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IPVM has tested four facial recognition systems and they all have difficulties with masks:



The same problem has also been reported for smartphone FaceID unlock. But, as the say, "Every Problem is an Opportunity in Disguise." A San Francisco-based company offers photo-printing on protective masks that is claimed to solve the FaceID hurdles:

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Nature paper "Noise-tolerant single photon sensitive three-dimensional imager" by Patrick Rehain, Yong Meng Sua, Shenyu Zhu, Ivan Dickson, Bharathwaj Muthuswamy, Jeevanandha Ramanathan, Amin Shahverdi, and Yu-Ping Huang from Stevens Institute of Technology, NJ, proposes to solve a fundamental problem of distinguishing between signal and and ambient photons:

"Active imagers capable of reconstructing 3-dimensional (3D) scenes in the presence of strong background noise are highly desirable for many sensing and imaging applications. A key to this capability is the time-resolving photon detection that distinguishes true signal photons from the noise. To this end, quantum parametric mode sorting (QPMS) can achieve signal to noise exceeding by far what is possible with typical linear optics filters, with outstanding performance in isolating temporally and spectrally overlapping noise. Here, we report a QPMS-based 3D imager with exceptional detection sensitivity and noise tolerance. With only 0.0006 detected signal photons per pulse, we reliably reconstruct the 3D profile of an obscured scene, despite 34-fold spectral-temporally overlapping noise photons, within the 6 ps detection window (amounting to 113,000 times noise per 20 ns detection period). Our results highlight a viable approach to suppress background noise and measurement errors of single photon imager operation in high-noise environments."

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Part 3 of ISSCC review starts with Taiwan National Tsing Hua University paper "A 0.8V Multimode Vision Sensor for Motion and Saliency Detection with Ping-Pong PWM Pixel" by Tzu-Hsiang Hsu, Yen-Kai Chen, Jun-Shen Wu, Wen-Chien Ting, Cheng-Te Wang, Chen-Fu Yeh, Syuan-Hao Sie, Yi-Ren Chen, Ren-Shuo Liu, Chung-Chuan Lo, Kea-Tiong Tang, Meng-Fan Chang, and Chih-Cheng Hsieh.


Prophesee and Sony paper "A 1280 x 720 Back-Illuminated Stacked Temporal Contrast Event-based Vision Sensor with 4.86μm Pixels, 1.066GEPS Readout, Programmable Event Rate Controller and Compressive Data Formatting Pipeline" by Thomas Finateu, Atsumi Niwa, Daniel Matolin, Koya Tsuchimoto, Andrea Mascheroni, Etienne Reynaud, Pooria Mostafalu, Frederick Brady, Ludovic Chotard, Florian LeGoff, Hirotsugu Takahashi, Hayato Wakabayashi, Yusuke Oike,
and Christoph Posch presents the latest results of the cooperation:

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IFNews quotes CLSA report revising smartphone camera market growth expectations due to coronavirus impact:

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EETimes reporter Junko Yoshida publishes an article "Sony, Prophesee Open ‘Pandora’s Box’ in AI Sensing." Few quotes:

“Given the nature of our technology that uses a lot of transistors, electronics and photodiodes, working with Sony was always our first choice,” [Prophesee CEO Luca] Verre told EE Times. The companies started to work together in 2017. Verre promised that samples of the first stacked event-based vision sensors will be available in 2020.

Prophesee CEO Verre noted that Sony’s role in the partnership is not limited to a foundry. With solid knowledge and an IP portfolio of its own in event-based technology, Verre said, “We came to the table with a clear idea as to how we wanted to design pixels.” The two companies’ collaborative efforts made possible the new event-driven sensor design — from analog, logic and power — combined with Sony’s advanced manufacturing process.

The relationship isn’t a pure R&D exercise either, noted Verre. The intention is to maintain a long-term partnership that will bring the technology to the commercial market while developing applications."

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MDPI paper "Single-Pixel MEMS Imaging Systems" by Guangcan Zhou, Zi Heng Lim, Yi Qi, and Guangya Zhou from National University of Singapore reviews the scanning approaches:

"Single-pixel imaging technology is an attractive technology considering the increasing demand of imagers that can operate in wavelengths where traditional cameras have limited efficiency. Meanwhile, the miniaturization of imaging systems is also desired to build affordable and portable devices for field applications. Therefore, single-pixel imaging systems based on microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) is an effective solution to develop truly miniaturized imagers, owing to their ability to integrate multiple functionalities within a small device. MEMS-based single-pixel imaging systems have mainly been explored in two research directions, namely the encoding-based approach and the scanning-based approach. The scanning method utilizes a variety of MEMS scanners to scan the target scenery and has potential applications in the biological imaging field. The encoding-based system typically employs MEMS modulators and a single-pixel detector to encode the light intensities of the scenery, and the images are constructed by harvesting the power of computational technology. This has the capability to capture non-visible images and 3D images. Thus, this review discusses the two approaches in detail, and their applications are also reviewed to evaluate the efficiency and advantages in various fields."

