Archives for June 2014

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Woodhead Publishing release a new book "High Performance Silicon Imaging" written by a number of world's experts in image sensor design and applications, and edited by Daniel Durini (Fraunhofer Institute, Germany). Here is the list of topics:

• Fundamental principles of photosensing
  D. Durini and D. Arutinov (Fraunhofer Institute, Germany)
• Operational principles of silicon image sensors
  D. Durini and D. Arutinov (Fraunhofer Institute, Germany)
• Charge coupled device (CCD) image sensors
  M. Lesser (University of Arizona)
• Backside illuminated (BSI) complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) image sensors
  A. Lahav, A. Fenigstein and A. Strum (TowerJazz)
• Circuits for high performance complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) image sensors
  B. Choubey (University of Oxford, UK), W. Mughal and L. Gouveia ( University of Glasgow, UK)
• Smart cameras on a chip: using complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) image sensors to create smart vision chips
  D. Ginhac (Université de Bourgogne, France)
• Complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) image sensors for mobile devices
  R. J. Gove (Aptina)
• Complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) image sensors for automotive applications
  C. De Locht and H. van den Broeck (Melexis, Belgium)
• Complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) image sensors for use in space
  J. Bogaerts (CMOSIS, Belgium)
• Complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) sensors for high-performance scientific imaging
  R. Turchetta (Rutherford Appleton Laboratory)
• Complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) sensors for fluorescence lifetime imaging (FLIM)
  R. K. Henderson (University of Edinburgh, UK), B. R. Rae (ST, UK) and D.-U. Li (University of Strathclyde, UK)
• Complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) X-ray sensors
  A. Strum and A. Fenigstein (TowerJazz)
• Complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) and charge coupled device (CCD) image sensors in high-definition TV imaging
  P. Centen (Grass Valley Nederland)
• High-performance silicon imagers and their applications in astrophysics, medicine and other fields
  S. Nikzad (JPL, CA)

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Business Wire: ON Semiconductor signes a definitive agreement to acquire Aptina Imaging. The high-performance CMOS image sensors for automotive and industrial markets are said to be the key areas of strategic focus for ON Semi. According to TSR, the worldwide demand for image sensors for automotive and industrial applications is expected to grow at annual compound rate of 16% between 2013 and 2016.

ON Semi will pay approximately $400M in cash to acquire Aptina Imaging, subject to customary adjustments at closing. The acquisition will be funded by available cash on ON Semi’s balance sheet and its existing revolver credit facility.

"The pending acquisition of Aptina enables us to accelerate our growth in the attractive automotive and industrial end-markets by leveraging Aptina’s highly differentiated imaging technologies in conjunction with our wide sales reach and strong operational capabilities," said Keith Jackson, president and CEO of ON Semiconductor. "The addition of Aptina vastly expands our scale and capabilities in image sensors and establishes us as a leader in image sensors for industrial and automotive related applications. I am excited about the possibilities that this transaction presents for both companies."

Based on unaudited results, Aptina’s revenue for last twelve months ending on May 29, 2014, was approximately $532 million with gross and operating margins of approximately 29% and 3%, respectively. ON Semiconductor currently intends to report operational results for Aptina and other image and optical sensor businesses in a separate reporting segment. The transaction has been approved by ON Semi’s and Aptina’s boards of directors and is expected to close during Q3 2014.

Update: Seeking Alpha publishes analyst's comments on the deal.

Update #2: EETimes publishes an article on ON acquisitions history and analyst responses to Aptina purchase. The article quotes Yole table of market shares in 2012, where the top 3 vendors control 58% of the $6.9B market:

Market shares in 2012, according to Yole Developpement

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EETimes: Ziptronix and EV Group (EVG) announce they have achieved submicron post-bond alignment accuracy on customer-provided 300mm DRAM wafers using Ziptronix's DBI Hybrid Bonding technology on an EVG Gemini FB production fusion bonder and SmartViewNT bond aligner. This approach can be used to manufacture fine-pitch 3D ICs for a variety of applications including advanced stacked image sensors.

