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SystemPlus has published few interesting reverse engineering reports. "Denso’s Monocular Forward ADAS Camera in the Toyota Alphard" reveals Sony 1.27 automotive sensor with improved night vision:

"The monocular camera, manufactured by Denso in Japan, is 25% smaller and uses 30% less components and parts than the previous model. Also, for the first time in an automotive camera, we have found a Sony CMOS image sensor. This 1.27M-pixel sensor offers higher sensitivity to the near-infrared sensor, and the low-light use-designed lens housing improves the camera’s night-time identification of other road users and road signs. Regarding processing, the chipset is composed of a Sony image signal processor, a Toshiba image recognition processor, and a Renesas MCU."


"Triple Forward Camera from Tesla Model 3" "captures front images over up to 250 meters that are used by the Tesla Model 3 Driver Assist Autopilot Control Module Unit. The system integrates a serializer but no computing.

Tesla chose dated but well known and reliable components with limited bandwidth, speed and dynamic range. This is probably due to the limited computing performance of the downstream Full Self-Driving chipset. This three-cameras setup is therefore very far from the robotic autonomous vehicle (AV) technology used on Waymo and GM Cruise vehicles. The level of autonomy Tesla will achieve with this kind of hardware is the trillion-dollar question you will be able to assess with this report.

We assume this system is manufactured in the USA. It is an acquisition module without treatment using three cameras, narrow, main and wide, with 3 CMOS Image Sensors with 1280×960 1.2Mp resolution."


"Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ 3D Time of Flight Depth Sensing Camera Module" "is using the latest generation of Sony Depth sensing Solutions’ Time-of-Flight (ToF) camera, which is unveiled in this report.

It includes a backside illumination (BSI) Time of Flight Image Sensor array featuring 5µm size pixels and 323 kilopixel VGA resolution developed by Sony Depth sensing Solutions. It has one VCSEL for the flood illuminator coming from a major supplier.

The complete system features a main red/green/blue camera, a Telephoto, a Wide-angle Camera Module and a 3D Time of Flight Camera."

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PRNewswire: Camtek has received orders for 34 systems for 2D inspection of CMOS sensors from five leading manufacturers, of which 25 are from two customers. Most of the orders are expected to be installed during the first half of 2020.

Ramy Langer, COO, comments, "Our longstanding expertise in inspection technologies designed specifically for the CMOS image sensors market, makes the EagleT and EagleT Plus the ultimate inspection tools for this market."

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Optics.org: Science Magazine paper "Picosecond-resolution phase-sensitive imaging of transparent objects in a single shot" by Taewoo Kim, Jinyang Liang, Liren Zhu, and Lihong V. Wang from Caltech says that fast frame speed is needed to study some biology processes:

"As signals travel through neurons, there is a minute dilation of nerve fibers that we hope to see. If we have a network of neurons, maybe we can see their communication in real time," Professor of Medical Engineering and Electrical Engineering Lihong Wang says.

"Here, we present phase-sensitive compressed ultrafast photography (pCUP) for single-shot real-time ultrafast imaging of transparent objects by combining the contrast of dark-field imaging with the speed and the sequence depth of CUP. By imaging the optical Kerr effect and shock wave propagation, we demonstrate that pCUP can image light-speed phase signals in a single shot with up to 350 frames captured at up to 1 trillion frames per second. We expect pCUP to be broadly used for a vast range of fundamental and applied sciences."

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Smartphone folded-zoom lens and multi-camera solutions developer Corephotonics acquired by Samsung a year ago, announces its first product since the acquisition - Roadrunner automotive camera:


Thanks to AB for the pointer!

