Archives for December 2020

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GlobeNewswire: Tower and China-based OPIX announce a successful development of pulsed iToF technology platform for 3D imaging and face recognition, based on Tower’s pixel level wafer stacking BSI technology.

Utilizing TOWER’s 65nm pixel-level stacked BSI CIS technology and fabricated in its Uozu, Japan facility the sensor is said to be the first in a series of iToF products.

The sensor that is currently being prototyped to customers features a 5µm 3-tap iToF pixel and resolution of 640×480 pixels. The BSI technology improves its NIR sensitivity.  In addition, the wafer stacking enables very high modulation frequencies of up to 165 MHz and 30 depth fps.

The sensor is said to have industry-leading depth accuracy at short, mid and long-range distances even in challenging ambient light conditions by using pulse modulation iToF technique. Advanced features include multiple acquisition modes, depth with single and dual frequency, low-power standby modes and MIPI CSI-2 interface.

The sensor is said to be a cost effective all-in solution for various 3D imaging applications, especially for the mobile market.

“At Opix, we worked hard during the past 18 months in order to make this development successful. 3D imaging becomes ubiquitous in all imaging markets nowadays and as a CEO I am very proud to see us competing already on spec level with known solutions of tech giants,” said Xinyang Wang, CEO at Opix.  “With our 100% focus and dedication to 3D imaging and support of our partners, we have a strong belief we can play an important role in the coming years to serve the market with innovative solutions for the emerging 3D imaging market.”   

“We are very excited about our collaboration with the Opix team of experts who helped  bring to the market this new, world-class iToF technology,” said Avi Strum, SVP and GM of the Sensors and Displays Business Unit, Tower Semiconductor. “This highly advanced technology comprehensively meets the challenging requirements and specifications of a small sized iToF imager and demonstrates our notable capabilities and fervent commitment to provide our customers with market-leading imaging solutions.”

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GlobeNewswire: Tower and China-based OPIX announce a successful development of pulsed iToF technology platform for 3D imaging and face recognition, based on Tower’s pixel level wafer stacking BSI technology.

Utilizing TOWER’s 65nm pixel-level stacked BSI CIS technology and fabricated in its Uozu, Japan facility the sensor is said to be the first in a series of iToF products.

The sensor that is currently being prototyped to customers features a 5µm 3-tap iToF pixel and resolution of 640×480 pixels. The BSI technology improves its NIR sensitivity.  In addition, the wafer stacking enables very high modulation frequencies of up to 165 MHz and 30 depth fps.

The sensor is said to have industry-leading depth accuracy at short, mid and long-range distances even in challenging ambient light conditions by using pulse modulation iToF technique. Advanced features include multiple acquisition modes, depth with single and dual frequency, low-power standby modes and MIPI CSI-2 interface.

The sensor is said to be a cost effective all-in solution for various 3D imaging applications, especially for the mobile market.

“At Opix, we worked hard during the past 18 months in order to make this development successful. 3D imaging becomes ubiquitous in all imaging markets nowadays and as a CEO I am very proud to see us competing already on spec level with known solutions of tech giants,” said Xinyang Wang, CEO at Opix.  “With our 100% focus and dedication to 3D imaging and support of our partners, we have a strong belief we can play an important role in the coming years to serve the market with innovative solutions for the emerging 3D imaging market.”   

“We are very excited about our collaboration with the Opix team of experts who helped  bring to the market this new, world-class iToF technology,” said Avi Strum, SVP and GM of the Sensors and Displays Business Unit, Tower Semiconductor. “This highly advanced technology comprehensively meets the challenging requirements and specifications of a small sized iToF imager and demonstrates our notable capabilities and fervent commitment to provide our customers with market-leading imaging solutions.”

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CURVE-ONE startup (France) announces its first commercial curved sensor (English version starts on p. 2).

