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ON Semi's new Mobile Consumer Division demos PDAF performance of its recently announced 13MP 1.1um pixel AR1337 sensor:



Another video shows Python 25MP, 82fps global shutter operation:

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Albert Theuwissen publishes an excellent series of posts "Butting Versus Stitching" comparing different ways to combine large format image sensor out of smaller parts, some of them quite exotic - part 1, part 2.

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Imager No-Mania quotes Watch.Impress article on Sony presentation at 2016 VLSI Symposium. The 4K, 480fps sensor based on 5.86um global shutter pixel is used in a newly announced HDC-4800 video camera. The sensor features a dual gain ramp ADC stripes placed on top of the image sensor die:

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Automotive News: Japan became one of the first countries allowing vehicles to use cameras instead of mirrors, beginning June 17, 2016. EU too is expected to revise its local regulations this year, while the US is seen adopting the mirrorless standard in 2018, and China is expected to do it too in the coming years.

The promise of mirrorless cars is sparking a rush of suppliers to the technology, including Japan's Ichikoh Industries and Germany's Robert Bosch GmbH. By 2023, about 29 percent of the Japanese market or about 2.3M vehicles, are expected to have video monitors as interior mirrors. At the same time, it's forecasted that about 12% of the market, or about 900,000 vehicles, will have cameras in place of exterior sideview mirrors.

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Light, a startup developing its L16 multi-aperture computational camera, announces it has closed a $30M series C round of funding, led by GV (formerly Google Ventures). On the way to its first product, the company releases a Vimeo video showing how the L16 prototypes are being manufactured:

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Toshiba reports a success with its image recognition LSI for ADAS applications:

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Design News: Researchers at the University of Wisconsin in Madison (UW-Madison) developed the bioinspired photosensitivity enhancer (BPE), an "artificial eye" inspired by creatures that live deep under the ocean, where light is scarce. Their paper is published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS):

"Artificial eye for scotopic vision with bioinspired all-optical photosensitivity enhancer" by Hewei Liu, Yinggang Huang, and Hongrui Jiang

From the abstract: "to date, strategies toward improving low-light imaging primarily focus on developing electronic image sensors. Inspired by natural scotopic visual systems, we adopt an all-optical method to significantly improve the overall photosensitivity of imaging systems. Such optical approach is independent of, and can effectively circumvent the physical and material limitations of, the electronics imagers used. We demonstrate an artificial eye inspired by superposition compound eyes and the retinal structure of elephantnose fish. The bioinspired photosensitivity enhancer (BPE) that we have developed enhances the image intensity without consuming power, which is achieved by three-dimensional, omnidirectionally aligned microphotocollectors with parabolic reflective sidewalls. Our work opens up a previously unidentified direction toward achieving high photosensitivity in imaging systems."

The main idea is to condense the light into a smaller area by means of "thousands of microphotocollectors (μ-PCs). The miniaturized, low-cost, and zero-power-consumption device presented here can be implemented independently in imaging systems, or combined with other image enhancement technologies." A 2x-3x improvement in light sensitivity has been reported:

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e2v’s image sensors have accurately guided NASA’s Juno spacecraft to reach its destination, Jupiter. e2v’s TH7890 512 x 512 17 micron pixel front illuminated area array image sensors for star-trackers were provided by e2v’s manufacturing centre in Grenoble. They have been used to determine the orientation of the spacecraft by measuring its position relative to stars. These optical devices were specifically designed to ensure very high pointing accuracy and stability over long periods and to survive the severe radiation surrounding the planet, as Juno flies closer to the gas giant than any other spacecraft ever before.

JunoCam will use a ON Semi's KAI-2020 CCD to provide the first color pictures of Jupiter’s cloud tops from orbit. The imaging capabilities of JunoCam will be impressive. The camera will capture data in four separate wavelength bands: blue (420–520 nm), green (500–600 nm), and red (600–800 nm) for reconstruction of a color image; plus a band from 880–900 nm to image a narrow absorption of methane centered at 889 nm. And the 3 km resolution available at closest approach (an order magnitude better than that available from the Voyager, Galileo, and Cassini probes) will enable viewing of small-scale structures in the atmosphere.

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CEA-Leti and EPFL pre-announces its paper on fast and low noise image sensor based on thin-oxide pmos SF, to be published in September issue of JSSC:

A Sub-0.5 Electron Read Noise VGA Image Sensor in a Standard CMOS Process
Boukhayma, Assim; Enz, Christian; Peizerat, Arnaud

Abstract:

A sub-0.5e−rms temporal read noise VGA (640H×480V) CMOS image sensor has been integrated in a standard 0.18μm 4PM CMOS process. The low noise performance is achieved exclusively through circuit optimization without any process refinements. The presented imager relies on a 4T pixel of 6.5μm pitch with a properly sized and biased thin oxide PMOS source follower. A full characterization of the proposed image sensor, at room temperature, is presented. With a pixel bias of 1.5μA the sensor chip features an input-referred noise histogram from 0.25 e−rms to a few e−rms peaking at 0.48 e−rms. The imager features a full well capacity of 6400 e− and its frame rate can go up to 80 fps. It also features a fixed pattern noise as low as 0.77%, a lag of 0.1% and a dark current of 5.6e-/s. It is also shown that the implementation of the in-pixel n-well does not impact the quantum efficiency of the pinned photo-diode.

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CEVA introduces CDNN2 (CEVA Deep Neural Network), its second generation neural network software framework for machine learning. Coupled with the CEVA-XM4 intelligent vision processor, CDNN2 offers significant time-to-market and power advantages for implementing machine learning in embedded systems for smartphones, ADAS, surveillance equipment, drones, robots and other camera-enabled smart devices.

