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BusinessWire: In its quarterly earnings report, Teradyne states "In System-on-a-Chip test, orders grew 66% based on a combination of the success of our new IP750Ex-HD system for image sensor test, continued strength in mobile processors, and growing demand in analog test." The company says that the IP-750 imager test orders are highest in over three years.

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Sony Europe’s Image Sensing Solutions Division, responsible for machine vision, security and industrial cameras under Sony brand, come up with an official statement on its CCD cameras fate:

Sony ISS Senior Marketing Manager, Matt Swinney, said: “Sony CCD-based industrial cameras will not be discontinued due to CCD sensor availability until 2026. There is no requirement to ask our customers to provide ‘last time buy’ estimations because it is not necessary. This is the difference Sony as a complete camera manufacturer brings to the market.”

Mr. Swinney added: “2015 is set to be an exciting year for Sony Image Sensing Solutions. New technologies and new product line ups will affect dramatic changes throughout the security, low vision and machine vision industries.”

Via Vision Systems Design.

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Reuters, Bloomberg: OmniVision announces that it agrees to be acquired by a consortium composed of Hua Capital Management, CITIC Capital, and GoldStone Investment (collectively, the “Consortium”). Under the terms of the agreement,
OmniVision stockholders will receive a total of approximately $1.9 billion. The agreement was unanimously approved by OmniVision’s Board of Directors.

“We are pleased to have reached this agreement, which we believe realizes significant value for our stockholders and offers new opportunities for our employees to develop more innovative solutions for customers.” said Shaw Hong, chairman and CEO of OmniVision. “Our Board unanimously concluded that partnering with Hua Capital Management, CITIC Capital and GoldStone Investment was the best choice for OmniVision, as this transaction will provide our stockholders with significant and immediate cash value. Further, Hua Capital Management, CITIC Capital and GoldStone Investment are highly regarded China-based private equity firms with deep experience in the semiconductor industry. With our new partners’ knowledge and insight and the added flexibility that we will have as a private company, OmniVision will be able to focus on reaching the next level of growth, which will benefit our employees, customers and business partners.”

“We are excited to partner with OmniVision as they embark on this next phase of growth,” said Yue Liu, a managing director at Hua Capital Management. “We believe our unique industry knowledge and operational expertise can help accelerate OmniVision’s presence both in China and globally.”

“We are very pleased to be making this investment and are excited about the opportunity to work with OmniVision’s outstanding management team. With the strong backing of the consortium and the leadership of the company’s management, we believe OmniVision will continue to be well-positioned to achieve significant growth through its innovative and superior digital imaging technologies and its commitment to building long-term success,” said Yichen Zhang, Chairman and CEO of CITIC Capital.

OmniVision CEO Shaw Hong is expected to remain with OmniVision in the same capacity. The transaction, which is expected to close in the third or fourth fiscal quarter of fiscal year 2016, is subject to approval by OmniVision stockholders, regulatory approvals, including antitrust review in the U.S. and China, review and clearance by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S., clearance or approval under applicable Taiwan law, and other customary closing conditions. In order to obtain clearance or approval under applicable Taiwan law, OmniVision will divest certain of its investments in Taiwan, including certain of its interests in a joint venture.

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Reuters, Bloomberg: OmniVision announces that it agrees to be acquired by a consortium composed of Hua Capital Management, CITIC Capital, and GoldStone Investment (collectively, the “Consortium”). Under the terms of the agreement,
OmniVision stockholders will receive a total of approximately $1.9 billion. The agreement was unanimously approved by OmniVision’s Board of Directors.

“We are pleased to have reached this agreement, which we believe realizes significant value for our stockholders and offers new opportunities for our employees to develop more innovative solutions for customers.” said Shaw Hong, chairman and CEO of OmniVision. “Our Board unanimously concluded that partnering with Hua Capital Management, CITIC Capital and GoldStone Investment was the best choice for OmniVision, as this transaction will provide our stockholders with significant and immediate cash value. Further, Hua Capital Management, CITIC Capital and GoldStone Investment are highly regarded China-based private equity firms with deep experience in the semiconductor industry. With our new partners’ knowledge and insight and the added flexibility that we will have as a private company, OmniVision will be able to focus on reaching the next level of growth, which will benefit our employees, customers and business partners.”

