Archives for June 2017

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EETimes: Corephotonics shares its experience on combining the images from two cameras - a wide angle and a tele- ones. The image fusion presents a number of challenges:

Image Fusion Must Deal with Dual Camera Occlusions

Wide and Tele Images with Different Depth of Field

Smart Decision Making

Image fusion artifacts in Apple's iPhone7+

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BusinessWire: ON Semi new 29MP KAI-29052 CCD provides up to twice the sensitivity of the existing KAI-29050 in the wavelength range of 500 nm to 1050 nm. This enhanced pixel design retains isolation of charge from one photodiode to another, enabling this increase in sensitivity without any reduction to image sharpness (MTF). In addition, an improved amplifier design reduces read noise by 15%, increasing the linear DR to 66 dB.

“The evolving needs of industrial imaging applications such as high end security, machine vision, and aerial surveillance and mapping require continued advancements in the portfolio of image sensors serving this market,” said Herb Erhardt, VP and GM, Industrial Solutions Division, Image Sensor Group at ON Semiconductor. “The enhanced performance available from the KAI-29052 is a further demonstration of ON Semiconductor’s ongoing commitment to provide the most advanced CCD and CMOS image sensors for these demanding markets.”

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CMOSIS has been renamed to ams Sensors Belgium.

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Sony subsidiary Softkinetic presents a BSI ToF sensor with a 10µm pixel pitch, which the company calls "the industry's smallest". As as side note, Microsoft Kinect 2 camera has 10um ToF pixel too, available on the mass market since 2013. The Softkinetic's proprietary Current Assisted Photonic Demodulator ("CAPD") pixel architecture is capable of 100MHz high-speed modulation using drift current in the pixel, allowing for 1.5x longer distance. The new pixel light collection efficiency is equivalent to that of a 15µm pixel pitch FSI sensor, but using a BSI with a 10µm pixel pitch.

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GPixel announces a 43MP global shutter sensor, a high QE BSI sensor and a line scan TDI sensor:


43MP GMAX0806 GS sensor features:

• 7915 × 5436 resolution
• pixel size 2.8μm
• maximum frame rate up to 180fps
• read the noise 2e-
• aimed to high-end industrial testing, Film machine, aviation railway detection, astronomical applications and more

GSENSE2020BSI features:

• 4MP resolution
• pixel size 6.5μm
• peak QE greater than 90%
• readout noise 0.8e-
• aimed to biological microscopy, spectral Imaging, astronomical imaging and other areas.

GL0816 linescan TDI sensor features:

• 8322 × 16 linear array
• on-chip 2 TDI
• maximum frame rate up to 130kHz
• peak QE higher than 70%
• read the noise 2.4e-
• aimed to high-speed industrial testing, machine vision

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Bart Dierickx, Caeleste CTO and CEO, kindly permitted me to reproduce his IISW 2017 poster "How to hand-calculate MTF in front-side and backside illuminated image sensors" written by himself, Jean Bourgain, and Bert Luyssaert. Everybody is invited to download and use the spreadsheet with the quick calculations. Bart says he would be happy if as many people as possible review it, comment, and, possibly, find ways to improve it:

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Albert Theuwissen concludes his IISW review series. Part 4 talks about Invisage sensor performance, GS pixels, and more.

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International Image Sensor Society publishes part of the papers presented at 3rd International Workshop on Image Sensor and Systems (IWISS2016). The following papers have been published:

• [Invited-01] Ion implantation technology for image sensors (Prof. Nobukazu Teranishi, Dr. Genshu Fuse*, and Dr. Michiro Sugitani*, Shizuoka Univ./ Univ. of Hyogo, *Sumitomo Heavy Industries Ion Technology Co., Ltd., Japan)
• [Invited-02] 3D-stacking architecture for low-noise high-speed image sensors (Prof. Shoji Kawahito, Shizuoka Univ., Japan)
• [Invited-03] A Dead-time free global shutter stacked CMOS image sensor with in-pixel LOFIC and ADC using pixel-wise connections (Prof. Rihito Kuroda, Mr. Hidetake Sugo, Mr. Shunichi Wakashima, and Prof. Shigetoshi Sugawa, Tohoku Univ., Japan)
• [Invited-04] 3D stacked image sensor featuring low noise inductive coupling channels (Prof. Masayuki Ikebe, Dr. Daisuke Uchida, Dr. Yasuhiro Take*, Prof. Tetsuya Asai, Prof. Tadahiro Kuroda*, and Prof. Masato Motomura, Hokkaido Univ., *Keio Univ., Japan)
• [Invited-05] Low-noise CMOS image sensors towards single-photon detection (Prof. Min-Woong Seo, Prof. Keiichiro Kagawa, Prof. Keita Yasutomi, and Prof. Shoji Kawahito, Shizuoka Univ., Japan)
• [Invited-06] Bioluminescence imaging in living animals (Prof. Takahiro Kuchimaru, Prof. Tetsuya Kadonosono, Prof. Shinae Kizaka-Kondoh, Tokyo Inst. of Tech., Japan)
• [Invited-07] Restoration of a Poissonian-Gaussian color moving-image sequence (Prof. Takahiro Saito and Mr. Takashi Komatsu, Kanagawa Univ., Japan)
• [Invited-10] Power-efficient Delta Readout Scheme utilizing Multi-Column-Parallel SAR ADCs (Mr. Hyun-June Kim, Mr. Sun-Il Hwang, and Prof. Seung-Tak Ryu, KAIST, Korea)
• [Invited-12] Various ultra-high-speed imaging and applications by streak camera (Mr. Koro Uchiyama, Hamamatsu Photonics K. K., Japan)
• [Invited-13] Clock management in high range resolution time-of-flight range imagers (Prof. Keita Yasutomi and Prof. Shoji Kawahito, Shizuoka Univ., Japan)
• [Invited-15] Application of light-sheet microscopy to cell and development biology (Prof. Shigenori Nonaka, National Inst. for Basic Biology, Japan)
• [Invited-16] Non-contact video based estimation for heart rate variability spectrogram using ambient light by extracting hemoglobin information (Prof. Norimichi Tsumura, Chiba Univ. , Japan)
• [Invited-18] Extremely compact hyperspectral camera for drone and smartphone (Prof. Ichiro Ishimaru, Kagawa Univ., Japan)

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Albert Theuwissen publishes the third part of his IISW 2017 review. This part goes through ADC architectures, pixel linearization, and more.

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PRNewswire: Inuitive releases its latest reference design, the Veronica. Designed to fit into VR Head Mounted Displays, Smart Glasses, Robots and Drones, the Veronica features a 120x90 deg FoV of view depth sensing. The Veronica hosts Inuitive's NU3000 3D Imaging and Vision processor on a single platform delivering 120fps SLAM based navigation for consumers.

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PRNewswire: Socionext introduces the new SC2002 Milbeaut ISP targeting security camera applications. The SC2002 is Nicknamed "M11S" and features:

• Performance: HEVC/H.264/JPEG 3MP@60fps
• Multi thread: 16 threads
• Noise reduction: 3DNR, 2DNR
• Digital WDR: Digital Overlapping WDR 2 or 3 frames
• ATR-EX (Adaptive tone reproduction)
• Rotation image: Horizontal mirror, Vertical flip, 90/180/270 degrees
• Electronic zoom: x 1/16 to x 16
• On-Chip detector for AE/AWB/AF, Auto IRIS (PWM control), Day/Night
• Static/Dynamic White Black pixel detection and compensation
• Programmable gamma correction
• Defog
• HLC (Highlight Compensation)
• Simple-LDC (Lens Distortion Correction)
• IR optimizer
• Privacy mask
• Face Detection
• Object Detection
• Tampering alert
• Trip Wire

Samples of the new processor are now available.

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Digitimes: Sony gives priority to Apple, Huawei, Oppo and Vivo for CIS supply, according to the newspaper's sources. Other companies, such as Asus and HTC, have to source CIS from OmniVision and Samsung, the sources indicated.

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