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IFNews quotes Laoyaoba interview with Omnivision's SVP of Global Sales Wu Xiaodong giving a lot of interesting info about the company plans:

• Omnivision's 64MP high-end smartphone sensor is expected to enter mass production soon this year
• Although in terms of global market share Omnivision ranks third with 12.4%, it scores first with 48% share in security, second with 30% share in autonomous vehicles, first with 50% in computing, first with 48% in emerging businesses such as IoT, and first with 81% share on medical CIS market
• From 2018 to 2019, the overall CIS market size grew at AAGR of 20%. After 2020, AAGR is expected to go down to 10%.
• In the end of August 2019, Will Semi has completed the acquisition of Omnivision and Superpix and officially renamed them to Omnivision Group
• Omnivision Group currently has more than 2,000 customers, with annual chip shipments exceeding 13 billion.
• Omnivision has R&D centers in the US, Japan, Europe, China, and Singapore.
• So far, Omnivision employs a total of 1,300 engineers and has more than 4,000 patents.
• Omnivision Group cooperates with TSMC, SMIC, Huali (HLMC), Dongfang (DDF), and other foundries.

"In the past, our gap [with Sony and Samsung has been,] may be, about one year. Last year, we were half a year behind, and our goal is to achieve new products to be leveled this year, and to achieve a lead next year," says Wu Xiaodong.

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As mentioned in comments, Sweden-based IRNova publishes an application note "Polarimetric QWIP infrared imaging sensor" talking about its Garm LW Pol camera.

"Quantum well infrared photodetectors (QWIP) are by design inherently suited for polarization sensitive imaging. The detection principle in regular QWIPs relies on etched 2-D gratings to couple the light to the quantum wells for absorption. By replacing the 2D gratings with 1D (lamellar) gratings polarization sensitivity is added to the thermal detection.

Thermal imaging is a great way to detect objects, but it requires the objects to be of different temperature or to have different emissivity than the background. Polarization detection further extends the possibility to differentiate between objects that have the same temperature but consist of different materials, since infrared polarized light can be generated by reflection or emission of radiation from planar surfaces. This allows for detecting objects that are previously undetectable by an infrared detector since they may be covered under a canvas or they may have a low thermal signature like an UAV."

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EETimes publishes Junko Yoshida's interview with Luka Verre, Prophesee CEO. Few quotes:

"The commercial product we have is a VGA sensor. It’s in mass production. We are currently deploying shipping for industrial applications.

We have a new sensor generation, which is an HD sensor, so one million pixels, 720p. This is the result of joint cooperation we have done with Sony, which will be published at ISEC [ISSCC, probably] in February in San Francisco.

There has been some research work done together with Sony. Yes, Sony is indeed interested in event-based technology, but unfortunately I cannot tell you more than that. One of the main challenges we have been solving, moving from the VGA sensor to the HD sensor is the capability now to stack the sensor, to use a very advanced technology node that enables us to reduce the pixel pitch. So to make actually the sensor much smaller and cost-effective.

Automotive remains one of the key verticals we are targeting, because our technology, event-based technology, shows clear benefit in that space with respect to low latency detection, low data rate and high dynamic range.

...we did some tests in some controlled environments with one of the largest OEMs in Europe, and we compared side by side the frame-based sensor with an event-based sensor, showing that, while the frame-based camera system was failing evening in fusion with a radar system, our system was actually capable to detect pedestrians in both daylight conditions and night light conditions."


iniVation wins Best of Innovation award from the CES 2020 in the category ‘Embedded Vision’.



The award is for the company's newest product, the DVXplorer that uses an all-new custom-designed sensor from Samsung. DVXplorer is said to be the world’s first neuromorphic camera employing technologies suitable for mass-production applications.

Thanks to TL for the link!


Samsung's Hyunsurk Eric Ryu presented their event driven pixels at the 2nd International Workshop on Event-based Vision and Smart Cameras:

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New Imaging Technologies (NIT) is announces its first commercially available SWIR InGaAs sensor with a pitch of 7.5µm, resulting from several years of R&D development of an in-house hybridization process. This process does not use the classical indium bumps and allows manufacturing hybrid sensors with very small pitches with high yield at a reduced cost.

