Archives for June 2014

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EETimes publishes an article on BMW 3 Series rear view camera teardown with Omnivision's sensor inside. The estimated cost of the camera is between $50 and $75, while the price paid for the teared down device was $400.

The rear view camera board

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MK: Siliconfile officially becomes a part of Hynix and has been delisted from KOSDAQ. SK Hynix owns Silicon File’s entire shares as of April 22, 2014.

Business Week: SK Hynix has acquired the remaining 72.07% stake in Siliconfile for KRW 48.8B ($47.4M) in stock transaction.

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ESPROS Photonics publishes Youtube video showing its epc610 ToF sensor evaluation kit:

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EETimes-Europe: The General Vision's (Petaluma, CA) bid for LFoundry Rousset fab failed to convince the judge that it was sustainable, according to reports of a decision handed down on June 13, 2014. The fab equipmemnt and its IP assets were acquired by Six Semicondutores, Brazil.

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Formfactor and Advantest presentation "Can testers and probe cards keep up with speed requirements for image sensors?" at Semiconductor Test Workshop in San Diego, CA on June 8-11, 2014 talks about the high speed interface testing issues:

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Sony has updated its web page on Xarina, the family of all-in-one HD image processors for security cameras. A support for 4K cameras is coming sometime in 2015:

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PresseBox: Google’s Advanced Technology and Projects group (ATAP) is demonstrating their latest Project Tango Tablet Development Kits at Google I/O 2014 today. Now, for the first time, the tablets with integrated pmd-based depth sensors are shown publicly. Besides a motion tracking and a RGB camera the tablets utilize a pmd-based 3D ToF sensor to allow the tablet to sense its environment in space and motion. The ToF sensor used in the tablet has been jointly developed by Infineon and pmdtechnologies.

"We are proud that Google's ATAP group shows the world for the first time how our 3D technology is contributing to the addition of environmental awareness to mobile devices in a new and unique way. We also look forward to seeing what kind of amazing applications will be developed based on this tablet as the possibilities are endless in applications such as augmented reality, architecture, retail, gaming, and many more.", says Bernd Buxbaum, CEO of pmdtechnologies.


A Youtube video shows Project Tango evolution and possible applications:



Update: PMD publishes a short Youtube video of Google Tango tablet with PMD ToF camera inside:

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PR Newswire: Pixart keeps looking for the unusual image-sensor based products. The company's PAH 8001 Heart Rate Monitor integrates a unique CMOS sensor with a LED in a single package. The PAH 8001 uses photoplethysmogram (PPG) technique which passes a green LED light wave into the skin and measures the response change caused by the absorption due to the pulsating arterial blood. The actual measurement is done using a small CMOS Pixel Array and the output data can be used to not only monitor heart rate, but also body stress level, etc.

The Pixart's PAH 8001 is said to be the industry's smallest form factor device with low power consumption. Human trial testing results with the PAH 8001 device closely matches the accuracy obtained using a Medical heart rate measurement system, but packaged in a tiny 3mm x 5mm module and consumes 1.5mA (typ). When used while performing a high impact activity such as running or jogging, the initial testing data shows the accuracy to be within +/-5BPM for speeds up to 8km/h.

"PixArt Imaging is the current market leader in optical mice, but the core technologies (CMOS imaging, optical and system integration) are now enabling the development of new and emerging innovative applications being introduced into the marketplace." said Dennis Lo, President, PixArt Imaging USA. "This heart rate monitor sensor is just the beginning of a line of healthcare monitoring solutions that we will be introducing this year."

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PR Newswire: SoftKinetic and Melexis announce the availability of their first ToF 3D sensor for automobile safety and infotainment markets. The MLX75023 sensor featurs SoftKinetic technology and manufactured in Melexis' automotive-grade CMOS mixed signal process. It's said to work in full sunlight and can be used for natural 3D gesture recognition and robust driver monitoring.

