Archives for May 2019

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Samsung introduces two new 0.8μm pixel CMOS sensors – the 64MP Samsung ISOCELL Bright GW1 and 48Mp ISOCELL Bright GM2. With this, Samsung expands its 0.8μm image sensor lineup from existing 20MP to 64MP resolutions.

“With more pixels and advanced pixel technologies, Samsung ISOCELL Bright GW1 and GM2 will bring a new level of photography to today’s sleekest mobile devices that will enhance and help change the way we record our daily lives,” said Yongin Park, EVP of sensor business at Samsung Electronics.

With pixel-merging Tetracell technology and remosaic algorithm, GW1 can produce 16MP images in low-light environments and highly-detailed 64MP shots in brighter settings. GW1 supports real-time HDR of up to 100dB. In comparison, the dynamic range of a conventional image sensor is at around 60dB, while that of the human eye is typically considered to be around 120dB.

GW1 is equipped with a Dual Conversion Gain (DCG) that converts the received light into an electric signal according to the illumination of the environment. This allows the sensor to optimize its FWC. Sharper results can be delivered through Super PD, a high-performance phase detection auto-focus technology, and full HD recording at 480fps is supported.

ISOCELL Bright GM2 is a 48MP image sensor that also adopts Tetracell technology in low-light environments and a remosaic algorithm in well-lit settings. GM2, like GW1, adopts DCG as well for added performance and Super PD for fast autofocus.

Samsung ISOCELL Bright GW1 and GM2 are currently sampling and are expected to be in mass production in the second half of this year.

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Polight publishes its financial reports since its IPO at Oslo stock exchange last year. The reports show that selling AF actuator is quite a tough business:

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PRNewswire: OmniVision announces the OV2312 automotive image sensor with multiple functions in one camera. The ability to capture both RGB and IR images with one GS sensor reduces the number of cameras and total system cost. The OV2312 features the 3.0-micron OmniPixel3-GS at resolutions of 1600x1300 at 60fps and 1280x720 at 90fps. Additionally, because this is the smallest 2MP GS sensor in its class—offered in a 7.2 x 6.1mm automotive chip-scale package—cameras can be placed out of sight from drivers and passengers. The NIR QE is 14% at the 940nm.

“The global automotive image sensor market is poised to experience accelerated growth due to the increased demand for driver state monitoring,” said Thilo Rausch, product marketing manager at OmniVision. “At the same time, automotive designers are looking for cost-effective ways to address consumer demand for applications like video conferencing in the mainstream car segment. By providing a dual-mode sensor that fuses human and machine vision capabilities, we are enabling designers to address both trends with a single camera.”

OV2312 samples are available now, and it is AEC-Q100 Grade 2 certified for automotive applications.

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Espros April newsletter promotes its ToF Academy courses and shows many knowledge areas needed for ToF system design:

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Infineon Q2 FY19 presentation includes the company's vision of automotive vision components market:

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Caeleste: When Arnaud Darmont died in a tragic accident last year, he was working on a new edition of his book on HDR imaging. His father finished the book with SPIE and it's available for purchase now:


Thanks to BD for the news!

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vrt.be: Leonardo De Vinci himself probably participated in painting the version of "The Last Supper" in Tongerlo Abbey, according to an American art history professor who studied the canvas using a hyperspectral camera from Imec:



Thanks to JB for the link!

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CounterpointResearch publishes its market forecast on smartphone market:

• We can expect smartphone OEMs to launch models with 64MP and more in H2 2019. In 2020, we expect smartphones with camera resolutions of 100MP and more.
• Huawei and Samsung are leading the adoption. Samsung is a big adopter of the three or more camera setup, especially in its models in the affordable-premium price bands. Apple launches later this year are also expected to give a boost to the category.
• Triple camera penetration in mid-premium (US$600-US$799) and premium (>US$800) price band is also expected to grow rapidly with the launch of the Samsung Galaxy S10 series and the Huawei P30 series.
• Google does not even have no dual cameras on its flagship Pixel phones and was relying on the stellar image quality through software. However, with the premium segment increasingly adopting dual camera sensors, Google will be under pressure to integrate this into their upcoming flagships.
• 5MP CIS remain in tight supply as they’re essential for triple camera phones. This is likely to continue in case of 5MP and 8MP camera sensors.
• SK Hynix is a key supplier likely to benefit from the adoption of three or more cameras. However, supply may remain a significant issue, creating room for other suppliers such as Samsung.
• Sony is another key high-quality supplier for camera image sensors specializing in the 13MP camera setup, which is already going through capacity expansion in Japan. This is likely to suffice for the surging demand.

"In 2019, OEMs are taking the battle a step ahead with a triple camera setup now becoming popular. Almost 6% of smartphones sold globally had three or more rear camera sensors in March 2018. This figure is likely to go up to 15% by the end of 2019 and 35% by the end of 2020. We expect that by the end of 2021, 50% of the smartphones sold globally will have three or more camera sensors.

More than 40 smartphones launched as of April 2019 had three or more cameras. Among these, 30 launches were in Q1 2019. The Huawei Mate & P series, the Samsung Galaxy A series, the new Galaxy flagships, and the Vivo V15/Pro are some of the existing models driving the triple (and more) camera sensor penetration. We expect other OEMs, including Apple and OnePlus, to join the bandwagon later this year."

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SystemPlus finds first ams d-ToF SPAD proximity sensor in Huawei Mate 20 Pro smartphone:

"This year, ams started mass production of its proximity sensors based on SPAD technology and offer the solution to several customers. The very first customer is Huawei, with ams supplying a custom proximity sensor in the Huawei Mate 20 Pro. Following this, ams is expected to gain increasing market share with several design wins in other OEMs’ flagships this year.