The first available component at 7.5µm pitch is a line array with the following characteristics:

• Pixel Number: 2048
• Pitch: 7.5µm
• Line speed: 60KHz @ full line
• Well Fill: 25 Ke-
• Readout Noise: less than 70e-
• Dark Current: 8 fA @ 15°C

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Inavate: Omron is to demo its second-generation digital signage body and face detection/face recognition system. The Human Vision Component HVC-P2 with OKAO Vision software features ten image sensing functions including body detection, face recognition, hand detection, age estimation, gender estimation, and expression estimation. The OKAO software can recognize faces up to 3m away and can detect a human body up to 17m away.

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Sony publishes a video presenting its safety cocoon devices:

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FLIR (former Point Grey) publishes an 2020 version of its Periodic Table of Image Sensors:

"Updated for 2020 - now with over 130 machine vision sensors, incluing third generation Sony Pregius and fourth generation Sony Pregius S global shutter sensors.

With so many sensors to choose from, we understand that it could be tricky to keep track of them. This handy chart organizes over 130 sensors from classic CCDs to the latest CMOS technology by resolution and speed. We suggest printing off this free poster and laminating it, then pinning it up on your wall for easy reference."


Thanks to TL for the link!

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Optics Express paper "3D LIDAR imaging using Ge-on-Si single–photon avalanche diode detectors" by Kateryna Kuzmenko, Peter Vines, Abderrahim Halimi, Robert J. Collins, Aurora Maccarone, Aongus McCarthy, Zoë M. Greener, Jarosław Kirdoda, Derek C. S. Dumas, Lourdes Ferre Llin, Muhammad M. Mirza, Ross W. Millar, Douglas J. Paul, and Gerald S. Buller from Heriot-Watt and Edinburgh Universities, UK, presents a concept design of LiDAR with a SPAD detector cooled down to 100K:

"We present a scanning light detection and ranging (LIDAR) system incorporating an individual Ge-on-Si single-photon avalanche diode (SPAD) detector for depth and intensity imaging in the short-wavelength infrared region. The time-correlated single-photon counting technique was used to determine the return photon time-of-flight for target depth information. In laboratory demonstrations, depth and intensity reconstructions were made of targets at short range, using advanced image processing algorithms tailored for the analysis of single–photon time-of-flight data. These laboratory measurements were used to predict the performance of the single-photon LIDAR system at longer ranges, providing estimations that sub-milliwatt average power levels would be required for kilometer range depth measurements.

... recently, the use of planar geometry devices [39] yielded a significant step change improvement in performance. Vines et al. [39] reported a normal incidence planar geometry Ge-on-Si SPADs with 38% SPDE at 125 K at a wavelength of 1310 nm and a noise–equivalent power (NEP) of 2 × 10−16 WHz-1/2. In addition, these devices clearly demonstrated lower levels of afterpulsing compared with InGaAs/InP SPAD detectors operated under nominally identical conditions. The high SPDEs of Ge-on-Si SPADs and their reduced afterpulsing compared to InGaAs/InP SPADs provides the potential for significantly higher count rate operation and, consequently, reduced data acquisition times. Planar Ge-on-Si SPADs exhibit compatibility with Si CMOS processing, potentially leading to the development of inexpensive, highly efficient Ge-on-Si SPAD detector arrays. Here we report a successful demonstration of LIDAR 3D imaging using an individual planar Ge-on-Si SPAD operating at a wavelength of 1450 nm."

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PRNewswire: OmniVision and Artilux announce their execution of a formal letter of intent to collaborate on GeSi-based 3D sensors, after a series of evaluation and analysis. The main objective of this collaboration is to combine OmniVision's CMOS imaging technology and market position with Artilux's GeSi 3D sensing technology, and accelerate the delivery of comprehensive RGB and 3D imaging solutions to the mobile phone segment.

The new product offerings will not only cover the mainstream light sensing spectrum from visible light to 850nm/940nm, but will further extend to 1350nm/1550nm, for improved outdoor experience and eye safety for multiple growing digital imaging market segments.