"The first public studies in the field of curved sensors are back in the 2000’s. If most of the largest world class sensors companies developed their home-made process, none of them made it a commercial product. The go-to-market strategy applied by the start-up CURVE, supported by the European Commission through the European Research Council programs, made it become an available product. Fruit of years of research and development for astrophysical instrumentation, the commercialization of curved and freeform sensors is now a reality.

The imaging of extended scenes (wide field), has always been a challenge as optical systems naturally curve the focal surface. The bending of photographic plates has been used routinely in many fields, even astronomy with the use of Schmidt telescopes which naturally have a convex focal surface.

The advent of flat electronic sensors has been a revolution, forcing optical designers to introduce additional optics to fit the flatness of these sensors surface. The classical problem of the planisphere appeared then: a huge distortion is created by the imaging system on the edge of the field. Additional complexity came along with the distortion: field flatteners increase the volume and mass of systems, and chromatic aberrations appear. Also, the imaging response is not uniform across the field.

The development of curved sensors is a bio-inspired approach. Mimicking the eye retina, this new technology impacts every future imaging system. By directly correcting the field curvature in the focal plane of imagers, the use of curved sensors suppresses the field flatteners. Less optics means less misalignments and instrumental errors, increases the stability and image homogeneity, and reduces the dependence to environmental condition. Thereby it improves image acquisition quality and then reduces image post-processing costs.

CURVE is now targeting the mass production of its curved sensor, with the support of the European Commission as well as the support of the European Space Agency."

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NHK publishes another article about its 3-layer organic sensor:

"The number of pixels in the organic image sensor we have developed is 320 (horizontal) × 240 (vertical), the pixel pitch is 20 μm, and the frame rate is 60 Hz.

We will continue our R&D efforts to reduce the pixel sizes, increase the number of pixels, and reduce noise, thus accelerating the realization of compact, high-resolution single-chip color cameras.

Note: The blue-sensitive organic film was developed in collaboration with Nippon Kayaku Co., Ltd."

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OSA Advances in Optics and Photonics publishes a tutorial paper "Fundamentals of automated human gesture recognition using 3D integral imaging: a tutorial" by Bahram Javidi, Filiberto Pla, José M. Sotoca, Xin Shen, Pedro Latorre-Carmona, Manuel Martínez-Corral, Rubén Fernández-Beltrán, and Gokul Krishnan from University of Connecticut (USA), Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts (USA), Institute of New Imaging Technologies(Spain), University of Burgos (Spain), University of Valencia (Spain).

"This tutorial presents an overview of the fundamental components and basics of the current 3D optical image acquisition technologies for gesture recognition, including the most promising algorithms. Experimental results illustrate some examples of 3D integral imaging, which are compared to conventional 2D optical imaging. Examples of classifying human gestures under normal and degraded conditions, such as low illumination and the presence of partial occlusions, are provided. This tutorial is aimed at an audience who may or may not be familiar with gesture recognition approaches, current 3D optical image acquisition techniques, and classification algorithms and methodologies applied to human gesture recognition."

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MDPI paper "Current-Assisted SPAD with Improved p-n Junction and Enhanced NIR Performance" by Gobinath Jegannathan, Thomas Van den Dries, and Maarten Kuijk from Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium, promises dramatic improvements:

"Single-photon avalanche diodes (SPADs) fabricated in conventional CMOS processes typically have limited near infra-red (NIR) sensitivity. This is the consequence of isolating the SPADs in a lowly-doped deep N-type well. In this work, we present a second improved version of the “current-assisted” single-photon avalanche diode, fabricated in a conventional 350 nm CMOS process, having good NIR sensitivity owing to 14 μm thick epilayer for photon absorption. The presented device has a photon absorption area of 30 × 30 µm2, with a much smaller central active area for avalanche multiplication. The photo-electrons generated in the absorption area are guided swiftly towards the central area with a drift field created by the “current-assistance” principle. The central active avalanche area has a cylindrical p-n junction as opposed to the square geometry from the previous iteration. The presented device shows improved performance in all aspects, most notably in photon detection probability. The p-n junction capacitance is estimated to be ~1 fF and on-chip passive quenching with source followers is employed to conserve the small capacitance for bringing monitoring signals off-chip. Device physics simulations are presented along with measured dark count rate (DCR), timing jitter, after-pulsing probability (APP) and photon detection probability (PDP). The presented device has a peak PDP of 22.2% at a wavelength of 600 nm and a timing jitter of 220 ps at a wavelength of 750 nm."