Ziptronix Direct Bond Interconnect (DBI) Hybrid Bonding is a conductor/dielectric bonding technology that includes a variety of metal/oxide and/or nitride combinations, does not use adhesives and allows for strong, room temperature dielectric bonding, low temperature conductive bonding and finer-pitch interconnect over Cu/Cu or other metal bonding because the bond occurs between both the dielectric and the conductive surfaces, which effectively bonds the entire substrate interface area. DBI Hybrid Bonding can be used at the die or wafer level; however, wafer-level bonding enables a great cost benefit by bonding all the dice at once.

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Rochester Business Journal publishes a story on Truesense acquisition by ON Semi. Few quotes:

"Eight prospective buyers emerged to purchase Truesense, touring the company’s facilities and evaluating its online data box, said Christopher McNiffe, previous CEO of Truesense Imaging and current vice president of the image sensor business unit of ON Semiconductor... Roughly 300 people now report to McNiffe, including 50 people who work near Brussels, Belgium, a dozen in Bangalore, India, and 10 in Santa Clara, Calif."

"Under ON Semiconductor’s watch, Truesense Imaging is expected to grow, officials say."

"I see the real power of this acquisition being we have the best of both worlds," McNiffe said. "So now we can go in to a customer and we can say: ‘Here’s a broad portfolio of high-performance image sensors. Which one of these is the best fit for what you’re trying to do?’ That’s something that no one else in our industry is able to do right now."

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Sony releases a flyer updating its semiconductor business data, with image sensors shown separately. Most of the data was already published in the 2013 Annual Report.

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Business Wire: TowerJazz and Genoray announces a successful development of a CIS for medical diagnostic devices such as X-ray equipment, fluoroscopy and radiography in TowerJazz’s 0.18um CIS stitch process. The novel device which has a 100um pixel size and has a special feature to control the sensitivity of the pixel which can be applied in various types of medical equipment such as surgical C-Arms and portable X-ray machines.

This new device is a CIS detector whereas the existing market uses a silicon TFT type sensor. The advantage of CIS compared to TFT is that CIS uses active pixels so it obtains the image with less noise and helps minimize X-ray radiation exposure which is currently the biggest issue in the industry. Furthermore, Genoray’s single detector supports both CT mode and Panorama mode while the existing products in the market only support one by one (CT supports only CT mode, Panorama supports Panorama mode only). This means that by providing multi-functions through one detector, Genoray can satisfy customers who need both modes with a less expensive price point; a competitive advantage of this product.

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Marketwired: Mantis Vision confirms that its MV4D 3D camera is used in Google's Project Tango tablet. Mantis Vision camera consists of flash projector hardware components and includes structured light-based depth sensing algorithms. "3D represents a major paradigm shift for mobile. We haven't seen a change this significant since the introduction of the camera-phone. MV4D allows developers to deliver 3D-enabled mobile devices and capabilities to the world," said Amihai Loven, CEO, Mantis Vision. "This partnership with Google offers Mantis Vision the flexibility to expand quickly and strategically. It will fuel adoption and engagement directly with consumer audiences worldwide. Together, we are bringing 3D to the masses."

"We are excited about working with partners, such as Mantis Vision, as we push forward the hardware and software technologies for 3D sensing and motion tracking on mobile devices," said Johnny Lee, Technical Product Lead at Google.

A Youtube video demos the company's technology:



In another video Mantis CEO discusses his future vision:



Yet another Youtube video by Google introduces Project Tango tablet with Mantis camera inside:

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Google’s ATAP group (Advanced Technology and Projects group, a former part of Motorola Mobility) announces, that PMD is one of the technology partners in Project Tango integrating a 3D camera in a smartphone and tablet form factors. The 3D ToF image sensor belongs to IRS 10x0C chip family developed by PMD in collaboration with Infineon and featuring PMD's Suppression of Background Illumination (SBI) to improves the sensor chip’s DR for indoor and especially for outdoor operations. PMD 3D camera comes in place of Primesense one used in the early version of the project.

GigaOm reports that Google Tango tablet becomes available to developers later this month and costs $1,024.

Thanks to JZ for the news!

Google video talks about the Tango platform uses:

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Business Wire: "The image quality of mobile cameras has reached a dead end. Device makers are striving to differentiate using imaging capabilities but the pixel size race has ended and next generation cameras do not reveal any dramatic improvements," says LinX Computational Imaging Ltd.. The company reports that it has successfully developed miniature multi-aperture cameras for mobile devices with nearly half the height of a standard mobile camera and are capable of creating stunning color images and high accuracy depth maps. The engineers at LinX have solved all problems associated with combining multiple images captured from different points in space such as registration errors and occlusion related artifacts which are seen on competing technologies, so that LinX cameras are artifact-free, even when objects appear at very short range.

