Archives for January 2018

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Digitimes Research forecasts that 3D sensing market, which receives a lot of attention since iPhone X Face ID technology introduces in November 2017, will reach $9-10 billion by 2020.

3D sensing can also be applied to industrial automation, aerospace, smart medical care and smart home-use devices.

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FLIR publishes a Youtube video on thermal camera advantages in ADAS:

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MDPI Special Issue on 2017 International Image Sensor Workshop publishes UK Open University paper "Design and Performance of a Pinned Photodiode CMOS Image Sensor Using Reverse Substrate Bias" by Konstantin Stefanov, Andrew Clarke, James Ivory, and Andrew Holland. The paper presents a scheme of pixel implants to extend the depletion and improve IR QE:

"The sensor uses traditional PPDs with one additional deep implantation step to suppress the parasitic reverse currents, and can be fully depleted. The first prototypes have been manufactured on an 18 µm thick, 1000 Ω·cm epitaxial silicon wafers using 180 nm PPD image sensor process. Both front-side illuminated (FSI) and back-side illuminated (BSI) devices were manufactured in collaboration with Teledyne e2v. The characterization results from a number of arrays of 10 µm and 5.4 µm PPD pixels, with different shape, the size and the depth of the new implant are in good agreement with device simulations. The new pixels could be reverse-biased without parasitic leakage currents well beyond full depletion, and demonstrate nearly identical optical response to the reference non-modified pixels. The observed excessive charge sharing in some pixel variants is shown to not be a limiting factor in operation. This development promises to realize monolithic PPD CIS with large depleted thickness and correspondingly high quantum efficiency at near-infrared and soft X-ray wavelengths."

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PresseAgentur: Infineon and PMD announce a ToF module for 3D Face Unlock functionality in smartphones. The module footprint is less than 12 mm x 8 mm, including the receiving optics and VCSEL illumination. The REAL3 chip has 38,000 pixels with each pixel featuring the unique Suppression of Background Illumination (SBI) circuitry. It is tuned to work at 940nm infrared light making the projected light invisible and improving the outdoor performance. Furthermore, the IRS238xC integrates a dedicated function to support Laser-Class-1 safety level of the complete solution.

Samples of the new Infineon 3D image sensor chip are already available. Volume production is scheduled to start in Q4 2018. Software partners like Sensible Vision Inc. and IDEMIA offer application software for user face detection and authentication.

Market forecasts are said to expect smartphones with 3D sensing functionality to increase from about 50 million units in the year 2017 to roughly 290 million units in 2019.


Infineon also releases a white paper about ToF advantages over the structured light and stereo approaches:

• The ToF image sensor chip directly measures the distance to objects. In other 3D technologies, the distance is calculated via complex algorithms. Thus, ToF is faster, more reliable and is saving power at the application processor.
• Modulated infrared light is emitted to the whole scenery. With each of its 38,000 pixels, the 3D image sensor chip measures the time the infrared light takes to travel from the camera to the object and back again. Each pixel detects the phase delay of the reflected light resulting in highly reliable distance information and, simultaneously, a grey scale picture of the complete scene: face authentication becomes possible even through a single frame data acquisition.
• A microlens is applied to each pixel in a specific manufacturing step developed by Infineon. Thus, despite the small pixel size of 14 x 14µm the high optical sensitivity provides very low power consumption during operation.
• ToF is unbeatable in outdoor performance. The new image sensor chip is tuned to work at 940 nm and features the unique Suppression of Background Illumination (SBI) circuitry in each pixel. Structured light cameras do not deliver any usable depth data in such sunny conditions, even with twice the illumination peak power.
• The ToF camera module design is simple and robust. The camera consists of only two key components: the image sensor chip and the illumination component, without the need of any mechanical baseline between them. The result are very small camera modules with a high flexibility of integration into a mobile phone and a lean and fast calibration procedure. The bill-of-material (BoM) is expected to be less than USD 10 in high volume in 2019.

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PRNewswire: OmniVision and Taiwan-based VATICS announce a Nyxel IR-enhanced sensor-based IP camera reference design for 5MP surveillance systems.