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OSA publishes a paper "Alignment-free filter array: Snapshot multispectral polarization imaging based on a Voronoi-like random photonic crystal filter" by Kazuma Shinoda and Yasuo Ohtera from Utsunomiya University and Toyama Prefectural University, Japan.

"We develop a photonic crystal filter with a new structure and propose a method to realize a snapshot multispectral polarization camera by mounting the filter on a monochrome imager with no requirement for a specific alignment. The developed filter is based on the Voronoi structure, which forms multilayered photonic crystals with random wave-like structures in each of the Voronoi cells. Because the transmission characteristics of the multilayered photonic crystal can be controlled simply by changing the microstructure, there is no need to change the manufacturing process and materials for each Voronoi cell. Furthermore, the Voronoi cell is randomly distributed so that the filter can be junctioned with the imager at arbitrary positions and angles without the need to position the filter during mounting, although it requires measurement of the camera characteristics and an image restoration process after filter mounting. In this experiment, we evaluated to reconstruct spectra as well as linearly polarized components and RGB images in the visible wavelength range from a single exposure image."

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PRNewswire: Innoviz is to become publicly listed on NASDAQ through a merger with Collective Growth Corporation. The transaction is expected to provide up to $350M in gross proceeds comprised of Collective Growth's $150M of cash held in trust, assuming no redemptions by public stockholders, and a $200M fully committed ordinary share PIPE.

The transaction is expected to close in Q1 2021 and bring Innoviz valuation of $1.4B post-money with enterprise value of about $1B.

Innoviz investor presentation shows the company's business details:

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PRNewswire: Innoviz is to become publicly listed on NASDAQ through a merger with Collective Growth Corporation. The transaction is expected to provide up to $350M in gross proceeds comprised of Collective Growth's $150M of cash held in trust, assuming no redemptions by public stockholders, and a $200M fully committed ordinary share PIPE.

The transaction is expected to close in Q1 2021 and bring Innoviz valuation of $1.4B post-money with enterprise value of about $1B.

Innoviz investor presentation shows the company's business details:

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 SK Hynix publishes an article "Applying Light to Semiconductors: Introducing to CIS Key Process Technologies."

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PRNewswire: ActLight announces the expansion of its IP portfolio with the launch of a Stand-Alone Dynamic Photodiode.  Customers can choose the size of the detector from a wide range, e.g. from 0.2 sq.mm to 1 sq.cm, to match with their needs in applications such as proximity sensing, light barriers, time of flight, vital signs monitoring and many others.

"We are very pleased to offer to our customers additional innovative IP in the field of light sensing," said Serguei Okhonin, Co-founder and CEO at ActLight. "The Stand-Alone Dynamic PhotoDiode complements our exisitng IP portfolio and represent the opportunity for our customers to stretch their market reach and augment their business opportunities with innovative solutions."

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BusinessWire: ams announces a pre-release of one of the industry’s smallest, lightest 100k pixel image sensors suitable for use in mobile or wearable consumer devices like VR headsets.

The new NanEyeC image sensor is supplied as a lensed, chip-scale module which has a footprint of 1mm2 and weighs about 1g. Combining a wide-angle view with a good depth of focus, the NanEyeC offers the speed and picture quality needed for an emerging set of video applications where the camera must be virtually invisible to the end user, or be accommodated in a very small space. They include:

• Eye tracking in VR or augmented reality (AR) headsets or frames
• People detection and counting in building automation systems such as smart lighting and air conditioning
• Object detection and avoidance in robotic equipment such as autonomous vacuum cleaners or the smallest of drones
• Toys and model trains for an immersive experience
• Capsule endoscopy or dental imaging tools

Dina Aguiar, Marketing Manager for the Micro Camera Module product line at ams, says: “Due to the NanEye’s tiny dimensions and high image quality, the product family already has a loyal following among medical endoscopes manufacturers. Now the NanEyeC consumer version offers the same quality and performance in a compact SGA package suitable for mounting on the space-constrained PCB in wearable or mobile devices.”