LinX software also creates a true depth information on high contrast objects and on near flat surfaces, such as walls, which are traditionally considered difficult for passive stereo systems. With its partners, LinX has developed a variety of products ranging from arrays of two, three, and four cameras in various configurations and sizes, some with autofocus and others without. The technology is said to be ready for integration into the current generation mobile devices:


LinX technology is said to have many advantages over traditional mobile photography:

• A larger sensor requires a longer lens. Therefore, by replacing one large sensor with two or more smaller ones, we reduced the height of our device by a factor of 1.4 to 2
• Sensitivity to light increases by a factor of 3 by using a monochrome sensor
• Noise levels are dramatically lower
• The effective array camera resolution is similar to the single aperture camera in high light
• Performance and image quality in low light are extraordinary
• Allowing a fast exposure at indoor standard lighting conditions of 100-200 lux which assures crisp images free from motion blur
• The multi-aperture camera creates a real-time, high-quality distance map

30-page LinX technology presentation shows many comparison pictures with iPhone 5s and Galaxy s4 cameras, many of them in low light:

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GlobeNewswire: Ambarella reports that revenue for its fiscal quarter ended April 30, 2014 was $40.9M, up 21% from $33.9M a year ago. GAAP gross margin was 62.5%, compared with 63.9% for the same period a year ago. GAAP net income for the first quarter of fiscal 2015 was $5.3M, compared $4.7M a year ago.

"We are very pleased with the financial results of our first fiscal quarter of 2015," said Fermi Wang, president and CEO. "During the first quarter we achieved revenue of $40.9 million, up 21% from the same period last year, driven by continued growth in our IP security camera business. We believe the expanding markets for innovative, high definition professional and consumer cameras will continue to give us the opportunity to grow our revenues in the year ahead."

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Apple patent application US20140125852 "Optical demodulation using an image sensor" by Richard Baer, Michael Malone, Ting Chen, and David Amnon Silverstein proposes two-mode image sensor. The first mode is a regular image capture, while the second one is optimized for the lighting LED-based data communication (Li-Fi). In Li-Fi mode, "the integration interval for the image sensor is set to less than two row periods, preferably close to one row period, without regard to the exposure data if the data capture mode is selected.

An analog gain may be increased to as large a value as possible in data capture mode. All pixels in a row may be summed before analog to digital conversion in data capture mode. An image sensor frame period may be set according to a signaling frame period of an illumination modulation data transmission in data capture mode.

The controller may further causes data to be inverted from frame to frame and decoding of the difference of two successive frames if the data capture mode is selected. The controller may further causes defocusing of an optical system that forms an image on the image sensor if the data capture mode is selected."

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The newly announced LG G3 smartphone features an intriguing piece "Laser Auto Focus measures the distance to the subject using laser technology. Laser Auto Focus allows for improved focusing speed and object detection in low-light situations." I was told that this AF utilizes STM's SPAD-based ToF range finder. A similar SPAD device is also used in a low-end Bosch laser distance measurer PLR15.

If true, the SPAD ToF technology finds its way to more and more mass market devices: first to ST proximity sensor, then to Bosch distance meter, and now to LG G3 flagship smartphone.

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PR Newswire: OmniVision announces the OV2740, an ultra-low power PureCel image sensor consuming only 90mW when recording 1080p HD video at 60fps. The OV2740 is said to be the lowest power 1080p60 image sensor currently on the market. Built on a 1.4um BSI pixel, the OV2740 PureCel image sensor achieves a 50% improvement in FWC and a 30% improvement in sensitivity over the previous generation OmniVision sensors. The OV2740 features staggered HDR mode with minimized motion artifacts.

The OV2740 is the only 1080p HD image sensor announced to date that features light-sensing mode (LSM) and ultra-low power mode (ULPM), enabling advanced features such as motion detection or gesture control. Additionally, the sensor is stereo ready with frame synchronization to support a host of depth perception applications.

The OV2740 fits into a 5 x 5 x 3 mm module. It is currently sampling and is expected to enter volume production in Q3 2014.

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