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The second part of the review starts with Samsung small-pixel paper "A 1/2.65inch 44Mpixel CMOS image sensor with 0.7 um pixels fabricated in advanced full-depth deep-trench isolation technology" by HyunChul Kim, Jongeun Park, Insung Joe, Doowon Kwon, Joo Hyoung Kim, Dongsuk Cho, Taehun Lee, Changkyu Lee, Haeyong Park, Soojin Hong, Chongkwang Chang, Jingyun Kim, Hanjin Lim, Youngsun Oh, Yitae Kim, Seungjoo Nah, Sangill Jung, Jaekyu Lee, JungChak Ahn, Hyeongsun Hong, Kyupil Lee, and Ho-Kyu Kang. The paper explains Bosch HART process used to create thin vertical DTI with large aspect ratio:


Artilux paper "An up-to-1400 nm 500MHz Demodulated time-of-flight image sensor on a Ge-on-Si platform" by C.-L. Chen, S.-W. Chu, B.-J. Chen, Y.-F. Lyu, K.-C. Hsu, C.-F. Liang, S.-S. Su, M.-J. Yang, C.-Y. Chen, S.-L. Cheng, H.-D. Liu, C.-T. Lin, K. P. Petrov, H.-W. Chen, K.-C. Chu, P.-C. Wu, P.-T. Huang, N. Na, and S.-L. Chen reports 50% QE at 1550nm for a Ge-on-Si stacked BSI sensor:

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Albert Theuwissen's review of ISSCC 2020 starts from Sony paper "A 132 dB single exposure dynamic range CMOS image sensor with high temperature tolerance" by Y. Sakano, T. Toyoshima, R. Nakamura, T. Asatsuma, Y. Hattori, T. Yamanaka, R. Yoshikawa, N. Kawazu, T. Matsuura, Iinuma, T. Toya, T. Watanabe, A. Suzuki, Y. Motohashi, J. Azami, Y. Tateshita, T. Haruta, and F. Brady.


Samsung paper “A 2.1 e temporal noise and -105 dB parasitic light sensitivity backside-illuminated 2.3 um pixel voltage domain global shutter CMOS image sensor using high-capacity DRAM capacitor technology” by Jae-kyu Lee, Seung Sik Kim, In-Gyu Baek, Heesung Shim, Taehoon Kim, Taehyoung Kim, Jungchan Kyoung, Dongmo Im, Jinyong Choi, KeunYeong Cho, Daehoon Kim, Haemin Lim, Min-Woong Seo, JuYoung Kim, Doowon Kwon, Jiyoun Song, Jiyoon Kim, Minho Jang, Joosung Moon, HyunChul Kim, Chong Kwang Chang, JinGyun Kim, Kyoungmin Koh, HanJin Lim, JungChak Ahn, Hyeongsun Hong, Kyupil Lee, Ho-Kyu Kang presents one of the industry smallest GS pixels.

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PRNewswire: trinamiX GmbH has joined the Qualcomm Software Accelerator Program to enable its patented technology for "live skin" detection for facial recognition on mobile devices. OEM customers will now be able to use the trinamiX proprietary "Beam Profile Analysis" technology, which extracts 3 data streams from a single camera system: a 2D IR image, a 3D depth map and most uniquely – material classification.

The material classification is accomplished through trinamiX proprietary algorithms that run on the Qualcomm Hexagon Processor on Snapdragon platforms. This ability to classify and identify materials based on their physical properties is a result of trinamiX research and development while operating as a wholly owned subsidiary of BASF.

"Using our patented 3D imaging technology, the solution will enable mobile devices powered by the Hexagon Processor inside Snapdragon mobile platforms to achieve a previously unattainable goal – the ability to sense live skin as part of a secure facial recognition," said Ingmar Bruder, Managing Director and founder of trinamiX.