The NanEyeC camera is a full-featured image sensor supplied as a 1mm x 1mm lensed surface-mount module. It provides digital image data at a maximum resolution of 320px x 320px, and when in Single Ended Interface Mode (SEIM) can achieve a maximum speed of 58 frames/s.

The sensor’s digital LVDS or SEIM interfaces connect it to any host microcontroller or applications processor. The sensor also has an idle mode for reduced power consumption.

The NanEyeC image sensor is available for sampling, in addition an evaluation kit can be ordered.

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Imec unveils a prototype high-resolution SWIR image sensor with record small pixel pitch of 1.82 µm. It is based on a thin-film photodetector that is monolithically integrated on a custom Si-CMOS readout circuit. A fab-compatible process flow paves the way to high-throughput, wafer-level manufacturing.  The presented technology largely exceeds the capabilities of today’s InGaAs-based SWIR imagers in terms of pixel pitch and resolution, with disruptive cost and form factor potential. New applications are enabled even in cost-sensitive domains, such as in industrial machine vision, smart agriculture, automotive, surveillance, life sciences and consumer electronics.

Sensing in SWIR band (with wavelengths from ~1.4 um to above 2 um) offers advantages over the visible  and NIR bands for some applications. SWIR image sensors can, for example, see through smoke or fog, or even through silicon – which is especially relevant for inspection and industrial machine vision applications. To date, SWIR image sensors are produced through a hybrid technology, in which a III-V-based photodetector (usually InGaAs-based) is flip-chip bonded to a silicon readout circuit. These sensors can be made extremely sensitive, but the technology is quite expensive for mass manufacturing and limited in size of pixel and number of pixels – hindering its adoption in markets for which cost, resolution and/or form factor are crucial.

Imec introduces an alternative solution. The photodetector pixel stack implements a thin absorber layer such as 5.5 nm PbS quantum dots – corresponding to peak absorption at 1400 nm wavelength. The peak absorption wavelength can be tuned by adjusting the nanocrystal size and is extendable to wavelengths even above 2000 nm. At the peak SWIR wavelength, an external quantum efficiency (EQE) of 18% is obtained (and can be upgraded towards 50% with further improvements). The photodetector stack is monolithically integrated with a custom ROIC in 130 nm process. In this readout circuit, the 3-transistor pixel design was optimized for the scaling of pixel size in the accessible 130 nm technology node, resulting in record small pitch of 1.82 µm for the prototype SWIR imager.

Pawel Malinowski, imec’s thin-film imagers program manager: “With our compact, high resolution SWIR image sensor technology, we offer our customers a path to affordable low-volume manufacturing within imec’s 200 mm facility. These image sensors can be deployed in industrial machine vision (e.g. photovoltaic panel monitoring), smart agriculture (e.g. inspection and sorting), automotive, surveillance, life sciences (e.g. lens-free imaging) and many more. Due to their small form factor, they can potentially be integrated in small cameras, such as in smartphones or AR/VR glasses – with eye-safe SWIR light sources. Some of exciting future developments include increasing of the EQE (which currently is already at 50% in SWIR on test samples), reducing the sensor noise and introducing multispectral arrays with customized patterning approach.”

Imec kindly provided me with a deck of slides presented at a webinar devoted to the new sensor announcement:

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LeiShen compares its mechanical rotating LiDAR with similar models from Velodyne and Robosense:

"You can see different design of our devices and Velodyne and Robosense. We developed our own chip and you can see our laser receiver and sender are in only two PCB board.