“We are excited to partner with OmniVision as they embark on this next phase of growth,” said Yue Liu, a managing director at Hua Capital Management. “We believe our unique industry knowledge and operational expertise can help accelerate OmniVision’s presence both in China and globally.”

“We are very pleased to be making this investment and are excited about the opportunity to work with OmniVision’s outstanding management team. With the strong backing of the consortium and the leadership of the company’s management, we believe OmniVision will continue to be well-positioned to achieve significant growth through its innovative and superior digital imaging technologies and its commitment to building long-term success,” said Yichen Zhang, Chairman and CEO of CITIC Capital.

OmniVision CEO Shaw Hong is expected to remain with OmniVision in the same capacity. The transaction, which is expected to close in the third or fourth fiscal quarter of fiscal year 2016, is subject to approval by OmniVision stockholders, regulatory approvals, including antitrust review in the U.S. and China, review and clearance by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S., clearance or approval under applicable Taiwan law, and other customary closing conditions. In order to obtain clearance or approval under applicable Taiwan law, OmniVision will divest certain of its investments in Taiwan, including certain of its interests in a joint venture.

Update: As usual in public company acquisition cases, a number of law firms start investigations on grounds that the acquisition price is too low and not in shareholders interests. See the PRs of Tripp Levy PLLC, Bronstein, Gewirtz & Grossman LLC, Wolf Popper LLP, Kahn Swick & Foti LLC, Robbins Arroyo LLP, Harwood Feffer LLP, and, probably, some more.

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Yesterday's Microsoft presentation of the Hololens AR glasses has shown a complex camera system inside. Each Hololens contains at least 6 different cameras, as far as I can count. If Hololens becomes a mass market device, it could be the single biggest market for image sensors:


A company Youtube video presents the Hololens internal design:



Update: MSDN publishes a video interview with Alex Kipman talking about the Hololens design challenges.

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Light startup officially announces that it has entered into a strategic relationship with Foxconn's FIH Mobile Ltd. As part of the strategic partnership, FIH Mobile Ltd. has licensed the Light technology and made an equity investment in Light.

Calvin Chih, CEO of FIH Mobile, says "We see tremendous potential for Light’s technology, and are excited to work with Dave and the Light team. We continue to strive to help consumers and OEM partners enhance their experiences and product offerings pertaining to high quality imaging."

Paul Jacobs, Executive Chairman of Qualcomm and Light investor and board member says "Light’s product will overcome the current limits of capturing high-quality images in small form factors and will enable people to capture great images while they are on the go without trading image quality for convenience."

ExtremeTech publishes more details on Light technology:

"Light is planning to use an array of small cameras — very similar to those you would find in a smartphone today — to mimic a larger camera. By precisely aligning and calibrating the individual cameras, the images from them can be combined to produce a single image of very high quality. By having some of the cameras feature a wide-angle lens, and some a telephoto lens, an optical zoom capability is also possible.

Light’s CTO, Rajiv Laroia, explains that by treating the ten or more small sensors as pieces of a single, large sensor, Light’s camera module can add together all the photons that reach a particular location in each of the sensors to mimic larger photosites. By adding the signals, the ratio of signal to noise is greatly increased.

Light has also come up with a very clever way to mimic zoom capability using an array of fixed-focal-length (prime) lenses. Its arrays feature both wide-angle and telephoto lenses (it’s planning to have 35mm and 70mm lenses in its first smartphone-sized module) in an overlapping configuration. The telephoto lenses are mounted sideways in the module, to keep thickness to a minimum and allow for a small mirror that can be used to aim the telephoto lenses at different portions of the wide-angle view."

Light uses overlapping fields of view to emulate a single-lens optical zoom. Mirrors move the multiple 70mm lenses to create an overlapping field of view to provide effective focal lengths between 35mm and 70mm. The 35mm lenses provide a wide field of view image to assist in aligning the telephoto images.

Update: As written in comments, Imaging Resource publishes an interview with Light founder, their background and their projections into the future of mobile photography.

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Invisage publishes a new Youtube video:

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Photoxels publishes an article on Panasonic Visible Light Communication Technology. The technology only relies on smartphone software application, and does not require any camera modification. It is said to provide drastically improved data transmission speed.


