Archives for February 2015

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Business Wire: MIPI Alliance introduces CSI-2 v1.3, an update to its Camera Serial Interface (CSI) spec. The new interface operates CSI-2 on either of two physical layer specs: D-PHY, which CSI-2 has used traditionally, as well as MIPI C-PHY, a new PHY that MIPI Alliance released as v1.0 in September 2014. Products may implement CSI-2 solutions using either or both PHYs in the same design.

MIPI C-PHY uses 3-phase symbol encoding of about 2.28 bits per symbol to transmit data symbols on 3-wire lanes, or “trios,” with embedded clocking, facilitating longer trace reach and maximizing camera port configurations on mobile platforms. MIPI CSI-2 v1.3 with C-PHY provides performance gains, increased bandwidth delivery of 22.7 Gbps over four lanes at 2.5 Gsps (Giga-symbols per second) for realizing higher resolution, better color depth, and higher frame rates on image sensors while providing pin compatibility with MIPI D-PHY. Popular imaging formats including 4K video at 30fps using 12 bits per pixel may be delivered using a single MIPI C-PHY lane.

CSI-2 with D-PHY v1.2 can achieve a peak transmission rate of 2.5 Gbps over a single lane or 10 Gbps over four lanes. A 12bpp, 30 FPS 4K video can be transmitted using two data lanes.

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Sony announces 4 new image sensors.

IMX290LQR and IMX291LQR are 1/2.8-inch, 2.3MP 2.9um BSI pixel CMOS sensors featuring an improved IR sensitivity and WDR modes. The new 2.9 µm BSI pixel is said to provide two or more times the sensitivity in the visible-light region and three or more times the sensitivity in the NIR region than that of the existing Sony product (IMX236LQJ). In addition, two types of WDR are provided: IMX290LQR has multiple exposure and DOL (Digital Overlap) -WDR function, while IMX291LQR has only multiple exposure WDR.

The multiple exposure-type WDR outputs one set of two or four frames with different exposure times. The gain can also be set separately for each frame in addition to the exposure time.

The DOL-type WDR function outputs the data for up to three frames with different storage times line by line. By performing special signal processing with an ISP or other device at the image sensor rear-end, this is said to improve the picture quality under low illumination compared to the multiple exposure-type WDR function.

Sony publishes quarter-resolution low-light images comparing the new sensors with the older IMX236LQJ, both shot at 0.08 lux, F1.4 lens 1080p30 mode (click to expand):

Older IMX236LQJ, gain 48dB

New IMX290LQR, gain 63dB

2.35MP IMX302LQJ is yet another member of 5.86um pixel-based global shutter sensor (Pregius) aimed to industrial and machine vision market. The sensor's speed is 64.1fps with 12b ADC.


Update: Talking about Sony global shutter sensors, IMV Europe quotes Thad Smith, director of business for image sensor products at ON Semiconductor: "IMX174 can indeed be considered a disruptive technology. The technology demonstrates the possibilities of the new charge-based pixel approach and sets a new benchmark for image quality. However, while IMX174 is a single part in the portfolio, On Semiconductor’s image sensors offer a larger range of solutions for the industrial market. This is a key differentiator." In recent months, Sony appears to release quite a few IMX174 derivatives featuring the same 5.86um global shutter pixels. And there is a 2nd generation of its global shutter pixel coming.

The 6.84MP ICX816AQG 1/1.1-inch CCD targets traffic monitoring cameras and features 3.69um pixels with high sensitivity and low smear:


Update: For some reason, as of Feb. 21, 2015, Sony has withdrawn the ICX816AQG CCD announcement. The links to it are broken.

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PR Newswire: OmniVision is collaborating with Almalence to bring DSC-like performance to mobile applications. The coupling of 10MP OV10823 and 13MP PureCel OV13850 image sensors with Almalence's computational imaging algorithms allows for the capturing of high resolution images or videos in low-light conditions.

"When using Almalence's algorithms, our high performance OV13850 PureCel image sensor can enable high quality video recording in full resolution at 30 frames per second for zero shutter lag, and also can support high frame rate 1080p HD video at 60 frames per second with electronic image stabilization," said Tehzeeb Gunja, senior partnership and business development manager at OmniVision.

