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Sony reports its March 31-ended fiscal year results and updates on coronavirus impact:

• Now I will discuss the impact of the coronavirus on the I&SS segment.
• As of today, there has been no major impact from the coronavirus on our manufacturing facilities in Japan, which are operating as usual.
• Moreover, we understand that the factory operations and supply chains of our major mobile customers have been recovering.
• On the other hand, we believe that the decrease in shipments of our image sensors was relatively minor compared to the impact the coronavirus had on the manufacturing and sales of our mobile customers in the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2020, so there is a possibility that inventory in the supply chain of those customers has increased.
• In addition, we are monitoring how much the final outlet for our products, the smartphone market, may decelerate going forward.

Talking about the near future expectations, Sony states:

• Now I would like to discuss the current state of our I&SS business.
• Considering the deceleration of the smartphone market due to the impact of the coronavirus, there is a possibility that image sensor sales this fiscal year will be flat year-on-year.
• At this point in time, there is no change to our view that image sensors will drive improvements in the functionality of cameras, which are a major differentiating factor for smartphones, or our view as to the expansion of demand over the mid- to longterm. Thus, we have already decided to invest more than 80% of the cumulative capital expenditure we planned to make over the three years of our mid-range plan.
• However, given the uncertain operating environment, we will postpone as long as possible decisions regarding the remaining capital expenditures so we can make appropriate and timely decisions after gathering more market information.
• In addition, we will be disciplined in our prioritization of research and development spending, but we plan to maintain the current level of spending as we manage Sony for the mid- to long-term.

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IEEE JSSC publishes an open access paper "A 32 x 128 SPAD-257 TDC Receiver IC for Pulsed TOF Solid-State 3-D Imaging" by Sahba Jahromi, Jussi-Pekka Jansson, Pekka Keränen, and Juha Kostamovaara from University of Oulu, Finland.

"A single-chip receiver for pulsed laser direct time-of-flight 3-D imaging applications has been realized in a 0.35-μm HV CMOS technology. The chip includes a 32 x 128 single-photon avalanche diode (SPAD) array [35% fill factor (FF)] and 257 time-to-digital converters (TDCs) with a ~78-ps resolution. Two adjacent rows (2 x 128 SPADs) at a time can be selected for simultaneous measurement, i.e., 16 measurement cycles are needed to cover the whole array. SPADs are capable of operating in a gated mode in order to suppress dark and background light-induced detections. The IC was designed to be used in a solid-state 3-D imaging system with laser illumination concentrated in both time (short sub-ns pulses) and space (targeting only the active rows of the SPAD array). The performance of the receiver IC was characterized in a solid-state 3-D range imager with flood-pulsed illumination from a laser diode (LD)-based transmitter, which produced short [~150-ps full-width at half-maximum (FWHM)] high-energy (~3.8-nJ pulse/~14-W peak power) pulses at a pulsing rate of 250 kHz when operating at a wavelength of 810 nm. Two detector/TDC ICs formed an 8k pixel receiver, targeting a field-of-view of ~42° x 21° by means of simple optics. Frame rates of up to 20 fps were demonstrated with a centimeter-level precision in the case of Lambertian targets within a range of 3.5 m."

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Sony announces the upcoming release of two new SWIR image sensors for industrial equipment. The new sensors capture images in the visible and invisible spectrum and boast a compact size made possible by the industry's smallest 5μm pixel size.

The new products employ Sony's original SenSWIR technology, in which photodiodes are formed on an InGaAs compound layer and are connected via Cu-Cu connection with the Si layer which forms the readout circuit.

When bonding the InGaAs layer, which forms the light receiving photodiodes, and the Si layer, which forms the readout circuit, using conventional bump connections, it is necessary to secure a certain bump pitch, which makes it difficult to achieve a smaller pixel size compared to current industrial CMOS sensors. This had made miniaturization a serious challenge. The Sony's new products, however, feature a smaller pixel pitch made possible by the Cu-Cu connection, resulting in the industry's smallest 5μm pixel size. This, in turn, makes it possible to reduce camera size while maintaining SXGA (IMX990)/VGA (IMX991) resolution, contributing to improved testing precision.

Sony's original SWIR image sensor technology is used to make the top InP layer,*4 which absorbs visible light, thinner, making it possible to transmit light to the InGaAs layer underneath, delivering high quantum efficiency even in the visible range. This design enables imaging in a broad range of wavelengths from 0.4μm to 1.7μm, enabling the use of a single camera instead of the conventional multiple that were required to capture visible light and SWIR.