The MLX75023 features include:

• QVGA resolution (320 x 240 pixel)
• DepthSense TOF pixels
• 1/3” sensor format (4.8 x 3.6 mm2)
• High ambient light robustness, up to 120 Klux
• Spectral response range 800-900 nm
• Suitable for LED or laser illumination
• Sensor modulation up to 40 MHz
• Up to 600 fps raw image frame rate
• Small glass BGA package
• Ambient temperature range –40 to +105 degC

"Working together with Melexis we have now been able to create a sensor that is robust in full sunlight, perfect for the automobile environment," said Michel Tombroff, CEO of SoftKinetic. "We are excited about the multitude of possibilities with this sensor, and look forward to the ways car manufacturers will incorporate it into the design of their vehicles' cockpits and beyond."

"Our partnership has allowed us to be the first to provide 3D vision to the automotive safety and infotainment markets, and we are confident that these sensors will enhance life safety and change the way drivers and passengers enjoy the vehicle experience," said Françoise Chombar, CEO at Melexis.

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Yole Developpement reviews Howard Rhodes, Omnivision's CTO, presentation at 2014 Image Sensor Conference in London, UK. The "The Future of CMOS Imaging" presentation shows stacked sensor as the next big thing and discusses the different stacking approaches, among other stuff:

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PR Newswire: SMIC announces that the first 12" CFA & micro lens array production line in mainland China has been completed and put into production by Toppan SMIC Electronics (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. ("TSES"), a joint venture of SMIC and Toppan. Combined with SMIC's 12" CIS wafer production line, a full 12" CIS supply chain will be established in China.

"Building a 12" color filter & micro lens array production line is an pivotal step for SMIC to create IC manufacturing supply chain and implement differentiated strategy," said Dong Cui, EVP of SMIC Investment and Strategic Business Development. "With SMIC's front-end 12" CIS wafer manufacturing line in volume production and existing domestic back-end package capacity, SMIC will build the first complete 12" CIS supply chain in China covering all the processes of front-end, middle-end and back-end to support customers with differentiated offerings and a convenient one-stop service."

"TSES, invested jointly by SMIC and Toppan, is the first company in China to manufacture and sell color filter and micro lens array used for CIS. Its 8" production line has been put into volume production for many years. The new 12" production line will further extend SMIC and TSES's business scopes," said Mike Rekuc, EVP of SMIC Worldwide Sales and Marketing.

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New Photonis Kameleon appears to be the color version of 1.3MP 9.7um pixel Lynx sensor announced two years ago. The specs of the two sensors are nearly identical and both are aimed to night vision, homeland security, surveillance and scientific applications.

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The new open access IEEE publication, IEEE Journal of the Electron Devices Society, which published Eric Fossum's pinned PD review, now publishes too more papers on photodiodes:

"Pixel Level Characterization of Pinned Photodiode and Transfer Gate Physical Parameters in CMOS Image Sensors" by Goiffon, V.; Estribeau, M.; Michelot, J.; Cervantes, P.; Pelamatti, A.; Marcelot, O.; Magnan, P.
Institut Suprieur de l'Aeronautique et de l'Espace (ISAE), Universite de Toulouse, Pyxalis

"Extraction and Estimation of Pinned Photodiode Capacitance in CMOS Image Sensors" by Chao, C.Y.; Chen, Y.; Chou, K.; Sze, J.; Hsueh, F.; Wuu, S.
TSMC

Thanks to DSSB for the link!

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Marketwired: Mantis Vision announces a $12.5M strategic investment round from Qualcomm Ventures, Flextronics' hardware venture arm, Lab IX; Sunny Optical, and Samsung. Mantis Vision believes this strategic investment will accelerate its plans for shifting the 3D paradigm via its core MV4D technology platform.

"3D is as big a paradigm shift for mobile as was the introduction of the camera-phone, the type of change that only comes around once every decade. We now have the opportunity to deliver professional-grade 3D-enabled mobile devices and capabilities to the world," said Amihai Loven, CEO, Mantis Vision. "Our mission is to bring 3D to the masses, allowing users to create their own 3D content with ease. This strategic investment offers us the flexibility to expand quickly and strategically, as well as fuel adoption and engagement directly with consumer audiences worldwide."

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Rambus conditional reset pixel requires an ability to control reset on per pixel basis:


The company patent application US20140158863 "High Fill-Factor Image Sensor Architecture" by Michael Guidash proposes to combine column reset select line with the output bitline:

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Sony announces 3.21MP 2.5um BSI pixel CMOS sensor IMX123LQT with improved NIR sensitivity for industrial applications. "Sensitivity in the near infrared range has been increased to 1.5 or more times that of existing models by applying technical know-how for improving sensitivity in the near infrared range developed for front-illuminated structures to the pixels of an industry-leading back-illuminated structure."