Fastcompany publishes on the new trinamiX technology: "The Trinamix system combines a near-infrared spectroscopy 1-megapixel sensor with LED flood illumination and a light projector—both designed to be eye-safe—with proprietary beam analysis, to gauge the composition of the material the sensor is pointed at. Wood reflects back a different beam pattern than plastic, even if both have the identical shape and color. And because even slightly different materials reflect differently, the technology can tell the difference between skin with blood flowing under it and skin without."


The company's video demos the material recognition:

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Panasonic has developed a TOF image sensor that uses APD pixels and is capable of acquiring highly accurate 3D information at distances up to 250 m. The applications of the new sensor include automotive range imaging and wide-area surveillance.

The new sensor has 1MP resolution and depth accuracy of 10cm at the distances from 10m to 100m. This is an improvement over the previous generation Panasonic APD sensor announced in June 2018 that had an accuracy of 1.5m.

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Panasonic has developed a TOF image sensor that uses APD pixels and is capable of acquiring highly accurate 3D information at distances up to 250 m. The applications of the new sensor include automotive range imaging and wide-area surveillance.

The new sensor has 1MP resolution and depth accuracy of 10cm at the distances from 10m to 100m. This is an improvement over the previous generation Panasonic APD sensor announced in June 2018 that had an accuracy of 1.5m.

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PRNewswire: OmniVision announces a 2M image sensor OV02B manufactured using 12ʺ wafers, instead of the 8ʺ wafers that are in tight supply but are typically used for 2MP sensors. The OmniPixel3-HS pixel technology provides the OV02B with a 1.75um pixel pitch in a 1/5ʺ optical format.

"The strong growth trend in smartphone multicameras that we saw in 2019, for both main and front-facing cameras, is continuing to accelerate in 2020. In the entry level and mainstream markets, smartphone camera designers favor 2MP image sensors to produce bokeh effects, as they provide a significant cost advantage over higher resolution sensors," said Parson Li, OmniVision's senior mobile product marketing manager. "While the demand for 2MP image sensors is growing, there is a shortage of the 8ʺ wafers used to produce them. Our new OV02B is built on 12ʺ wafers while maintaining a die size that is comparable to our existing 2MP sensors, offering an effective alternative for cost sensitive entry level and mainstream smartphones."

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Prophesee S.A. and Sony announce they have jointly developed a stacked Event-based vision sensor with the industry’s smallest 4.86μm pixel size and the industry’s highest 124dB (or more) HDR performance. This sensor combines of Sony’s stacked CMOS sensor process with Cu-Cu connections, with Prophesee’s Metavision Event-based vision technologies leading to fast pixel response, high temporal resolution and high throughput data readout. The newly developed sensor is suitable for various machine vision applications, such as detecting fast moving objects in a wide range of environments and conditions.

The 1/2-inch format sensor has 1280x720 resolution and uses 40nm logic process. The 124dB (or more) HDR performance is made possible by placing only BSI pixels and a part of N-type MOS transistor on the pixel chip (top), thereby allowing the aperture ratio to be enhanced by up to 77%. High sensitivity/low noise technologies Sony has developed over many years of CMOS image sensor development enable event detection in low-light conditions (40mlx).

By adding time information at 1μs precision to the pixel address where a change in luminance has occurred, event data readout with high time resolution is ensured. Furthermore, a high output event rate of 1.066Geps*5 has been achieved by efficiently compressing the event data, i.e. luminance change polarity, time, and x/y coordinate information for each event.

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SeekingAlpha transcript of TowerJazz Q4 2019 earnings call updates on the foundry's image sensor business:

"Moving to our Sensors Business unit, despite in organic revenue decline of about 20% in the industrial sensor market, predominantly a consequence of the trade war, we were able to compensate to great extent, to have a decrease of 4% year-over-year organic revenues. The set compensation was via the growth of our X-ray medical sensors market and our high-end visible camera market. This growth should continue in 2020 and with an expected recovery and industrial sensor market, we target a double-digit organic growth in this business in 2020.

2019 was an exciting year for our future both in state-of-the-art technology developments and in customer engagements. As announced, we have released our 300 millimeter back side illumination hybrid bonding stack way for technology with copper to copper electrical contacts, and a pitch smaller than 2.5 micron, the smallest in the world. This technology allows a connection of a BSI sensor to a CMOS logic and analog wafer at the pixel level. We won two major customers that are using this technology for the mobile time of flight market both for face recognition and front looking 3D application.

These products will grow into mass volume production in 2022. The same technology will be used with our existing customers for high end photography market both in high end DSLR and mirrorless cameras and in cinematography.