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Hitachi-LG posts another use case for its LiDAR - hand wash monitoring:

"A Hand Wash Monitoring Solution utilizes 3D LiDAR technology. It measures whether the washroom user washed their hands properly; washed for more than 20 seconds, used soap, and wiped their hands with a towel."

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Hitachi-LG posts another use case for its LiDAR - hand wash monitoring:

"A Hand Wash Monitoring Solution utilizes 3D LiDAR technology. It measures whether the washroom user washed their hands properly; washed for more than 20 seconds, used soap, and wiped their hands with a towel."

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Framos hosts a two-day online training on the EMVA 1288 standard on May 27-28. The speaker is Prof. Bernd Jähne from Heidelberg University, a member of the EMVA board.

At the end of the course, participants will have the option of taking a written examination to gain certification as an EMVA 1288 Expert. The certificate shows that the holder can successfully carry out measurements in accordance with EMVA 1288, and correctly interpret the results.

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Framos hosts a two-day online training on the EMVA 1288 standard on May 27-28. The speaker is Prof. Bernd Jähne from Heidelberg University, a member of the EMVA board.

At the end of the course, participants will have the option of taking a written examination to gain certification as an EMVA 1288 Expert. The certificate shows that the holder can successfully carry out measurements in accordance with EMVA 1288, and correctly interpret the results.

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BusinessWire: ON Semi reports Q1 results with some updates about its image sensor business:

"During the first quarter, we secured a major design win for ADAS image sensors with a Japanese OEM. This OEM is one of the largest automakers in the world. This win underscores our global leadership in ADAS image sensors, and highlights customer confidence in our technology in a highly safety critical application.

Our engagement with e-commerce customers is growing at a rapid pace, and we expect ecommerce related applications will be a strong driver of our industrial image sensor business. We believe that growth in our e-commerce related business will be driven by increasing e-commerce volumes, increasing warehouse automation, and adoption of delivery robots. Through our early engagement with industry leaders in e-commerce, we have built a strong design win pipeline for our CMOS image sensors for warehouse automation and delivery robots."

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Yole Developpement publishes an article "With the Apple iPad LiDAR chip, Sony landed on the moon without us knowing" by its Principal Analyst Pierre Cambou and Taha Ayari, Technology & Cost Analyst at System Plus Consulting.

"...once we studied the cross-section an all-new story unfolded. In front of us lies the first ever consumer CMOS Image Sensor (CIS) product with in-pixel connection – and, yes, it is a single photon avalanche diode (SPAD) array. There was a space race for this new generation of 3D sensing chip, but so far, everyone thought that the winner would be for ST Microelectronics, Yole Développement included.

ST Microelectronics seemed to have the lead in this domain, as it was already shipping millions of SPAD detectors. This was until Sony’s technology dominance entered the race. In three years’ time Sony’s process engineers realized what many thought impossible in other places. They brought to reality a product that will probably have long lasting consequences in the consumer world but also in industrial robotics, automotive, in short all sensing markets.

A year ago, when Sony renamed its semiconductor division “Imaging & Sensing”, the sensing part was limited to Industrial Machine Vision image sensors, which remained a high-end niche market. Then it made two separate moves. The first was the supply of iToF sensors to Huawei and Samsung, generating in the order of $300M in 2019. The second was this design win of dToF sensors for Apple iPads, which could eventually end up in iPhones. Sony’s sensing revenues will probably exceed $1B in 2020 out of a business just surpassing the $10B landmark. This successful transition from imaging to sensing has been instrumental to Sony’s continuous strength in the CIS market. It will be a building block for the prosperous future of the division.

In term of technology innovation, the LiDAR module of the new iPad Pro is as packed as the Apollo program’s pioneering Eagle lander. In a small footprint it is a complex optical module, holding the sensor, a Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Laser (VCSEL) and a VCSEL driver.

The Sony’s 30K resolution, 10µm pixel size sensor is indeed using dToF technology with a SPAD array. The in-pixel connection is realized between the CIS and the logic wafer with hybrid bonding Direct Bonding Interconnect technology, which is the first time Sony is using 3D stacking for its ToF sensors. Deep trench isolation, trenches filled with metal, completely isolate the pixels."

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Lucid Vision Labs publishes a video "Time-of-Flight Design Tips: Tips to Boost 3D Performance and Cut Integration Time & Cost." The company's camera is based on Sony DepthSense iToF sensor IMX556 with VGA resolution and 10um pixels:

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