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SET NEO HB hybrid/direct bonding machine claims +/-1um 3-sigma alignment accuracy:

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MDPI paper "A Stacked Back Side-Illuminated Voltage Domain Global Shutter CMOS Image Sensor with a 4.0 μm Multiple Gain Readout Pixel" by Ken Miyauchi, Kazuya Mori, Toshinori Otaka, Toshiyuki Isozaki, Naoto Yasuda, Alex Tsai, Yusuke Sawai, Hideki Owada, Isao Takayanagi, and Junichi Nakamura from Brillnics is a part of the Special issue on the 2019 International Image Sensor Workshop (IISW2019).

"A backside-illuminated complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) image sensor with 4.0 μm voltage domain global shutter (GS) pixels has been fabricated in a 45 nm/65 nm stacked CMOS process as a proof-of-concept vehicle. The pixel components for the photon-to-voltage conversion are formed on the top substrate (the first layer). Each voltage signal from the first layer pixel is stored in the sample-and-hold capacitors on the bottom substrate (the second layer) via micro-bump interconnection to achieve a voltage domain GS function. The two sets of voltage domain storage capacitor per pixel enable a multiple gain readout to realize single exposure high dynamic range (SEHDR) in the GS operation. As a result, an 80dB SEHDR GS operation without rolling shutter distortions and motion artifacts has been achieved. Additionally, less than −140dB parasitic light sensitivity, small noise floor, high sensitivity and good angular response have been achieved."

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Teledyne e2v announces its new Emerald 36M, a 37.7MP sensor for industrial and outdoor applications requiring both high resolution and high speed.

Emerald 36M combines 6k square resolution, high frame rate, low noise, high QE, and wide angular response. The sensor is available in an ultra-high speed and a high-speed versions, respectively providing 86fps and 43fps at full resolution.

The sensor fits standard Four Thirds optics, and is said to be the world’s highest resolution global shutter sensor to fit these lenses. Emerald 36M is pin-to-pin and optically compatible with Emerald 67M, so that multiple resolutions and speed grades are possible from a single camera design.

Marie-Charlotte Leclerc, Marketing Manager at Teledyne e2v said, “We are delighted to release the Emerald 36M. The sensor is already gathering interest from vision system designers looking forward to improved accuracy and throughput with optimized inspection system paths. And beyond the factory floor, Emerald 36M enables surveillance over wider fields of view and provides higher autonomy for aerial mapping and security solutions.”

Evaluation kits and samples of Emerald 36M are available now.

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Nature paper "Surface plasmon enhanced Organic color image sensor with Ag nanoparticles coated with silicon oxynitride" by Sung Heo, Jooho lee, Gae Hwang Lee, Chul-Joon Heo, Seong Heon Kim, Dong-Jin Yun, Jong-Bong Park, Kihong Kim, Yongsung Kim, Dongwook Lee, Gyeong-Su Park, Hoon Young Cho, Taeho Shin, Sung Young Yun, Sunghan Kim, Yong Wan Jin, and Kyung-Bae Park from Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology, Dongguk University, Yonsei University, Seoul National University, and Chonbuk National University shows Samsung efforts to improve OPD pixels:

"As organic photodetectors with less than 1 μm pixel size are in demand, a new way of enhancing the sensitivity of the photodetectors is required to compensate for its degradation due to the reduction in pixel size. Here, we used Ag nanoparticles coated with SiOxNy as a light-absorbing layer to realize the scale-down of the pixel size without the loss of sensitivity. The surface plasmon resonance appeared at the interface between Ag nanoparticles and SiOxNy. The plasmon resonance endowed the organic photodetector with boosted photon absorption and external quantum efficiency. As the Ag nanoparticles with SiOxNy are easily deposited on ITO/SiO2, it can be adapted into various organic color image sensors. The plasmon-supported organic photodetector is a promising solution for realizing color image sensors with high resolution below 1 μm."