1.4um OmniBSI-2 pixel OV10823 performance is augmented by Almalence's low-light enhancement technology, which can enable 10dB reduction in noise without washing out desirable image details. Cameras using super resolution can experience a 1.5 to 2x effective resolution increase. Almalence's super resolution and low-light enhancement technologies are pure software solutions.

"As a result of this technology partnership between Almalence and OmniVision, consumers can benefit from the advantages of marrying advanced hardware and software solutions," said Eugene Panich, CEO of Almalence. "Our companies have developed complementary technologies and our passions are very much aligned. We are delighted to see our computational imaging solution paired with image sensors that operate at this level of performance."

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Sony mid-term corporate strategy for FY2015-17 declares its image sensor business one of the main growth drivers. "In Devices, Sony aims to further bolster its competitive edge in the area of CMOS image sensors by investing to increase production capacity and enhance R&D."

From Sony strategy presentation:

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Pixart Q4 2014 earnings report reveals that "the revenue in 2014 Q4 decreased by 7.7% QoQ to NT$1,097.0 million. Due to favorable product mix and the appreciation of US dollar, 2014 Q4 gross margin increased to 47.8% from 46.4% in 2014 Q3." The company's investor presentation shows the segment sales proportions:

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Qualcomm Snapdragon blog presents few camera features implemented in its recent ISP pipeline. The presented features exploit modern sensors ability of taking few snapshots in a quick succession, and use it for flash and no-flash images combination, all in focus feature, and ghost-free HDR imaging. A new Optizoom feature is supposed to rival the optical zoom quality "by capturing 12 images in a burst capture, and then creating a sharper image by comparing the differences and similarities in the micro movements of the pixels you’ve captured:"


For some reason, Optizoom presented a year ago works in a different way:

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nanoLambda publishes a Youtube animation showing many possible uses for its Apollo microspectrometer:

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Aggregate.org publishes slides on ISO-less camera by Hank Dietz and Paul Eberhart from University of Kentucky presented at SPIE Electronic Imaging conference:

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Financial Times: Sony owns about 40% market share in CMOS sensors for smartphones, digital cameras and tablets, followed by roughly 16% share of OmniVision and 16% share of Samsung, according to 2014 TSR report. But Sony only ranks fifth with a 5% share in automotive image sensors.

Shigeo Ohba, GM of Sony’s image sensor business, said "We have to be No 1 in automotive sensors" by the time self-driving cars are expected to hit the roads in early to mid-2020s. Recently, Sony established a new business group targeting image sensors for cars and is actively hiring engineers. “We were latecomers in smartphone cameras but we still created this market. Now we can do the same with automotive cameras,” said Shoichi Kitayama, Sony’s GM of the automotive group.

Sony CEO Kazuo Hirai is expected to disclose his automotive image sensor plans on the strategy briefing on Wednesday.

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Modular Phones Forum: Toshiba presents its work on camera module design for Google Project Ara modular phones. Shardul Kazi, SVP from Toshiba America, says:

"We’ve been engaged in Ara program for more than a year now. Engagement started because of Toshiba’s involvement in the standards committee of MIPI UniPro, and UniPro is a backbone of the Ara phone. So we know UniPro very well. To make developers life easier we developed bridges (two types of bridges and the switch chip), so module developers can use those chips and they don’t need to learn about complexity of UniPro protocol."

So, Toshiba has started from the camera modules as Phase 1 of its Ara designs:


Toshiba has created a special web site devoted to its Ara modules progress and featuring a Youtube video with the first 5MP module:

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ST and Commissariat A L'energie Atomique Et Aux Energies Alternatives patent application "Back side illumination image sensor with low dark current" by Jean-Pierre Carrere, Patrick Gros D'aillon, Stephane Allegret-Maret, and Jean-Pierre Oddou proposes an additional conductive layer on the BSI image sensor backside to screen the back of the imager from plasma processing-introduced defects:

"The degradation comes from plasma-based treatments used during the treatments of the back side of the sensor, particularly for forming the back side metallic contact pads, of aluminum for example, and for forming the layer protecting the colored filters, which aims to protect these filters during the slicing of the sensors along the slicing lines of the semiconductor wafer.

