Archives for December 2017

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Chronocam CEO Luca Verre talks about the company's bio-inspired approach to vision at Hello Tomorrow Summit 2017:

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NHK, Brookman, TSMC, and University of Tokyo publish an open-access IEEE TED paper "A 1.1- μm 33-Mpixel 240-fps 3-D-Stacked CMOS Image Sensor With Three-Stage Cyclic-Cyclic-SAR Analog-to-Digital Converters" by Toshiki Arai, Toshio Yasue, Kazuya Kitamura, Hiroshi Shimamoto, Tomohiko Kosugi, Sung-Wook Jun, Satoshi Aoyama, Ming-Chieh Hsu, Yuichiro Yamashita, Hirofumi Sumi, and Shoji Kawahito. The paper describes, basically, a 1-inch 8K video sensor with a slow-motion function:

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Omnivision patent application US20170345851 "Graded-Semiconductor Image Sensor" by Dajiang Yang, Gang Chen, Duli Mao, and Dyson Tai propose SiGe graded epi doping to enhace IR response:

"Detection of infrared (IR) light is useful in automotive and night vision applications. However, conventional image sensor devices may poorly absorb infrared light due to the band structure of semiconductor materials used in modern microelectronic devices. Even if conventional image sensors can absorb IR light, the semiconductor may need to be sufficiently thick. Additional semiconductor thickness may complicate other fabrication steps and/or reduce performance."

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OSA Optica publishes a paper "Photon-number-resolving megapixel image sensor at room temperature without avalanche gain" by Jiaju Ma, Saleh Masoodian, Dakota Starkey, and Eric Fossum, Dartmouth College, NH, USA. From the abstrac t:

"Termed a quanta image sensor, the device is implemented in a commercial stacked (3D) backside-illuminated CMOS image sensor process. Without the use of avalanche multiplication, the 1.1 μm pixel-pitch device achieves 0.21e−  rms average read noise with average dark count rate per pixel less than 0.2e−/s, and 1040 fps readout rate. This novel platform technology fits the needs of high-speed, high-resolution, and accurate photon-counting imaging for scientific, space, security, and low-light imaging as well as a broader range of other applications."

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DisruptorDaily publishes an interview with Almalence CEO Eugene Panich talking about the recent developments in mobile imaging. The most interesting part talks about 1-inch smartphone cameras:

"Our recent development, a collapsible camera system having just 3 millimeters in height and utilizing 1-inch sensor, normally found in those big cameras. (To compare – your smartphone camera normally has 1/3 inch or 1/2.4 inch sensor, collecting ten times less light). To accommodate such a big sensor, our camera module pops up when you need to take a shot and collapses into a slim structure on standby, allowing the users to take images that only a DSLR could take and still fitting in the pocket form factor of a mobile phone."

I can imagine a global CIS wafer capacity shortage, if indeed the whole mobile industry starts a transition to 1-inch cameras.

Almalence site shows some of its customers and partner companies:

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BusinessWire: Rockwell Automation acquires Odos Imaging, a Scottish maker of pulsed ToF cameras for industrial imaging applications. Rockwell Automation will apply this technology to sensing products to deliver solutions to a broad range of demanding industrial applications including automotive and general assembly, packaging and material handling, and logistics.

“We are delighted to be joining Rockwell Automation and continue the development of 3-D imaging solutions for industrial applications,” said Chris Yates, CEO, Odos Imaging. “Rockwell Automation is a company we have long admired for its ongoing commitment to innovation and substantial domain expertise. We very much look forward to playing our part in the ongoing strategy and helping to achieve the vision of a productive and sustainable future.”

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X-FAB announces the expansion of its 180 nm XH018 mixed-signal CMOS process with three new transistors: a 1.8 V low-noise NMOS, a 3.3 V low-noise NMOS and a 3.3 V low-noise PMOS – all of which offer drastically reduced flicker noise compared to standard CMOS offerings.

The new 1.8 V low-noise NMOS transistor introduced by X-FAB delivers an improvement factor of eight times lower flicker noise compared to the standard XH018 device. The new 3.3 V low-noise NMOS transistor gives up to ten times lower flicker noise, while the flicker noise for the 3.3 V low-noise PMOS transistor that complements it is halved for all drain currents.

Although XH018 process is not an image sensor process, it offers a photodiode module. It's not immediately clear whether the new transistors can be used in X-FAB's XS018 180nm image sensor-dedicated process.

Luigi Di Capua, Director Marketing at X-FAB, commented: “X-FAB has been setting the benchmark for low-noise performance in its 350 nm technology for many years. We are proud to now also offer industry-leading low-noise devices via our 180 nm XH018 platform. By adding just one extra mask layer, all three ultra-low-noise transistors can be incorporated into noise-sensitive circuit designs.”

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Espros November edition of its newsletter (email-only, yet to be posted on their web site) shows an extensive ToF sensors lineup:

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Northwestern University, Evanston, IL and Rice University, Houston, TX researches publish a paper "CS-ToF: High-resolution compressive time-of-flight imaging" by Fengqiang Li, Huaijin Chen, Adithya Pediredla, Chiakai Yeh, Kuan He, Ashok Veeraraghavan, and Oliver Cossairt. The authors propose to use a dynamically changing illumination pattern to improve ToF sensor resolution:

"Based on the proposed architecture, we developed a prototype 1-megapixel compressive ToF camera that achieves as much as 4× improvement in spatial resolution and 3× improvement for natural scenes. We believe that our proposed CS-ToF architecture provides a simple and low-cost solution to improve the spatial resolution of ToF and related sensors."

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