The sensor features WDR mode based on "DOL (digital overlap) drive: This function outputs up to three frames of images alternately on each line. It requires a dedicated ISP, but provides advantages such as improved characteristics in low-light environments compared to conventional WDR that uses multiple frame set output. (See photograph 3.) Multiple DOL drive settings are provided to enable control and data reception in accordance with the ISP used."


Additional WDR features are:

1. 14-bit ADC enables a good DR from a single image
2. Multiple frame set output function. The exposure time and the gain can be set separately for each frame. This function helps to realize WDR functions, and can also be applied to applications such as bracket shooting.
3. Function that combines two images with different exposure times inside the image sensor and outputs the synthesized image. This function is suited to applications that aim to easily realize WDR when there is no function for combining multiple frames on the ISP side

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As MIPI speed follows the image sensor frame rate advances and reaches higher Gbps rates, Agilent comes with S-Parameter test suite adapted for MIPI channel tests:

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The Verge, Mashable: Amazon Fire Phone uses four front-facing IR cameras to create a 3D user interface: "Perhaps the most useful application shown off so far is simply tilting the phone to scroll through a web page like The Washington Post or to page through a Kindle book. Of course, we've seen other tilting features before and they've a lot to be desired, but Amazon's demo seems to make these features seem far better than previous attempts. The question will be whether or not the extra processing power and potential battery life drain to run these multiple cameras will be worth it."

Jeff Bezos presents 3D UI features

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PR Newswire: Dual Aperture, Inc. announces a joint venture with the Center for Integrated Smart Sensors (CISS) that will more than double the engineering resources dedicated to commercializing Dual Aperture's 3-D imaging technology. Dual Aperture's technology is based on its 4-color sensor that is equipped with a dual aperture design, which is comprised of RGB and IR pixels. The sensor also uses separate apertures for the respective RGB and IR pixels, thereby capturing data for two distinct images -- one each in the RGB and the IR spectrums -- with different levels of sharpness to generate real-time 3D depth information.

Professor Chong-Min Kyung, CEO of CISS and Professor at KAIST, adds, "CISS receives collaboration proposals from all over the world and when we examined Dual Aperture's technology, we jumped at the opportunity to build on what we believe to be truly disruptive technology for smart cameras and smart sensors. We are extremely excited to work with Dual Aperture for the advancement of RGB-IR technology."

A Vimeo video shows gesture recognition application based on the company's technology:

Dual Aperture Gesture Control from Dual Aperture on Vimeo.

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FotoNation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Tessera, announces that it will once again operate under its original FotoNation name. Fotonation's software is said to be inside of more than 60% of global tier-1 smartphones. FotoNation will operate as a distinct identity of parent company Tessera Technologies.

FotoNation is now taking its advances in smartphone imaging algorithms into the growing automotive, surveillance, security, and augmented reality markets. “All manner of machines, as well as the cameras inside them, are getting smarter. As their computational power increases, the opportunity for advanced imaging technologies also increases,” said Petronel Bigioi, VP of Engineering at FotoNation. “We are enabling cars to tell the difference between sleepy and wakeful drivers, security cameras to know who is accessing a secure environment, smartphones to perform biometric authentication, and a wealth of new applications in the growing wearable-computing space.”

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ST publishes a new version of its Youtube video on VL6180X SPAD-based ToF proximity sensor adding its gesture control application. The old version has been removed from Youtube.

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ALA: ULIS, a subsidiary of Sofradir and GE Equity, announces the Pico1024E GenII, an energy-efficient thermal image sensor for military applications.

"ULIS’ megapixel Pico1024E GenII meets the challenges in thermal image sensors for military applications that need to offer new capabilities and perform at very high standards, while operating with minimum energy," said Jean-Francois Delepau, managing director of ULIS. "Pico1024E GenII has already stimulated interest from defense equipment customers. Its performance pushes the standards in image crispness, frame rate frequency and low power consumption to the highest levels. We expect Pico1024E GenII to open up new possibilities in the future development of thermal imaging systems."