"Our new M5S SoC is a fully integrated SoC, combining an ARM Cortex processor core, a CEVA DSP, the SmartHEVC/AVC new generation of image signal processor, a high-performance de-warping hard core, and advanced video and audio analytics. This SoC integration allows developers to create distinctive features in their applications, including 180°/360° wide-angle professional IP cameras with advanced video analytics for surveillance scenes under low- and no-light conditions using OmniVision's OS05A20 sensor," said Joseph Wei, senior marketing director at VATICS. "The M5S' low power, high dynamic range, intelligent video and audio, plus smart H.264 and H.265 can make applications such as battery-powered home and doorbell cameras more secure, accessible and smarter, while extending battery life."

"Today's surveillance cameras often fail to capture adequate details at night, making it difficult to identify intruders. Furthermore, many systems use power-hungry LEDs to augment lighting, which not only increases power consumption but also reveals the location of hidden cameras," said Roger Yeung, product marketing manager at OmniVision. "Our new OS05A20 image sensor with Nyxel technology tackles these problems with its high sensitivity to NIR light. Since NIR photons from ambient light are more prevalent at night, the OS05A20 can capture higher-resolution images by itself, reducing the need for augmented lighting."

Vatics M550S SoC

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DxOMark email distribution on 2017 milestones reports the following, among many other things:

"We’ve had an important internal change as well: In September, DxOMark Image Labs was spun off from DxO Labs. DxOMark Image Labs is now a privately-owned, independent company. As such, we continue to pursue the development and commercialization of image quality solutions and services that support our customers in designing the best-quality camera systems for a range of markets, including smartphones, DSC/DSLRs, drones, action cams, surveillance, and automotive."

Now, DxOMark reports are supposed to be more objective and less affected by DxO Labs products, such as DxO One camera.

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CEVA unveils NeuPro, a specialized Artificial Intelligence (AI) processor family for deep learning inference at the edge. This new family of dedicated AI processors offers a performance ranging from 2 Tera Ops Per Second (TOPS) for the entry-level processor to 12.5 TOPS for the most advanced configuration.

The NeuPro family comprises four AI processors offering different levels of parallel processing:

• NP500 is the smallest processor, including 512 MAC units and targeting IoT, wearables and cameras
• NP1000 includes 1024 MAC units and targets mid-range smartphones, ADAS, industrial applications and AR/VR headsets
• NP2000 includes 2048 MAC units and targets high-end smartphones, surveillance, robots and drones
• NP4000 includes 4096 MAC units for high-performance edge processing in enterprise surveillance and autonomous driving

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Digitimes: Altek announces AL6100, a stereo 3D-depth sensing and algorithm chip solution.

Altek offered its first generation AL 3200 in 2016. The first-generation chip solution was capable of real-time 30fps depth computing, the company said. AL3200 has been adopted by many China-based smartphone vendors, with cumulative shipments exceeding 10 million units, Altek says.

AL6100, an upgraded version of AL 3200, is combined with infrared light control to improve quality of information on depth of images and depth computing. AL6100 can be used in smartphones, surveillance cameras, autonomous driving, smart-home devices, drones and cleaning robots and will come into production in Q1 2018.

Altek 2015 presentation talks about its first-gen solution:

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PRWeb: DIBOTICS and automotive glass manufacturer AGC AUTOMOTIVE were able to integrate LiDAR sensors behind the windshield. The reasons why integration of LiDAR inside the vehicle is said to be a major step for industry:

• The LiDAR sensor is fully protected inside the vehicle cabin and does not require extensive sealing
• The aperture of the LiDAR is kept clear in all conditions with windshield features (wipers, defrosting, …)
• LiDAR is fully effective in a high mounting position, for the best long-range vision
• The LiDAR data can be combined with other sensors around the car to offer the best redundancy of data
• Each sensor is totally hidden inside the vehicle, behind IR glass windshield and/or behind IR glass trims

As automotive glass manufacturer AGC Automotive has created a dedicated entity, totally devoted to autonomous vehicles and LiDAR integration: WIDEYE:


Ars Technica believes that cheaper and better LiDARs are right around the corner:

"Nobody knows how long it will take to build cost-effective automotive-grade lidar. But all of the experts we talked to were optimistic. They pointed to the many previous generations of technology—from handheld calculators to antilock brakes—that became radically cheaper as they were manufactured at scale. Lidar appears to be on a similar trajectory, suggesting that in the long run, lidar costs won't be a barrier to mainstream adoption of self-driving cars."