The company's Youtube video promotes the technology:

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WSJ article "How Sony Makes Money Off Apple’s iPhone" shows TSR 2014 pie chart on image sensor market shares:


WSJ writes:

“Unlike memory chips, making image sensors requires craftsmanship, and that’s not something competitors can copy in the short term,” says Hideaki Miwa, analyst at Techno Systems Research Co.

According to the Tokyo research firm, Sony sold 40% of all image sensors last year, up from 35% in 2013. OmniVision’s market share was 16%, followed by 15% for Samsung. Total sales of image sensors grew to an estimated $8.65 billion last year, up more than 80% since 2009.

Some analysts say keeping up with demand might be Sony’s biggest immediate challenge. In the long run, Sony could be vulnerable because of its dependence on Apple, which sometimes has shifted suppliers with little warning.

Satoru Oyama, a semiconductor analyst at research firmIHS Inc., says Apple likely would consider buying image sensors for iPhones elsewhere if another company could match Sony’s quality and price.

“Sony can keep its position for at least a few years, but five years from now? There are no guarantees,” Mr. Oyama says.

In an interview to WSJ, Sony CEO Kazuo Hirai says:

"I think one of the things we certainly pride ourselves on with our image sensors is our commitment to stay at least several years ahead of the competition and to make sure that we make the heavy R&D investments to make sure that we are there, ahead of the competition. Whether it’s a device that goes into other manufacturers’ products, or sometimes our own, if there’s innovation there, and innovation therefore means a business opportunity, that’s something I get excited about, and so do the people who run our device business."

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Consumer grade thermal cameras keep coming. After FLIR One with microbolometric imager, Seek Thermal came with Raytheon microbolometric sensor, and now Hema Imaging is closing a successful Kickstarter campaign.

Hema Vision camera utilizes 82x62 Heimann Sensor GmbH thermal sensor based on the new "thermal diode array technology." Hema Imaging writes: "Heimann Sensor GmbH is a developer and manufacturer of thermopile arrays for thermal sensing and other infrared sensors, and leads the world in thermopile array technology and now are the experts in thermal diode array technology."

It should be fairly cheap to fit the consumer camera bill, so exotic materials like CMT are probably not an option. So, I wonder how do these "thermal diodes" work?

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The post has been deleted by Sony request. Sorry for the confusion.

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Sony official image sensor distributor in Europe and North America Framos kindly sent me the update on the CCD discontinuation plans:

Dear Valued Customer,

in addition to our first SONY CCD discontinuation information please here find the latest updated and final information about the process how to make sure you can continue to buying SONY CCDs and also benefit from SONY’s extended purchasing timeline.

In the attachment you’ll find the official “SONY CCD Discontinuation Revised Plan” and the final “SONY CCD EOL Product List (as of 17 Apr 2015)”.

As a result of our customers’ and our own efforts and given feedback, SONY was able to postpone the last time shipment date to March 2026 for high running products (A-Rank) marked in yellow color in the attached list, and additionally a couple of more products have been included in the A-Rank list. Like the earlier announcement, all non-yellow marked products will have a last-time-buy/shipment date of March 2020.

In case you continue to buying a high runner product (yellow-marked), the timeline is the following:
- submit a first draft forecast by quantity, part number and year until end of Aug 2015
- submit an non-binding accurate forecast to us by end of Mar 2016
- based on this forecast SONY will produce wafers and will store these in their wafer cage (shut-down of wafer production: end of Mar 2017)
- products will be freshly assembled and tested upon customers’ orders until Mar 2026
- last order to be submitted end of Sep 2025 for shipments until Mar 2026

In case you continue to buying non-yellow marked products (“low-runner part”), the timeline is slightly different from the above and has been specified in the attached products list. Please make yourself familiar with the deadlines depending on the part number and take appropriate actions similar to the above procedure list.

Finally, if you will have submitted your forecasts in Aug 2015 and Mar 2016, FRAMOS will support all your purchase orders with a lead time of 10 - 12 weeks max (depending on SONY’s availability to ship right in time).

Our FRAMOS sales force will contact you within the next weeks to assist you and your company in the last-time-buy process and make sure your demand will be secured under all circumstances. For all questions or needs you can contact us under sales@framos.com and you’ll receive our feedback within 24 hours – guaranteed!

On behalf of FRAMOS I would like to thank you for being our customer and we do hope we can be of any help for your future new imaging projects!