Pico1024E GenII, a 1024 x 768 17um pixel thermal image sensor, is able to maintaining power consumption at the lowest levels (200mW) at frame rate of 100fps. This is close to double the frame rate frequency for this category of megapixel thermal image sensor. A progress in lowering the power consumption down to 200mW put it ahead of competing products requiring two to three times more electrical power. Major upgrades to Pico1024E GenII consist of higher thermal sensitivity of lower than 50mK, offering 15 per cent additional thermal sensitivity over the previous generation.

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BAE Systems: Developed for a new class of compact and low-cost imaging systems, BAE TWV640 thermal camera core is based on the first commercially available uncooled 12um pixel. Reducing the pixel size from 17um to 12um is said to allow imaging system manufacturers to reduce lens size by 50% and decrease optics costs by 20%.

"As the first to deliver a 12-micron thermal camera core, we’re providing our customers a tremendous competitive advantage, helping them drive down system costs while providing superior imagery typically associated with our MicroIR products," said Christian Rodriguez, business development at BAE Systems. "Our TWV640 module empowers our customers to create and deliver a new generation of affordable, compact, thermal imaging systems for a broad range of applications."

Further advancing the technology developed for the 17um MIR640 thermal camera core, the TWV640 module is optimized to provide affordable thermal imaging performance in a compact, low-power solution. The TWV640 camera core captures VGA images at 60Hz to observe dynamic environments revealing details that competitors’ 30Hz offerings miss, while also eliminating the disorientation that comes from using slower video.

Compatible with off-the-shelf lenses from leading optics providers and using standard interface protocols like USB, NTSC and CameraLink, the TWV640 module is a drop-in 640x480 thermal camera core designed for makers of commercial, civil and military thermal imaging solutions.

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Omnivision's investor presentation from June 12, 2014 has updated slides on the company history and achievements:

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As Sony presents its curved CMOS sensors, one has to mention that Olching, Germany-based Andanta has first shown its commercially available curved CCDs in 2012. The 2013-dated document presents cylindrically curved FSI devices as standard products, while the spherical ones are available on request:


The company says: "The curvature of the image sensor can be designed as a one-dimensional cylindrical curvature or as a two-dimensional spherical curvature (convex or concave). As part of a customized project, scientific front illuminated 4k x 4k (16 Mpixels) - image sensors with convex and concave surfaces have already been realized. The applied vacuum technology (also usable on back side illuminated CCDs) has not created any measurable increase in detector noise or the number of cosmetic defects compared to the conventional flat image sensor with identical electro-optical properties. Cyclic mechanical stress testing has shown good results as well."

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IEEE Spectrum shows what might develop into a mass market for 3D cameras - smart sliding doors, presented by University of Electro-Communications, and Hokuyo Automatic Co. at 2014 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) in Hong Kong. A Youtube video explains the idea:

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IEEE Spectrum reports from VLSI Technology Symposium in in Honolulu, Hawaii on Sony curved image sensor presented by Kazuichiro Itonaga, device manager with Sony's R&D Platform in Atsugi-shi, Japan:

"Itonaga gave few details on the process the team used create the curved CMOS chips. He said that a machine was used to bend the CMOS sensors and that they were backed with a ceramic to stabilize them after bending. It was also unclear how much the chips were curved, although Itonaga said that they did achieve the same level of curvature found in the human eye.

Two chips were reported. One, which measured some 43 millimeters along the diagonal, is a full-size chip for digital cameras. The other is a smaller chip, more suitable for mobile phones, which measured 11 mm along the diagonal and boasts smaller pixels. The team integrated the curved image sensor with a lensing system and showed an image that seemed to be quite good, although it wasn't displayed alongside an image taken with an equivalent flat sensor for comparison."

"The team has made somewhere in the vicinity of 100 full-size sensors with their bending machine. "We are ready," Itonaga said."

Sony curved sensor

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ON Semiconductor publishes a transcript its conference call script and investor presentation on the Aptina acquisition:


There is a clarification message I got from Aptina: "Many are wondering about mobile. Consumer & Mobile are a key businesses for us and in the top 5 businesses for ON. We are committed to this business as long as it generates returns (which it is)."

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