Just 3 months after Platform 2.1 presentation, Toyota Research Institute (TRI) unveils its next-generation automated driving research vehicle, Platform 3.0, heavily relying on Luminar LiDARs:

"The Luminar LIDAR system with 200-meter range, which had only tracked the forward direction on TRI’s previous test platform, now covers the vehicle’s complete 360-degree perimeter. This is enabled by four high-resolution LIDAR scanning heads, which precisely detect objects in the environment including notoriously difficult-to-see dark objects.

Shorter-range LIDAR sensors [appear to be Velodyne] are positioned low on all four sides of the vehicle – one in each front quarter panel and one each on the front and rear bumpers. These can detect low-level and smaller objects near the car like children and debris in the roadway. The new platform remains flexible for incorporating future breakthrough technology as it becomes available."




BusinessWire: Quanergy announces opening of a new production factory in Sunnyvale, CA. The produces Quanergy’s S3 solid state LiDAR sensor. With the commissioning of this facility, Quanergy says it is the only company to mass produce solid state 3D LiDAR sensors to date.

“This manufacturing facility represents our most significant milestone to date in realizing Quanergy’s goal to bring capable, reliable, and affordable electronically-steered solid state LiDAR sensors to mass market,” said Louay Eldada, founder and CEO of Quanergy.

"The sales price of the S3 currently varies between several hundred and a few hundred dollars (so says PR text), depending on the quantity ordered. With higher levels of integration in future sensor generations on the product roadmap, Quanergy estimates the price will drop below $100 per sensor."

The initial goal is to reach a 200,000-unit yearly production pace by the second half of 2018 and then push that to 1 million sensors a year from 2019, according to Quanergy, adds Forbes.

Quanergy automated LiDAR factory

Quanergy S3 LiDAR

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The new Samsung Exynos 9 Series 9810 AP has a number of optimizations for imaging and video in smartphones:

"Exynos 9810 introduces sophisticated features to enhance user experiences with neural network-based deep learning and stronger security on the most advanced mobile devices. This cutting-edge technology allows the processor to accurately recognize people or items in photos for fast image searching or categorization, or through depth sensing, scan a user’s face in 3D for hybrid face detection. By utilizing both hardware and software, hybrid face detection enables realistic face-tracking filters as well as stronger security when unlocking a device with one’s face. For added security, the processor has a separate security processing unit to safeguard vital personal data such as facial, iris and fingerprint information.

The upgraded MFC [multi-format codec] supports video recording and playback at up to UHD resolution at 120 frames per second (fps). With 10-bit HEVC (high efficiency video coding) and VP9 support, the MFC can render 1,024 different tones for each primary color (red, green and blue)."

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Forza Silicon publishes a Youtube video on pixel size trade-offs:

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PRNewswire: OmniVision announces the OX03A10, a 2.4MP sensor for rear-view and 360-degree surround-view automotive cameras. The OX03A10 leverages OmniVision's BSI-2 and Deep Well pixel technologies.

"With a dual-exposure HDR of 120 dB and industry-leading low-light sensitivity, the OX03A10 meets the automotive industry's most demanding requirements," said Will Foote, senior automotive marketing manager at OmniVision Technologies. "Acceptance by multiple tier-1 manufacturers are evidence that the industry appreciates the performance advantages and packaging options that this image sensor offers."

The OX03A10 addresses several issues with existing HDR image sensors, such as motion artifacts when taking multiple images and performance lags in low-light conditions. The OX03A10's HDR can deliver high quality images at up to 90 dB with single exposure and no motion artifacts, and up to 120 dB with double exposure. Additionally, OmniVision's state-of-the-art BSI-2 technology allows the sensor to combine low power consumption with superior image quality.

The OX03A10 image sensors are currently sampling.


PRNewswire: OmniVision also announces the OX01B40, a color CMOS sensor and an ISP, connected together in a single, 8.5 x 8.5 mm package. The OX01B40 system-in-package (SiP) can deliver 120 dB HDR for automotive cameras. The OX01B40, on the other hand, provides three options: digital video port (DVP), MIPI serial interface, and NTSC analog interface.

"Connecting the image sensor and ISP in a single package provides the smallest form factor for HD cameras today, enabling the design of an automotive viewing camera that consumers won't even notice," said Andy Hanvey, Sr. Staff marketing manager at OmniVision. "At the same time, we keep system costs down and reduce developers' engineering issues by supporting three different interfaces and including all the features their customers want to see in a single package."