More precisely, the plasma charges the silicon oxide-silicon nitride stack triggering a trapping of positive charges (holes) in the anti-reflective silicon nitride layer, holes which will then migrate to the interface with the substrate to create a dark current by recombination with electrons."

In order to reduce the dark current, the application proposes: "an additional layer situated above the anti-reflective layer and including at least a lower part containing hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) or hydrogenated amorphous silicon nitride (a-SiNx:H), in which the Si/N ratio of the number of silicon atoms per cubic centimeter to the number of nitrogen atoms per cubic centimeter is greater than 0.7, and preferably greater than or equal to 1.2.

The function of this additional layer is to absorb, or even to stop, ultraviolet radiation, and/or to evacuate the trapped charges in the anti-reflective layer during subsequent plasma treatments, which will therefore reduce the residual positive charges possibly trapped in the anti-reflective layer and consequently reduce the dark current.

The thickness of this lower part of the additional layer is preferably less than a few tens of nanometers, for example a hundred nanometers, or even less than ten nanometers."

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Apple patent application US20150035028 "Image sensor with buried light shield and vertical gate" by Xiaofeng Fan, Philip H. Li, Chung Chun Wan, Anup K. Sharma, Xiangli Li proposes a 2-layer stacked global shutter pixel:


The pixel is split into 2 layers: "a buried light shield 710 separates the sensing layer 702 into a first substrate layer 738 and a second substrate layer 740. The sense region 716, the storage region 712, and the pixel transistors can be in the second substrate layer 740 while the photodetector 708 resides in the first substrate layer 738. The buried light shield 710 prevents unwanted charge accumulation in the storage region 712 and in the sense region 716." The vertical transfer gate 714 is made of poly in the trench and has a contact pad 718.

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Himax reports its 2014 business results: "Revenues from CMOS image sensors also experienced significant growth in 2014 and should continue to be a fast growing product area for Himax in 2015. Sales of the Company’s 2 and 5 megapixel products were particularly strong, mainly due to robust demand from several international customers as well as from Chinese white-box customers. Looking into 2015, Himax expects its sales of 8-megapixel sensors, now the mainstream design for smartphones, to accelerate while high end 13 megapixel sensors to start mass production later in the year. This puts Himax firmly on the map as one of a small handful of companies capable of offering a comprehensive product portfolio for smartphone cameras.

In addition to the a fore-mentioned consumer applications, Himax is also making significant progress in CMOS image sensors for non-consumer applications, which typically enjoy higher margins and have relatively little direct competition. Himax already started initial shipments to a Korean automotive end customer and is actively engaging more module houses to penetrate into Chinese before-market-installation automotive applications. As the Company grows sensor sales for automotive and other non-consumer applications and continues to turn the bulk of its CMOS image sensor sales from 2 and 5 megapixels to higher end, higher margin 8 and 13 megapixels, Himax expects its CMOS image sensor business to accelerate in 2015."

"CMOS Image sensor sales nearly doubled year over year."

"Furthermore, the Company continues to partner with numerous industry leading companies using its cutting edge and industry-dominant wafer level optics, or WLO, for the development of ...technologies of the future, namely array cameras. ...To meet the anticipated demand growth for its LCOS and WLO products, the Company is expanding its production capacity starting in Q1 2015."

From Himax Feb 2015 investor presentation:

Himax customers

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DPReview: Canon exhibits 120MP, 2.2um pixel image sensor prototype at CP+ photography expo in Yokohama, Japan. To boost the sensor speed, Canon utilizes "parallel processing, which reads signals at high speed from multiple pixels." It seems to be the same sensor that Canon announced 4.5 years ago (see the official announcement here).

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Euronext TV: CMOSIS CEO, Luc Demey, rang the closing bell at Euronext Stock Exchange in Brussels, Belgium:

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EETimes publishes an interview with Pierre Cambou, one of the authors of Yole's recent report on CMOS sensor market. Yole predicts that the next trend will likely be 3-D Hybrid CMOS image sensors that by-pass the TSVs for high precision direct copper-to-copper wafer bonding, allowing per-pixel interconnects between the wafers:


Another interesting point is that Yole seems to be too conservative estimating the image sensor market growth in its reports:

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GlobeNewswire: FLIR is partnering with TowerJazz to manufacture its next generation IR technology to smartphone, security, industrial and other markets. "The partnership between TowerJazz and FLIR has been excellent. Together, we have rapidly implemented a state of the art manufacturing capability in Newport Beach, CA. The Newport Beach site can facilitate commercial, ITAR (International Traffic in Arms Regulations), and more recently Category 1A & 1B "Trusted" services through our subsidiary, Jazz Semiconductor Trusted Foundry (JSTF), as accredited by the U.S. Department of Defense. In particular, we developed an industry leading capability for advanced micro thermal pixel array production," said David Howard, Executive Director and Fellow, TowerJazz.