So there are 16 receivers in one PCB board and 16 pcs of sender in another board. Only two PCB board to make on Lidar sensor. (Much innovated than before.) So our internal design are much better than our competitors. And we have no patent issue in this as well.

The design of our competitors is that they have 16 sender of PCB board and 16 receivers PCB boards. So they need to keep them in same level with glue. (they have 32 PCB board to make only one 16 layers lidar sensor.) High cost and complicated. But performance are the same.

So our solution will be the future trend. Our competitors, With glue to hold the components, when LiDAR sensor works for a long time the glue will broken and then the devices will broken as well.

And also from another aspects, you can see that they will spend more time to produce one device. Their production and assembly time is much longer."

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KnobbeMartens, Justia:  The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has ruled that  Hamamatsu must transfer its foreign patents for Black Silicon technology to SiOnyx.

"Hamamatsu entered into a Non-Disclosure Agreement (“NDA”) with SiOnyx to discuss joint development of the technology and received confidential information.  The NDA provided that ownership of all patent rights in or arising from confidential information resides in the disclosing party.  Hamamatsu ultimately declined to use SiOnyx’s proprietary process.  However,  Hamamatsu continued to develop photodetector devices using SiOnyx’s confidential information, for which Hamamatsu applied for and obtained patents in the U.S. and several other countries.

After Hamamatsu started commercializing products, SiOnyx sued Hamamatsu for breach of contract, unjust enrichment, patent infringement, and correction of inventorship in Hamamatsu’s U.S. patents.

The Court found that under the NDA, the disclosing party owned the patents arising from the disclosing party’s confidential information exchanged under the agreement.  Hamamatsu failed to show any evidence that it contributed confidential information to the patents under the terms of the NDA, other than that which it appropriated from SiOnyx. ...the Federal Circuit found that the evidence establishing SiOnyx’s sole ownership of the U.S. patents also applied to ownership of the foreign patents."

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KnobbeMartens, Justia:  The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has ruled that  Hamamatsu must transfer its foreign patents for Black Silicon technology to SiOnyx.

"Hamamatsu entered into a Non-Disclosure Agreement (“NDA”) with SiOnyx to discuss joint development of the technology and received confidential information.  The NDA provided that ownership of all patent rights in or arising from confidential information resides in the disclosing party.  Hamamatsu ultimately declined to use SiOnyx’s proprietary process.  However,  Hamamatsu continued to develop photodetector devices using SiOnyx’s confidential information, for which Hamamatsu applied for and obtained patents in the U.S. and several other countries.

After Hamamatsu started commercializing products, SiOnyx sued Hamamatsu for breach of contract, unjust enrichment, patent infringement, and correction of inventorship in Hamamatsu’s U.S. patents.

The Court found that under the NDA, the disclosing party owned the patents arising from the disclosing party’s confidential information exchanged under the agreement.  Hamamatsu failed to show any evidence that it contributed confidential information to the patents under the terms of the NDA, other than that which it appropriated from SiOnyx. ...the Federal Circuit found that the evidence establishing SiOnyx’s sole ownership of the U.S. patents also applied to ownership of the foreign patents."

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2016 MSc Thesis "Impact of Power Supply Noise on Image Sensor Performance in Automotive Applications" by Shane Gilroy from Waterford Institute of Technology, Ireland, tests 1MP and VGA Omnivision sensors row noise when applying 1Vpp noise on the supply rail. Surprisingly, the sensors are able to work and output a reasonably good images for such a huge supply noise:

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GSMArena: Multi-camera phones conquer the market. According to Omdia, triple, quad, and penta cameras together occupy ~75% of the market in Q3 2020. Quad and penta camera devices alone are 60% of the Q3 market:

Amazon announces AWS Panorama device that turns any security cameras into an AI-enabled cloud-connected surveillance system:

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IEEE Sensors publishes a number of 3/12-min presentation videos from its Oct. 2020 Conference:

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ISSCC has announced its 2021 Advance Program with a lot of image sensor content. It starts from a Plenary Session:

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