"In summary,... Although the effective area for receiving the incident photon is expected to decrease with the scaling-down of the pixels, the introduction of the SPR in OCIS counters the problem without losing the spatial resolution. With further systematic research conducted on the pattern and size of Ag NPs, the SPR is likely to be the sole solution for realizing OCISs with high resolution below 1 μm."

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LIGO interferometer for gravitational waves observations announces that it uses squeezed light to improve the measurement accuracy:

"The Heisenberg uncertainty principle states that we can't know both the position and the velocity of a quantum particle perfectly--the better we know the position, the worse we know the velocity, and vice versa. For light waves, the Heisenberg principle tells us that there are unavoidable uncertainties in amplitude and phase that are connected in a similar way. One of the stranger consequences of quantum theory is that there must be fluctuating electric and magnetic fields, even in a total vacuum. In a normal vacuum state, these "zero-point" fluctuations are completely random and the total uncertainty is distributed equally between the amplitude and the phase. However, by using a crystal with non-linear optical properties, it is possible to prepare a special state of light where most of the uncertainty is concentrated in only one of the two variables. Such a crystal can convert normal vacuum to "squeezed vacuum", which has phase fluctuations SMALLER than normal vacuum! At the same time, the amplitude fluctuations are larger, but phase noise is what really matters for LIGO."

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National Chiao Tung University, Taiwan paper "Photon-Detection-Probability Simulation Method for CMOS Single-Photon Avalanche Diodes" by Chin-An Hsieh, Chia-Ming Tsai, Bing-Yue Tsui, Bo-Jen Hsiao, and Sheng-Di Lin is a part of MPDI Special issue on the 2019 International Image Sensor Workshop (IISW2019).

"Single-photon avalanche diodes (SPADs) in complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) technology have excellent timing resolution and are capable to detect single photons. The most important indicator for its sensitivity, photon-detection probability (PDP), defines the probability of a successful detection for a single incident photon. To optimize PDP is a cost- and time-consuming task due to the complicated and expensive CMOS process. In this work, we have developed a simulation procedure to predict the PDP without any fitting parameter. With the given process parameters, our method combines the process, the electrical, and the optical simulations in commercially available software and the calculation of breakdown trigger probability. The simulation results have been compared with the experimental data conducted in an 800-nm CMOS technology and obtained a good consistence at the wavelength longer than 600 nm. The possible reasons for the disagreement at the short wavelength have been discussed. Our work provides an effective way to optimize the PDP of a SPAD prior to its fabrication."

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The Starlight H-Series sensor announcement has been removed at SmartSens request.

PRNewswire: SmartSens SC132GS sensor has been selected as the winner of the "IoT Semiconductor Solution of the Year" award in the 4th annual IoT Breakthrough Awards program from IoT Breakthrough, a market intelligence organization.

"We expect to see the SmartSens SC132GS perform outstandingly in fields such as IoT that demand high efficiency and efficacy," said Chris Yiu, CMO, SmartSens. "IoT solutions, ITS, machine vision for manufacturing automation, and intelligent security and surveillance are just a few examples of these fields. SmartSens is confident that as AI and 5G technologies mature, more applications will arise which the SC132GS and subsequent products from SmartSens will be able to handle in stride. We are proud to receive this significant industry recognition from IoT Breakthrough in recognition of our innovation and success."

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A full collection of papers from 4th International Workshop on Image Sensor and Systems (IWISS2018) held in November 2018 at Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan, is published on-line at International Image Sensor Society site.

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Espros publishes a demo video of its ToF camera performance with sunlight in the frame:

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1University of Oulu, Finland, publishes PhD Thesis "Time-gating technique for a single-photon detection-based solid-state time-of-flight 3D range imager" by Henna Ruokamo.