The OX01B40 features include:

• 2.8-micron OmniBSI-2 Deep Well pixel, enabling best in class low light performance
• HDR ISP
• Local and global tone-mapping support
• Distortion and perspective correction, which creates undistorted images at up to a 190-degree angle
• Overlay feature that supports static and dynamic overlays of up to eight independent layers
• Low power consumption below 400 mW

The OX01B40 is sampling now, with volume production expected in Q4 2018.

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BusinessWire: ON Semiconductor announced a scalable family of CMOS sensors ADAS and autonomous driving. The new family offers a choice of imaging devices based on a common platform and feature set. The AR0820AT, AR0220AT and AR0138AT sensors have resolutions scaling from 8.3MP down to 1.2MP, with improved low-light performance from 4.2 µm pixels.

“As the number of image sensors on a vehicle increases, having a scalable platform with common core features and pixel architecture becomes even more important for automakers to deliver new safety and self-driving features to market quickly and efficiently,” said Ross Jatou, VP and GM of the Automotive Solution Division at ON Semiconductor. “Our deep engagement with customers and the advanced features of our new image sensor family enable them to bridge development efforts across ADAS and autonomous driving programs.”

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BusinessWire: Xperi with its Invensas division presents a range of DBI and ZiBond milestones:

• Successful transfer of DBI technology to SMIC, one of the leading semiconductor foundries in the world, and Teledyne DALSA, one of the world’s foremost pure-play MEMS foundries, for image sensor and MEMS devices for mobile, automotive, consumer electronics and other markets.
• Sony’s back-side illuminated (BSI) image sensor utilizes DBI technology and is integrated into many of the latest premium smartphone models, including the Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus and Apple iPhone X, 8 and 8 Plus.
• Invensas’ bonding technology has been licensed by OmniVison.
• ZiBond technology is used in the industry’s first three-layer stacked CMOS image sensor with DRAM for smartphones from Sony.

Xperi image processing division Fotonation presents its IP products lineup:

• IrisXR – First in its class, highly secure (a false acceptance rate of 1 in 10 million) and with state-of-the-art liveliness detection to prevent spoofing, IrisXR is a product for the AR, VR and MR markets.
• 3D Face Recognition – Tapping into the capabilities of dual camera systems, 3DFR unleashes unprecedented accuracy in liveliness detection.
• Driver Identification – Seamless and accurate in-cabin security and customization options, based on driver identity via iris recognition technology.
• Electronic Image Stabilization – Software-hardware EIS implementation that delivers the best video experience on the move by correcting for six degrees of freedom and all distortion types.
• Face Detection X – Driven by convolutional neural networks (CNN) technology, Face Detection X is FotoNation's next-generation face analytics technology.
• Image Processing Unit – A fully programmable specialized IP core that delivers more than 20 pre-integrated features. It is highly customizable depending on the targeted market, be it mobile, home or auto.
• VR Portrait Enhancement – FotoNation’s seventh-generation face beautification suite brings together 19 dedicated features that combine the best imaging technologies available for flawless portraits in a spherical VR display space.

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LEDInside, a subsidiary of TrendForce, publishes a number of articles on future on 3D sensing:

"What impacts will 3D sensing have on smartphones after becoming an overnight sensation because of iPhone?"
"3D Sensing: Present and Future"
"3D Facial Recognition Making Its Way in Technology Ecosystems"
"Most-Mentioned Companies You Will Hear When Speaking of 3D Sensing"

Few images from the articles:


There is also an article on iris scanning "Iris Scanning and Facial Recognition Making Their Way into Consumer Electronics; IR LED Market Becomes the New Blue Ocean:"

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The 1st International SPAD Sensor Workshop will be held on Feb. 26-28, 2018 in Swiss Alps. The workshop is sponsored by IISS with financial support by SensL, STMicroelectronics, AMS, XFab, TSMC, MPD, Fastree3D, and TowerJazz. The Steering Committee selected over 20 invited speakers from the SPAD community that have been active in one of the big three themes of the workshop: SPAD Technology, Architectures, and Applications.

Online registration will open Wednesday January 10th 2018 at 8:00 am (Swiss time) and will close when maximum attendance is reached.

The Workshop location - village Christophe Racat

SPAD Workshop Agenda

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PRNewswire: OmniVision introduced the 1/2.8-inch 24MP OV24A family, built on the PureCel Plus stacked die architecture. These are OmniVision’s first 0.9um pixel sensors for smartphone applications. The PureCel Plus stacked die 0.9um pixel leverages multiple generations of pixel technologies to match the latest 1.0um pixel QE.