In addition, we engage with large optical fingerprint sensor providers on the development of under OLED and under LCD sensors utilizing our high performing CIS technologies and our 200 -millimeter fabs at the point when eight micron technology node. These products are expected to wrap in the second half of this year and to further grow to high volumes in 2021 and beyond."

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New China TV video shows how camera-equipped robots help in fighting with the coronavirus outbreak in China:

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PRNewswire: OmniVision announces the OV64C, its first 64MP image sensor featuring a 0.801um pixel size for rear-facing smartphone cameras in a 1/1.7" optical format. Built on OmniVision’s PureCel Plus stacked die technology, the new sensor features 4-cell remosaic for full resolution Bayer output as well as digital crop zoom, and a CPHY interface. In low light conditions, this sensor can use near-pixel binning to output a 16 MP image with 4X the sensitivity, offering 1.6 um equivalent performance for previews and still captures.

“TSR estimates there will be 127 million image sensors with 64 MP or higher resolution shipped to smartphone manufacturers in 2020,” said Arun Jayaseelan, staff marketing manager at OmniVision. “The OV64C, with its premium resolution and features, is well positioned to address this ramp in demand among high end smartphone designers.”

The sensor features type-2, 2x2 microlens phase detection autofocus (ML-PDAF) to boost autofocus accuracy, especially in low light. Output formats include 64 MP at 15 fps, 8K video at 30 fps, 16 MP captures with 4-cell binning at 30 fps, 4K video at 60 fps and 4K video with EIS at 30 fps. Additionally, the OV64C supports 3-exposure, staggered HDR timing for up to 16 MP video modes.

Samples of the OV64C image sensor are available now.

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MDPI Special issue on the 2019 International Image Sensor Workshop (IISW2019) publishes a paper "Over 100 Million Frames per Second 368 Frames Global Shutter Burst CMOS Image Sensor with Pixel-wise Trench Capacitor Memory Array" by Manabu Suzuki, Yuki Sugama, Rihito Kuroda, and Shigetoshi Sugawa from Tohoku University, Japan.

"In this paper, a prototype ultra-high speed global shutter complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) image sensor with pixel-wise trench capacitor memory array achieving over 100 million frames per second (fps) with up to 368 record length by burst correlated double sampling (CDS) operation is presented. Over 100 Mfps high frame rate is obtained by reduction of pixel output load by the pixel-wise memory array architecture and introduction of the burst CDS operation which minimizes the pixel driving pulse transitions. Long record length is realized by high density analog memory integration with Si trench capacitors. A maximum 125 Mfps frame rate with up to 368 record length video capturing was confirmed under room temperature without any cooling system. The photoelectric conversion characteristics of the burst CDS operation were measured and compared with those of the conventional CDS operation."

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Sony Semiconductor Solutions announces the measures to ensure the safety and health of its customers, business partners and Sony Group employees and to prevent further spread, such as prohibition of all overseas business trips or working from home for those who have just returned from China:

"we would like our customers and business partners who have traveled to China to refrain from entering any Sony’s office areas for the next 14 days after the immigration into Japan. In addition, when we meet with any customers or business partners, regardless of where we meet, please allow us to make sure whether those people have visited China within the last 14 days," says Sony.

Smartsens reports that "as of now, there is no infected or suspected of being infected employees of Smartsens. "On the supply side product, Smartsens still provides normal supply. However, due to strict logistics control in many places due to epidemic prevention needs, the timeliness of product logistics may be affected to a certain extent.

At the same time, in order to reduce the concentration of personnel and prevent the epidemic from spreading further, we will appropriately adjust the arrangements for corporate offline market activities and participation in third-party offline market activities in the first half of 2020."

Solid-State Supplies publishes Omnivision's letter to customers from Feb. 3, 2020:


Update: TrendForce publishes a forecast on coronavirus impact on electronic industry:


Update: Gpixel comes up with a statement on COVID-19 outbreak: "We start operation from 10th Feb after Chinese New Year holiday complying with the preventive medicinal regulation by the central and local government and administration. Multiple precaution measures have been undertaken at our Chinese office to prevent further spreading and minimize the impact from the virus according to the expertise instructions from the authority.

Changchun City where our headquarter office located is far from the center of the infected area in the Wuhan, Hubei province. Most of our functional teams like design engineering, sales & marketing and remote technical support are operating again as normal. Our production and logistic department in Changchun office is not affected as our key suppliers in Israel and Japan are not severally affected by the COVID-19 virus outbreak.

However, due to the precaution measures taken by the government, such as extended holiday, temporary transportation control and under staff, our off-line sales activity, on-site technical support and business travel within China are temporally suspended. The production schedule of certain products and the shipment from Changchun office are slightly delayed due to the strict logistics control in many places."