The device is probably a custom version of the new TMF8701 component made specifically for Huawei, and is the first on the market from ams. The component includes a SPAD detector featuring a 15 µm-wide SPAD, with 128 pixel resolution, and a single Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Laser (VCSEL)."

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AIMS Electronics and Electrical Engineering paper "Design and simulation of a CMOS image sensor with a built-in edge detection for tactile vision sensory substitution" by Mazin H. Aziz, and D. Al-Shamaa from Mosul University and Nineveh University, Mosul, Iraq presents:

"Tactile Vision Sensory Substitution (TVSS) systems are used to convert scene images captured by the image sensors to tactile patterns that can be used to stimulate the skin sensory of the blind users. These types of devices needed to be wearable, small size, low power consumption, lightweight, and affordable cost. This paper presents the integration of an edge detection scheme inside a CMOS image sensor forming an Edge Detection CMOS Image Sensor (EDIS). The design is simulated using LTSPICE and MATLAB, performing three ways of simulation, giving accepted edge images having very few fine edges but keeping the main edges. The proposed way is simple, low component-count, doesn’t reduce the fill factor, use no analog to digital converter, presents adaptable comparator-reference-voltage, and make a step towards an integrated all-in-one tactile vision sensory substitution device."

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VCSEL maker Finisar presents its view on 3D sensing solutions at Semicon China:

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Credit Suisse report "Asia Semiconductor Sector" dated by April 18, 2019 shows the market data for automotive CIS. It's not clear why Credit Suisse analysts count Toshiba as a separate entity in 2017, while Sony has acquired Toshiba image sensor business in 2015:

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MDPI paper "Proximity Gettering Design of Hydrocarbon–Molecular–Ion–Implanted Silicon Wafers Using Dark Current Spectroscopy for CMOS Image Sensors" by Kazunari Kurita, Takeshi Kadono, Satoshi Shigematsu, Ryo Hirose, Ryosuke Okuyama, Ayumi Onaka-Masada, Hidehiko Okuda, and Yoshihiro Koga from SUMCO Corporation, Japan describes the company offers of epi wafers with gettering layer:

"We developed silicon epitaxial wafers with high gettering capability by using hydrocarbon–molecular–ion implantation. These wafers also have the effect of hydrogen passivation on process-induced defects and a barrier to out-diffusion of oxygen of the Czochralski silicon (CZ) substrate bulk during Complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) device fabrication processes. We evaluated the electrical device performance of CMOS image sensor fabricated on this type of wafer by using dark current spectroscopy. We found fewer white spot defects compared with those of intrinsic gettering (IG) silicon wafers. We believe that these hydrocarbon–molecular–ion–implanted silicon epitaxial wafers will improve the device performance of CMOS image sensors."

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Cadence reports from TSMC 2019 Technology Symposium in Santa Clara:

• Camera is important, especially in the Asia market. Pixel size driving to 0.8um this year, and 0.7um next year.
• IR sensing important for security and ADAS. Achieved 940nm QE >45% (measured in silicon).

EEWeb reports that camera-base driver-monitoring system (DMS), which can detect a drowsy or distracted driver, will become mandatory in all new vehicles in Europe from 2022. While DMS developments in the past have tended to be focused around autonomous cars, the new EU rules will make them mainstream technology on all vehicles. So far, DMSes have found their way into only a few vehicles on our roads, with analyst Semicast Research saying that interior cameras for DMSes are in only 1% of new cars in 2019.

Trinamix demos its XperYenz – Adaptive 3D sensing system:

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Nuit Blanche blog found an OSA OE paper "Ghost imaging with the human eye" by Alessandro Boccolini, Alessandro Fedrizzi, and Daniele Faccio from Heriot-Watt University and University of Glasgow, UK. This is a kind of ideas that are so simple, that now, once presented, look almost obvious to me. It's so strange that nobody came up with that before:

"Computational ghost imaging relies on the decomposition of an image into patterns that are summed together with weights that measure the overlap of each pattern with the scene being imaged. These tasks rely on a computer. Here we demonstrate that the computational integration can be performed directly with the human eye. This builds upon the known persistence time of the human eye and we use our ghost imaging approach as an alternative to evaluate the temporal response of the eye. We verify that the image persistence time is of order 20 ms, followed by a further 20 ms exponential decay. These persistence times are consistent with previous studies but can now potentially be extended to include a more precise characterisation of visual stimuli and provide a new experimental tool for the study of visual perception."

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AMS publishes the Youtube videos on its ToF poximity sensor and an ambient light sensor:

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Smartsens launches its "SmartSensor" AI platform based on 3D integration of image sensor with an image analysis processor. The company has selected TSMC's 3D chip manufacturing process for its "SmartSensor Platform" as its development platform, and hopes to work with leading partners to achieve innovative "smart sensor" designs, further promoting the Internet of Things industry and development of artificial intelligence technology.

Wang Xiaoyong, VP of systems and algorithms at SmartSens, said: "Sensor-side computing and 'smart sensor chips' are one of the major trends in the future development of the IoT industry. To achieve this innovation, it is impossible to rely solely on sensor chip manufacturers. SmartSens launched the 'SmartSensor Platform' to explore the infinite possibilities of 'smart sensor chip' innovation by leveraging the strength of the entire industry through close collaboration with partners across the entire industry chain."

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Spectronet publishes videos on polarization and multipectral imaging applications:

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