The OV24A sensor family consists of three products: the OV24A1Q, OV24A1B and OV24A10. All three versions of the OV24A sensors can support PDAF. The OV24A1Q, with its unique 4-cell color filter pattern, is ideal for front-facing camera applications. This sensor has an on-chip, in-pixel binning feature that captures four times more light photons than a regular 0.9um pixel for better image quality in low-light conditions. Additionally, an application can recover an image to full 24Mp resolution, when paired with OmniVision’s software.

The OV24A1B (monochrome) and OV24A10 (Bayer) are used for main-camera and/or dual-camera configurations, enabling zoom and Bokeh features, and improved low-light performance.

Additionally, increasing image quality for the rear-facing main smartphone camera remains of the utmost importance to most consumers. When it is paired in a dual-camera configuration, the OV24A10 and/or OV24A1B sensors’ 24Mp resolution provides a higher zoom ratio, portrait mode effect, and higher quality still images and video in low light.

The OV24A1Q and OV24A10 provide HDR for still images, as well as HDR video with full resolution at 30fps.

Recent studies have predicted that millennials will take over 25,000 selfies during their lifetime. Image quality is becoming an increasingly important factor in this demographic’s smartphone buying decisions. “Smartphone image quality is essential to many consumers, and social media has particularly inspired millennials to make good use of high-resolution front-facing cameras,” said James Liu, product marketing manager at OmniVision. “Our OV24A image sensor family was developed to address the needs of these savvy consumers, who expect the highest quality stills and videos from their smartphones.”

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ElectronicsMaker: Hisense Group and its subsidiary Hisense TransTech and Corephotonics unveil TransportEye stereo camera, said to have the longest detection range currently supported by any automotive stereo camera – reaching distances of up to 100m with a camera baseline of just 12cm.

“This strategic collaboration with Hisense Group is an important milestone for Corephotonics. It extends our reach beyond the mobile sector into exciting new vertical markets, such as automotive,” states David Mendlovic, CEO of Corephotonics. “The combination of our unique innovations in camera design and computational imaging, together with Hisense’s technologies and extensive production capabilities has proven essential for the success of this venture.”


The companies Youtube video demos the camera performance:

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JPL image sensing leader Shouleh Nikzad has been elected to the rank of Fellow in the National Academy of Inventors (NAI). The NAI Fellows Selection Committee chose her for induction as she “demonstrated a highly prolific spirit of innovation in creating or facilitating outstanding inventions that made a tangible impact on quality of life, economic development, and the welfare of society.”

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GlobeNewsWire: DSP Group, Emza Visual Sense, and Himax announce the WiseEye IoT, said to be the industry’s first ultra-low power, always-on, intelligent visual sensor adding human presence awareness for consumer appliances and industrial IoT applications.

DSPG’s ULE and SmartVoice solutions, Emza’s machine vision algorithms, and Himax’s low power CMOS Sensor yield a commercially available sensor capable of detecting, localizing, counting and profiling people.

“Machine learning-based sensors enhance the intelligence and functionality of any device, and our trainable WiseEye IoT solution aims at bringing these capabilities to the vast and largely untapped IoT space in both consumer and industrial domains,” said Yoram Zylberberg, CEO of Emza Visual Sense. “In DSP Group, we found a unique combination of offering that fits any IoT supplier – a low power SoC that can serve as a computing platform for our advanced algorithm and ULE modules for easy integration with IoT systems.”

“Himax CMOS Image Sensor, HM01B0, is the first to be specially designed to benefit the computer vision algorithm and we are excited to be a part of this sophisticated new joint offering from Emza and DSP Group,” commented Amit Mittra, CTO of Himax Imaging. “Low power and high performance are critical to the success of this application. Using our CMOS Image Sensor gives WiseEye the ability to bring computer vision to new applications that have been hard to reach before due to cost, performance, and power constraints.”

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BusinessWire: Velodyne LiDAR announces a cost reduction for its most popular LiDAR sensor. The VLP-16 is now offered to customers around the world for up to a 50% cost reduction.

“Demand for our VLP-16s grew tremendously in 2017. As a result, we increased capacity and now can pass along savings as cost reduction to our customers,” said David Hall, Founder and CEO, Velodyne LiDAR. “We want to make 2018 a year of optimism for the autonomous vehicle, especially as the first waves of robocabs hit the road. Our goal is the democratization of transportation safety by making it accessible to every man, woman, and child in the world as quickly as possible.”

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