Best regards,
Dipl.-Ing. (FH) Axel Krepil
Sales Director Sensor +


Axel Krepil also kindly sent me a large Excel file with the part number and discontinuation dates list. I'm still trying to figure out how to post it, as it's quite large.

Update: Thanks to DG for conversion the part list to the pictures. Framos says that the Excel file will be available on their web site soon.

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Framos publishes a nice explanation of Sony Exmor generations. Sony uses Exmore trademark for sensors with column-parallel ADC architecture with dual CDS (analog comparator auto-zero and up/down counting in digital domain). Framos infographics below explains the evolution and improvements from 1st to 6th generation of Exmor:

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PMA Newsline overviews the Northwestern University Comp Photo Lab work on fast and high resolution 3D depth imaging. The main idea of the paper "MC3D: Motion Contrast 3D Scanning" by Nathan Matsuda and Mohit Gupta, presented on April 24 at the IEEE International Conference on Computational Photography is to limit the structured light laser scanning by the area where the 2D camera detects a change. That way the static areas are not scanned. A Vimeo video explains the advantages of this approach:

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Electronics Weekly reports that strikes at ST, Crolles, France, facilities continue. The union is calling for the French government to start an investigation into ST management. Union talk about increasing "brain drain" from ST. Crolles is the location of ST fabs that manufacture image sensors, and also ST pixel design group.

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Yole Developpement publishes its thoughts on the recent Apple acquisition of LinX Imaging. Yole believes that computational imaging is moving toward the mainstream, and dual cameras will appear in many products:

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Inside AR Conference, to be held in San Francisco on May 20-21, 2015, publishes an interview with Pelican Imaging CEO Chris Pickett. Few quotes:

"I’ll be talking about how critical depth and 3D data is for the AR market.

Acquiring depth data is especially critical for AR and VR headsets, since the interactive user experience depends on knowing where objects are in space.

My gut says that AR will find its way into the mass market in the next 5 years. That prediction is also backed by market data.

I’ve seen some pretty amazing stuff from a few companies that Pelican is working with, but I can’t really talk about those yet."

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VLSI Symposium tipsheet offers a preview of two image sensor papers:

A 3D stacked CMOS Image Sensor with Global-shutter mode and high speed capturing mode:
The paper by Toru Kondo et al. from Olympus Corp. will describe a 16MP 3D stacked CMOS image sensor with pixel level interconnections using 4 million micro bumps. The two semiconductor substrates are bonded by a 7.6um pitch micro-bump array, and the storage node array is comprised on the bottom substrate to improve parasitic light sensitivity (PLS). Both a 16Mpixel global-shutter mode with a -180dB PLS and 2Mpixel 10,000fps high speed image capturing are achieved.


A 3D stacked CMOS Image Sensor with a low noise technique:
The paper by Shang-Fu Yeh, et al., of TSMC will describe an 8Mpixel 3D-stacked low noise CMOS image sensor with Conditional Correlated Multiple Sampling (CCMS) technique. This technique is proposed to solve the low frame rate issue by using multiple small-range voltage ramps. A 0.66e-rms input referred temporal readout noise is obtained with a 5-times CCMS technique, and also both thermal noise and the random telegraph signal (RTS) noise can be
reduced by using CCMS technique.

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Wikileaks has published a number of stolen Sony Pictures documents, some of them talking about cinematic cameras image sensor development. The undated "Next Generation Camera" talks about Red camera threat and a development of the new 8K image sensor with modified Bayer pattern and HDR:


No details on next generation CFA pattern is given. A leaked 2011 document talks about the older Q67 pattern that Sony has been using in its CineAlta cameras since 2010. Another leaked 2011 Sony document talks about a workflow based on the F65 camera:


According to yet another Sony 2011 document on the next generation cameras, it looks like global shutter is placed high in the list of the sensor requirements.

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Tech.eu: Stockholm, Sweden-based eye-tracking technology company Tobii IPO today gives it a market cap of SEK 2.1 billion (about $244M). Tobii says the offering was over-subscribed multiple times. Tobii will receive gross proceeds of approximately SEK 400 million ($46.5M) through the issue of new shares as part of the IPO, before a possible exercise of the over-allotment option.

The company has about 570 employees across its offices in Sweden, the US, China, Germany and other countries.

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Imaging Resource: New Pentax K-3 II DSLR features Ricoh pixel shift resolution enhancement that removes the need for Bayer demosaicing, first presented at CP+ a month ago.