These micro thermal pixel arrays include novel, high density pixels that enable FLIR to offer more powerful sensors with higher resolution in compact form factors. "When we combine the micro thermal arrays with integrated FLIR wafer level optics, software and MSX technology with TowerJazz process and manufacturing capability, we are able to deliver breakthrough product performance and value," said Tom Surran, COO at FLIR Systems.

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Image Sensors and Imaging Systems 2015 conference announces the best paper and the best student paper at its Plenary Session today.

The Best Paper Award is "2.2um BSI CMOS image sensor with two layer photodetector", H. Sasaki, A. Mochizuki, Y. Sugiura, R. Hasumi, K. Eda, Y. Egawa, H. Yamashita, K. Honda, H. Ootani, T. Asami, TOSHIBA CORP., T. Ohguro, H. Momose, Y. Toyoshima, TOSHIBA MATERIALS CO Ltd.

The Best Student Paper Award goes to "Multi-camera synchornization code implemented on USB3-based FPGA platform", R. Sousa, Univ. da Madeira, M. Wäny, P. Santos, AWAIBA Lda, M. Diaz, Univ da Madeira and Madeira Interactive Technologies Institute.

Thanks to AD for the info!

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Samsung marketing publishes a couple of slides showing the mobile imaging importance:

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The Guardian, Democrat & Chronicle: Ling (Jim) Tan, CEO and Owner of Dynamax Imaging has been killed, alledgely by his 19-year old son. Dynamax Imaging used to be Panavision Imaging, and, before that, was an image sensor group of Silicon Image. Silicon Image got this group by acquiring Photon Vision Systems (PVS).

Update: Wayne Post adds few bits of info on Dynamax and its CEO: "The company was formerly based in Homer, in Cortland County, but in 2013 relocated to the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering's (CNSE) Smart System Technology and Commercialization Center of Excellence (STC) on Campus Drive in Canandaigua. The move was needed after the company outgrew its former Homer home.

When the announcement of the move to Ontario County came about in March 2013, Dynamax brought in excess of $3 million in equipment, plus 100 jobs, at the STC over a three- to five-year time span. The majority of the company's engineers, scientists and researchers from other U.S. locations moved to STC in 2013."

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International Business Strategies, Inc, forecasts image sensor market growth and partitioning (slide #16):


and says that image sensor fabs live long lives (slide 25):

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Digitimes Research believes that China will be acquiring many Western semiconductor companies, which Omnivision being one of them.

"Establishing world-class IDMs is one of China's potential policy goals under the 13th Five-Year Plan. To accomplish this, a mature IC industry supply chain will be required. Making acquisitions of foreign companies to complement the existing IC industry supply chain is one of the best ways. Acquiring foreign companies that have technological competitiveness would allow China's IC industry to improve its technology capability. Moreover, the establishment of a CNY120 billion national investment fund will assist China's local IC firms to make acquisitions overseas. Digitimes Research believes that China-based IC design houses would complete more mergers and acquisitions overseas during the 13th Five-Year Plan period."

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Sharp Challenge for Change Magazine publishes an article on its colorized NIR camera developed with National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST). The CCD-based camera uses IR LEDs to illuminate a night scene and somehow manages to reconstruct the color image:

"...because near infrared light has a completely different composition than visible light, these must be reconstructed as colors close to those that we can see. In other words, in the theory of capturing color at night, an object is irradiated with invisible near infrared rays—not the visible light we normally see. Light reflects back off the object and the colors of this light’s various wavelengths are analysed and subsequently reproduced as the colors we can see.

Although capturing color in the dark is based on sound theory, actually putting this theory into a working product presented Sharp with a number of challenges. But we knew that if such a product could be realized, then even objects existing in total darkness could be seen in color. Sharp thus proceeded to pool all of its resources into overcoming the obstacles."