"This thesis is concerned with the development of a solid-state 3D range imager based on use of the sliding time-gate technique in a SPAD array and short (~200 ps), intensive laser pulses. The area of the in-pixel electronics needed in time-gated imagers is small, which leads to a high fill factor and a possibility for implementing large arrays. The use of short laser pulses increases the precision and frame rate, since depth measurement can be limited to the range of interest, e.g. around the surface of the target. To increase the frame rate further, the array can be divided into subarrays with independently defined ranges. Tolerance of high background light is achieved by using sub-ns time-gate widths.

A SPAD array of 80 x 25 pixels is developed and realized here. The array is divided into 40 subarrays, the narrow (less than 0.8 ns) time-gating positions for which can be set independently. The time-gating for each of the subarrays is selected separately with an on-chip DLL block that has 240 outputs and a delay grid of ~100 ps. The fill factor of the sensor area is 32%. A 3D range image measurement at ~10 frames per second with centimetre-level precision is demonstrated for the case of passive targets within a range of ~4 metres and a field of view of 18 × 28 degrees, requiring an average active illumination power of only 0.1 mW. A frame rate of 70 range images per second was achieved with a higher laser average illumination power (~5 mW) and pulsing rate (700 kHz) when limiting the scanning range for each subarray to 30 cm around the surfaces of the targets.

An FPGA-based algorithm which controls the time-gating of the SPAD array and produces the range images in real time was also developed and realized.

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China-based startup Opnous publishes a presentation on its ToF products, reportedly licensed from Brookman and Shizuoka University.

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SK Telecom announces ‘Next-Generation Single Photon LiDAR’ developed with Pioneer Smart Sensing Innovations Corporation (PSSI). SK Telcom and PSSI entered into a joint development agreement in September 2019 to develop a next-generation single photon LiDAR and have been actively working together since to commercialize the new LiDAR by 2021. The LiDAR combines SK Telecom's 1550nm SPAD with Pioneer's 2D MEMS scanning mirror.

SK Telecom’s single photon LiDAR transceiver technologies consist of 1550 nm laser, SPAD, and Time-Correlated Single Photon Counting (TCSPC). 1550 nm laser, much stronger than 905 nm laser, is said to enable extended detection of objects at a distance of up to 500m.

Rather than a linear-mode APD, SK Telecom uses SPAD to ensure higher sensitivity to light. With SPAD, Next-Generation Single Photon LiDAR can accurately detect low-reflectivity objects like tires or pedestrians dressed in black.


Pioneer adds that Canon too is a part of this joint 500m-range LiDAR project with SK Telecom:

"Together with Canon Inc. (“Canon,” hereafter), PSSI is engaged in co-development of 3D-LiDAR sensors, which are regarded as an indispensable key device for the realization of autonomous driving in level-three and above autonomous vehicles (conditional automation).., which utilizes Micro Electric Memory Systems (MEMS) mirror-based scanning method and Canon’s optical technologies... The newly developed next-generation 3D-LiDAR sensor is a 1550nm wavelength sensor model which—although based on the same core technologies developed by PSSI and Canon—offers a greatly extended measurement distance made possible by the addition of transceiver (transmitter / receiver) technologies developed by SK Telecom Co., Ltd. (“SK Telecom,” hereafter) of South Korea. The new sensor is capable of high resolution and measurement at long distance of 500m."


EIN Newsdesk: Hyperspectral LiDAR startup Outsight just got a first customer. After an international competition, the Paris airport group (ADP) has chosen Outsight's "3D Smart Monitoring" system to be used in two areas of Paris-Charles de Gaulle airport in the international Terminal 2E, including the baggage claim zone. One of the key elements of this technology is the Edge Privacy feature: the video stream doesn't leave the sensors. Because the calculations on the images are created on the device itself, it is completely autonomous in the analysis of the data captured, thus avoiding the transit of sensitive data via the networks.

Raul Bravo, President and Co-Founder of Outsight, says: "This first deployment at Paris Charles-de-Gaulle Airport, just a few months after the company's creation, demonstrates the relevance of our 3D perception approach in the context of improved operations and security. This first implementation follows a succession of announcements for Outsight, and can then be extended to other areas such as shopping malls and train stations."