at reduced resolution), without losing resolution in the shorter range. Always-on applications such as mobile AR gaming can greatly benefit from the small power budget required by the new sensor. For applications such as the 3D scanning for room and object reconstruction or 3D mapping for furniture planning and other design applications the sensor allows to double the measuring range beyond the current solution in the market.

The volume delivery for this chip starts in Q2 2021, demo kits are already available. The recorded livestream from the official press event is available here: https://livestream.com/infineontechnologies/real3

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GlobeNewswire: STMicroelectronics extends its portfolio of FlightSense ToF sensors with a 64-zone device. This first-of-its-kind product comprises a 940nm VCSEL light source, a SoC sensor integrating a VCSEL driver, the receiving array of SPADs, and a low-power 32-bit MCU core and accelerator running firmware. The VL53L5 retains the Class 1 certification of all ST’s FlightSense sensors and is fully eye-safe for consumer products.

“The multi-zone VL53L5 FlightSense direct Time-of-Flight sensor uses our most advanced 40nm SPAD production process to offer outstanding 4m ranging performance and up to 64 ranging zones that help an imaging system build a detailed spatial understanding of the scene,” said Eric Aussedat, GM of ST’s Imaging Division. “Delivering 64x more ranging zones than previously available, the VL53L5 offers radical performance improvement in laser autofocus, touch-to-focus, presence detection, and gesture interfaces while helping developers create even more innovative imaging applications.”

With a vertically integrated manufacturing model for its FlightSense sensors, ST builds its SPAD wafers on a 40nm proprietary silicon process in the Company’s 12” wafer plant at Crolles, France before assembling all of the module components in ST’s back-end plants in Asia. This approach delivers exceptional quality and reliability to customers.

Packaged in a 6.4 x 3.0 x 1.5 mm module, the VL53L5 integrates both transmit and receive lenses into the module design and expands the FoV of the module to 61-degrees diagonal. This wide FoV is especially suited to detect off-center objects and ensure perfect autofocus in the corners of the image. In the ‘Laser Autofocus’ use case, the VL53L5 gathers ranging data from up-to 64 zones across the full FoV to support “Touch to Focus” and many other features.

Further flexibility is available via the SPAD array, which can be set to favor spatial resolution, where it outputs all 64 zones at up to 15fps, or to favor maximum ranging distance, where the sensor outputs 4×4/16 zones at a frame rate of 60fps.

ST’s architecture can automatically calibrate each ranging zone and direct Time-of-Flight technology allows each zone to detect multiple targets and reject reflection from the cover-glass. 

Customer development with the VL53L5 can build on ST’s strong relationships with key smartphone and PC platform suppliers as ST has pre-integrated the sensor onto these platforms. The VL53L5 is in mass production with millions of units already shipped to leading wireless and computer manufacturers.

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