"We had finally succeeded in developing technology for a single device capable of capturing color during both day and night. But realizing a totally new pixel structure would require highly advanced technology. Pooling the vast experience of our engineers with 40 years of experience and technology accumulated in the CCD development field, we embarked upon exhaustive trial-and-error testing that made use of our existing semiconductor manufacturing equipment. Our engineers were practically master craftsmen in the way they made fine adjustments to create the substrate. Most of the development period was taken up in reworking our existing semiconductor fabrication equipment so that it would carry out automated mass production of the new CCD."

The color night-vision camera won the Digital Imaging Award in the CEATEC JAPAN 2014, Innovation Awards “As Selected by U.S. Journalists” and the Japan Brand Award in the 2014 10 Best New Product Awards, sponsored by the Nikkan Kogyo Shimbun, Ltd.

NIR image as seen by regular camera

Same image reproduced by Sharp color night camera

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CMOSIS opens a subsidiary CMOSIS America LLC in Raleigh, NC, established in January 2015. Bruce Bradford serves as Director of Business Development managing U.S. operations and to grow CMOSIS' business and customer base in the Americas. “With the establishment of CMOSIS America LLC we have committed a substantial investment in our local presence in the U.S. to better support our existing American customer base and pursue new business opportunities,” said Lou Hermans, COO of CMOSIS.

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Intel keeps investing in more and more RealSense promotional videos:

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PhoneDog Youtube channel evaluates Intel RealSense rear camera inside Dell Venue 8 7000 tablet. The 3D camera measurements are proved to be fairly accurate:



Tom's Hardware RealSense accuracy tests has shown more mixed results with some measurements being significantly off:


Update: Intel posts a video promoting the RealSense measurement feature:

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Sony patent application US20150029374 "Image sensor, manufacturing apparatus and method, and imaging apparatus" by Yoshiaki Kitano proposes a back-illuminated sensor where at least some of SF, SEL and RST and even TG transistors are placed in a layer grown on top of the photodiode - possibly a local epi, although Sony does not use this word. The transistors are FinFET-like, sort of. Since FinFETs have almost no bulk, the SF gain should be much closer to unity and its effective gate cap should be minimal. The PD area can be expanded to almost whole pixel area:


Update: While we are at Sony news many times this week, WSJ quotes Masahiro Ono, an analyst at Morgan Stanley MUFG Securities, saying "Sony’s image sensors are the best in the world and are at least four years ahead of their competitors." If Sony manages to release this FinFET pixel into production, I would agree with that 4 years ahead claim.

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ON Semiconductor reports Q4 2014 results showing that image sensor products now constitute 19% of the company revenues. ON Semi CFO, Bernard Gutmann, says: "Revenue for our Image Sensor Group was approximately $166 million, as compared to approximately $104 million in the third quarter. The increase of approximately $62 million was driven primarily by inclusion of Aptina for the full quarter."


Other notable quotes from the earnings call:

"Integration of Truesense is effectively complete, and integration of Aptina Imaging is progressing well. For the fourth quarter, Aptina was nicely accretive to our non-GAAP net income, which excludes the impact of such items as costs related to restructuring, fair market value step up of inventory, amortization of intangibles, and other special items. We remain on track to deliver projected financial results provided at the time of announcement of our acquisition of Aptina."

"Based on our experience with the business during last few months, I am very confident of archiving the profitability targets for Aptina. In fact, I am pleased to report that financial performance of Aptina so far has significantly exceeded our expectations. Aptina should enable us to drive growth in the industrial and automotive market in a significant manner. The strategic value of Aptina was further reinforced by extremely positive reaction from many of our customers, especially in the automotive and industrial end-markets."

"Demand from action sports camera customers was stronger than expected during the quarter for our image sensor solutions. We continued to see increasing adoption of 13 megapixel image sensor solutions for mainstream consumer mobile designs. There was also a strong push for Fast Focus and OIS solutions at 13 megapixel and higher."

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Sony quarterly earnings presentation reports strong image sensor sales, revises upwards the yearly sales forecast:


The updated semiconductor business fact sheet from Feb 4, 2015 shows a steady progress of image sensor sales:

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