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Taiwan-based Silicon Optronics Inc. (SOI) rarely publishes English info about its business. A translation of the company's 2018 annual report is an exception. Few quotes:

"In the past two years, the image sensor products for surveillance were the main product lines of SOI. We continue to research and develop new application of relevant products to expand the market and to gain more addon values, such as car electronics, drone camera(UAV), industrial robot, etc.

The revenue of SOI was NT$2,034,267,000 in 2018, which increases 19% compared with 2017. The total sales volume also increased more than 20%. In 2018, the net profit after tax was NT$157,432,000, which is 23% decrease than 2017. Due to extreme competition of image sensors in the surveillance market, resulting in the decrease in net profit after tax, compared with the previous year."

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Science Magazine publishes a paper "Near-infrared and visible light dual-mode organic photodetectors" by Zhaojue Lan, Yanlian Lei, Wing Kin Edward Chan, Shuming Chen, Dan Luo, and Furong Zhu from Hong Kong Baptist University and Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, China.

"We report a dual-mode organic photodetector (OPD) that has a trilayer visible light absorber/optical spacer/near-infrared (NIR) light absorber configuration. In the presence of NIR light, photocurrent is produced in the NIR light–absorbing layer due to the trap-assisted charge injection at the organic/cathode interface at a reverse bias. In the presence of visible light, photocurrent is produced in the visible light–absorbing layer, enabled by the trap-assisted charge injection at the anode/organic interface at a forward bias. A high responsivity of higher than 10 A/W is obtained in both short and long wavelengths. The dual-mode OPD exhibits an NIR light response operated at a reverse bias and a visible light response operated at a forward bias, with a high specific detectivity of ~10^13 Jones in both NIR and visible light ranges. A bias-switchable spectral response OPD offers an attractive option for applications in environmental pollution detection, bioimaging process, wellness, and security monitoring in two distinct bands."

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Yole Developpement publishes a sample of its quarterly CIS market monitors with interesting data showing the scale of image sensor market now:

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MDPI paper "An 8-Tap CMOS Lock-In Pixel Image Sensor for Short-Pulse Time-of-Flight Measurements" by Yuya Shirakawa, Keita Yasutomi, Keiichiro Kagawa, Satoshi Aoyama, and Shoji Kawahito from Shizuoka University and Brookman, Japan, is a part of Special issue on the 2019 International Image Sensor Workshop (IISW2019).

"An 8-tap CMOS lock-in pixel image sensor that has seven carrier-capturing and a draining time window was developed for short-pulse time-of-flight (TOF) measurements. The proposed pixel for the short-pulse TOF measurements has seven consecutive time-gating windows, each of which has the width of 6 ns, which is advantageous for high-resolution range imaging, particularly for relatively longer distances (>5 m) and under high ambient light operations. In order to enhance the depth resolution, a technique for the depth-adaptive time-gating-number assignment (DATA) for the short-pulse TOF measurement is proposed. A prototype of the 8-tap CMOS lock-in pixel image sensor is implemented with a 1POLY 4METAL 0.11-μm CIS process. The maximum non-linearity error of 1.56% FS for the range of 1–6.4 m and the depth resolution of 6.4 mm was obtained at 6.2 m using the DATA technique."

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International Journal on Smart Sensing and Intelligent Systems publishes a paper "On Evolution of CMOS Image Sensors" by Luiz Carlos Paiva Gouveia (University of Glasgow) and Bhaskar Choubey (University of Oxford), UK.

"CMOS Image Sensors have become the principal technology in majority of digital cameras. They started replacing the film and Charge Coupled Devices in the last decade with the promise of lower cost, lower power requirement, higher integration and the potential of focal plane processing. However, the principal factor behind their success has been the ability to utilise the shrinkage in CMOS technology to make smaller pixels, and thereby have more resolution without increasing the cost. With the market of image sensors exploding courtesy their integration with communication and computation devices, technology developers improved the CMOS processes to have better optical performance. Nevertheless, the promises of focal plane processing as well as on-chip integration have not been fulfilled. The market is still being pushed by the desire of having higher number of pixels and better image quality, however, differentiation is being difficult for any image sensor manufacturer. In the paper, we will explore potential disruptive growth directions for CMOS Image sensors and ways to achieve the same."

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Autosens publishes IDTechEx article with a review of Espros, SiLC, XenomatiX, Blickfeld, and Outsight LiDAR approaches.

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