Pentax IS actuator shifts the sensor by 1 pixel in 4 directions. "The result is an image which has full color information at every pixel location -- and thus improved resolution and a greater resistance to false color artifacts -- but only a relatively modest increase in file size...

As an added bonus, images shot in the Pixel Shift Resolution mode should also have a cleaner, tighter noise pattern. The reason for this is twofold. First, since multiple exposures are involved, noise can be averaged out across those exposures. Secondly, in a Bayer-filtered sensor, two out of three colors at each pixel location must be interpolated (read: guessed) from the values of surrounding pixels. When that happens, noise from adjacent pixels is likewise spread across their neighbors, resulting in a less film-like and blotchier, more objectionable noise pattern. With full color information at each pixel, a Pixel Shift Resolution shot's high ISO grain pattern is finer, and we're guessing easier to clean up post-capture, too."


Pentax Youtube video calls this mode "Pixel Shift Resolution". It's somewhat similar to one appeared in the previous Pentax DSLR model, but then it used to be a high frequency 500Hz vibration, whereas now it's said to provide a higher resolution for static objects:

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PWC report "A decade of unprecedented growth: China’s impact on the semiconductor industry, 2014 update," dated by January 2015, ranks Galaxycore #10 on revenue basis among Chinese semiconductor companies. Other image sensor vendors in China, such as Superpix and Brigates have not make it even in the list of 50 largest companies.


Nomura report "Greater China Semi" places Galaxycore at #8 among semiconductor design houses in China:

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Finnegan: Ziptronix has lost its 2010 lawsuit against Omnivision and TSMC on infringement on its 9 patents on direct wafer bonding.

"In Ziptronix, Inc. v. OmniVision Technologies, Inc. a Taiwanese contract manufacturer and its U.S. subsidiary moved for summary judgment of no infringement because the allegedly infringing activity occurred only in Taiwan, with the exception of negotiations and contracting in the United States. The district court granted summary judgment, finding that even if negotiation and contracting occurred in the United States, there could be no direct infringement under U.S. patent law because the contracts contemplated delivery and performance to take place solely abroad. Additionally, the patent holder failed to present evidence that the Taiwanese manufacturer's customer, OmniVision, committed an underlying act of direct infringement. Thus, the court concluded, the Taiwanese manufacturer and its U.S. subsidiary did not commit or induce infringing acts "within the United States."

For those who skilled in legal language and logic, the full text of California Court summary judgement from Oct. 21, 2014 can be downloaded here. More discussions on patent law gray areas, apparently involved in this case, can be found in another Finnegan article.

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Ikegami has collaborated NHK to develop an 8K UHDTV camera, the "SHK-810", and achieved significant size reduction and light-weight design for field and live production, which can be operated at the same level as the current broadcast camera systems. The camera employs a single 33MP Super 35 CMOS sensor, achieving 4,000TVL horizontal and vertical resolution. The color filter on the sensor uses the dual-green SHV color arrangement.

According to the roadmap of Japan Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC), test-broadcast of 4K/8K by BS satellite television will start in Rio 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games, and 8K on-air broadcast will start as soon as possible by 2018 in Japan. The 4K/8K broadcasting is targeted at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Per MIC, by the year 2020, 4K/8K broadcasting should be shared by public viewing points in Japan, and 4K/8K television sets should be widespread in the consumer market by that time.

Ikegami SHK-810

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WSJ, Bloomberg: Sony revises upward its profit forecast for its fiscal year ended on March 31, 2015. One of the reasons for revision is higher than expected image sensor sales. The final yearly results will be reported on April 30.

“The demand for front-facing camera modules is going through the roof, because everyone wants to take high-quality selfies, and that doubles the market size for Sony,” said Amir Anvarzadeh, a manager of Japanese equity sales at BGC Partners Inc. in Singapore. “The auto segment of the market is also beginning to boom. Cars potentially may have more than five modules per car.”

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Sharp's March 2015 catalog reveals new high end products. The company presents RJ5DY1BA0LT, a 1-inch 13MP CMOS sensor capable of 4K 60fps video:


One can also buy an off-the-shelf 21MP camera module with 4K 30fps video and F2.0 lens:


Also, Sharp greatly expands its CCD product line, announcing no less than 19 new CCDs, and another 4 marked "under development."

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