Archives for November 2017

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CEI-Europe announces the 100th Anniversary Digital Image Sensors Course by Professor Albert J.P. Theuwissen. Since 1999, Professor Theuwissen has trained and helped engineers across the world to enhance their skills and know-how about Solid-State Imaging, Image Sensors Technology, and Digital Camera Systems.

On November 13-15, 2017 in Barcelona, Spain (or in Catalonia?), he will train the 100th group of engineers for CEI-Europe.

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Image Sensors World        Go to the original article...

Huaian Imaging Device Manufacturer Corporation (HIDM) is a new image sensor startup in China that starts big - from building its own 12-inch CIS wafer fab. The CEO and founder of HIDM is ST Hsia, previously served as Global VP of SMIC, VP of NEC, CEO of Ether, and Chief Director of PROMOS & VIS. There is very little known about the new company founded on Jan. 19, 2016:

"Startup Huaian Imaging Device Manufacturer (HIDM) plans to build a 12-inch fab in Huaian, Jiangsu province, with production capacity set at 20,000 wafers monthly. Founded in 2016, HIDM specializes in the design and manufacture of CMOS image sensor devices."

Apparently, it is the licensee of ON Semi discontinued mobile products and the related IP:

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Image Sensors World        Go to the original article...

IC Insights report on optoelectronics market predicts an acceleration in image sensor sales growth:

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iFixit publishes a nice video analyzing iPhone X Face ID operation in IR light and attempts to trick it:

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Image Sensors World        Go to the original article...

TechInsights is quick to publish iPhone X Face ID hardware internals, with more details to follow:


iFixit too publishes its first teardown pictures, including well-cushioned dual rear camera:


iFixit publishes an IR video showing how the IR pattern projector flashes:

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Engadget: Sony develops "New Concept Cart SC-1" equipped with image sensors on all four sides of the vehicle. These 35mm full-frame BSI sensors are said to be able to see better than the human eye and open up a number of special features. Their ultra-high sensitivity is said to give the driver an unobstructed view even when driving at night without headlights. The image sensors allow users to take in their surroundings, eliminating the need for windows. SC-1's integrated image sensors provide a 360-degree view of all directions to give awareness of the car environment.

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Korea-based Nextchip publishes a video about its automotive imaging and vision processor:

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Embedded Vision Alliance publishes a preview of LG Senior Director of Technology and Product Planning Paul Gallagher talk on "Coming Shift from Image Sensors to Image Sensing":


TechInsights publishes a teardown report of Huawei flagship smartphone Mate 10. Its cameras cost about 12% of the total cost, not including a ToF module:

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Luminous Landscape publishes an article by Doug Peterson on the recently announced Phase One Trichromatic image sensor explaining the science behind it. There is a striking difference between the marketing presentation and what has been really done.

Here is how Phase One marketing presents Trichromatic color filter:


However, the real color response looks quite different:


The main color filter improvements developed together with Sony are:

• The amount of overlap between the red, green, and blue spectral responses is decreased and is steeper
• The improved “tail clipping” cleans color contamination
• Near-UV cut
• Colors balanced with respect to how much light pixels see

Thanks to TG for the pointer!

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HRL Laboratories receives an award from the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA), within the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, to develop spherically curved short-wave (SWIR) and medium wave (MWIR) infrared image sensors. This research will build on curved visible-light image sensor technology developed at HRL. The goal of the 12-month program is to develop fundamental technology and gain a better understanding of the effects of the bending process on the performance of III-V semiconductor SWIR and MWIR image sensors.

"Infrared sensors and their optics have different challenges than visible light imagers,” said Geoff McKnight, HRL’s principal investigator on the project. “One of which is that they often must be operated at very low temperatures, which introduces thermal stresses from the contraction of the sensors. After curving the sensors, we will have to cool them to cryogenic temperature for operation, and the combination of the thermal stresses and bending stresses may potentially degrade or fracture the detectors.”

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Fujitsu develops 3D camera to improve scoring in gymnastics, as shown in the company's Youtube video:

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Imec Magazine article "Image sensor combining the best of different worlds" by Jonathan Borremans and Piet De Moor presents the BSI TDI image sensor based on CCD-in-CMOS process:

TDI principle, using 8 rows of pixels

Time delay integration using CCD-in-CMOS

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AutoSens TV Youtube channel publishes interviews from demo session at the conference. Some interesting examples:

Beat de Coi, CEO of ESPROS Photonics:



SensL's Edel Cashman explains how SiPM sensors could be used in lidar of the future:



Tarek Lule and Sylvie Gounet from ST demonstrate LED flicker-free imaging solutions:



Chronocam CEO Luca Verre talks about the company and the technology:



Geoff Ballew from On Semi talks about sensor fusion:

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Oprics.org: Ford autonomous driving division Argo.ai acquires LiDAR startup Princeton Lightwave developing "Geiger-mode" flash LiDAR.

Argo's CEO Bryan Salesky says: "We can’t talk about a future of self-driving cars without mentioning LiDAR technology — and we won’t be able to build that future without it. These sensors are crucial to creating a three-dimensional view of the world that helps autonomous vehicles find where they are on the road and detect other vehicles, pedestrians and cyclists.

To accelerate our mission to realize the self-driving future, Argo has acquired Princeton Lightwave, a company with extensive experience in the development and commercialization of LiDAR sensors."

The receive side of GeigerCruiser ADAS LiDAR is based on an array of "Geiger-mode avalanche photodiode (GmAPD)" working in 1.06um and 1.55um bands:

"The camera can collect sub-nanosecond resolution timestamps for arbitrarily long periods of time as well as emulate gated (framed) operation, and the sensor can generate timestamps at rates of nearly 1 Gsamples/second. The sensor engine of the camera is a focal plane array (FPA) with hexagonal geometry pixels on a 65.8 µm pixel pitch formatted in a rectangular imaging area of 2.1 mm x 1.8 mm. The FPA is assembled by flip-chip bonding an InP/InGaAsP GmAPD detector array to a custom CMOS readout integrated circuit (ROIC) and then attaching a GaP microlens array to the GmAPD array to provide a high optical fill factor. The hermetically sealed FPA housing has an integrated two-stage thermoelectric cooler to maintain appropriate operating temperature with closed-loop feedback adjustment."

The company presents a video demo of the ADAS LiDAR: "The video contains point clouds collected and processed in real-time from the GeigerCruizer Demo System as it was driven in the vicinity of our headquarters in Cranbury NJ. Objects are detected beyond 300 meters and at reflectances of 10%, with angular resolutions to 1 mrad. In addition, imaging is shown in inclement weather conditions, such as snow and fog, as well as through obscurants such as water and dirt on the GeigerCruizer’s window."



PRNewswire: In another LiDAR news, MEMS scanning LiDAR startup Innoviz expands its series B investing round by $8m with Samsung Catalist and Korean branch of SoftBank joining this round. Together this brings the B round to $73m, added to $9m raised in round A.

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