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Pixelteq presents its pixel-level Multispectral Imaging (MSI) color filters:



Other presentations from Conference on Hyperspectral Imaging in Industry 2016 (CHII2016) held on June 15-16 in Graz, Austria, can be found here.

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Somebody sent me a picture of a compact single-lens dual sensor "USB security camera." The unknown type image sensors placed side-by-side under the single lens:


Is anybody able to figure out the purpose of such a strange integration?

Update: An additional hint I received from the person who sent me the original images is "This sensor(s) is on a module which I believe is responsible for distance measurement (using computer vision), coupled with a laser pointer."

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Reuters, EETimes: BMW, Intel, and Mobileye announce an alliance to develop autonomous driving technology that could put Level 5 autonomous driving cars on the road by around 2021. The new autonomous driving platform is said to be open for others to join. The platform is supposed to be a part of the international standard that defines sensor specs in the system, among many other things.

Mobileye says it will put at least 100 employees working on this project, out of its current headcount of 700. Intel says it will put several hundreds people and several hundred million dollars on this project. Intel CEO Brian Krzanich said that he's confident that they can achieve their autonomous driving target in 5 years.


Update: Mobileye publishes a promotional video emphasizing the importance of this 3-way agreement:

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Jeff Quitney found a 1956 movie "The Story of Television" featuring RCA's David Sarnoff and Vladimir Zwyorikin talking about the early iconoscope and vidicon tubes. Initially, Vladimir Zwyorikin asked for $100,000 budget to develop the television. In the end, it costed RCA $50M to develop B&W TV and then another $70M to make a color version:



There is also an earlier version of this video with somewhat lower quality of video and sound.

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While most of the industry is yet to reach Gigapixel resolutions, MIT explores image processing approaches for the next step - Terapixel images. MsC thesis "Terapixel Image Processing and Simulation with Distributed Halide" by Tyler Denniston proposes distributed multi-core processing on NERSC Cori supercomputer to do that. The results are not very encouraging so far: no matter how many processing nodes are used, the camera ISP pipeline does not speed up enough:

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Delft University publishes a very nice PhD Thesis "Fundamental Characteristics of a Pinned Photodiode CMOS Pixel" by Yang Xu. Other than a lot of basic stuff on PPD principles and characterization, the thesis discusses some of the more advanced things, like optimizations for image lag and charge transfer speed:

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New Imaging Technologies' latest logarithmic InGaAs offers short gating mode in QVGA and VGA resolution. The new version of its WiDy SWIR cameras allows low exposure time (down to 200ns) and low jitter (10ns) with minimum trigger delay of 200ns for pulsed illumination. The new cameras have 3 in-pixel memories for true CDS or in VGA - current highest resolution on the market - they come with dedicated software offering programmable trigger delay with customizable very short steps for trigger in or out synchronization.

Measured Shutter Efficiency with a phase shifted 4ns laser pulse

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ST releases its ToF development board in a form of Arduino Uno shield:

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1. Open source Sensors Journal publishes a paper on 75ps gated pixel "A 75-ps Gated CMOS Image Sensor with Low Parasitic Light Sensitivity" by Fan Zhang and Hanben Niu, Shenzhen University, China. Their pixel is mostly circuit-based:


2. Another paper "Quantum Random Number Generation Using a Quanta Image Sensor" by Emna Amri, Yacine Felk, Damien Stucki, Jiaju Ma, and Eric R. Fossum from ID Quantique, Switzerland and Dartmouth College, USA, presents an improvement on the image sensor based random number generators:


3. Guillaume Renault publishes a Youtube video presentation of Invisage's Quantum Film sensor.

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Sony Corporate Strategy presentation has a slide on Kumamoto image sensor fab saying that it's expected to reach its "full utilization on a wafer input basis around the end of August":

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Sony President and CEO, Kazuo Hirai, provides an update on the progress of its mid-range corporate plan covering the fiscal year ended March 31, 2016 ("FY2015") through the fiscal year ending March 31, 2018 ("FY2017"). Few image sensor-related points:

• Sony announced a significant downward revision to its full year results forecast in FY2015 due to lower than expected sales in the core image sensor business, caused in particular by slowing growth within the smartphone market.
• The rate of profit growth in this business is expected to continue to decline through FY2017.
• Sony plans to take an approach to management that prioritizes speed of response to changes in the market environment, and focuses on Sony's areas of strength.
• At the same time, in terms of image sensors for mobile products, while the smartphone market itself is slowing, the shift to dual-lens cameras and the requirement for higher pixel density is expected to lead to increased demand in the future. With its technological expertise in these areas, these could be favorable market trends for Sony. By taking advantage of these shifts in the business landscape and also by continuing its existing efforts to expand sales volume, Sony is aiming to revitalize the profitability of this business from the second half of FY2016 and into FY2017.
• From a mid-to-long-term perspective, Sony continues to expect significant future growth for the image sensor-business. This business accordingly continues to be positioned as a growth driver.
• In terms of new image sensor applications, Sony sees potential growth in surveillance cameras, as well as in factory automation, IoT (Internet of Things) including drones, and automotive applications. While it is expected to be some time before Sony's image sensor business for automotive applications is fully established, it is an area where Sony anticipates growth and is investing in R&D aggressively.

Also today, Sony has held its "Sony IR Day 2016." The semiconductors business presentation by Terushi Shimizu revises down the previous forecasts of sales and margins:


Other slides about image sensors:

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Mobileye's CTO Amnon Shashua delivers a keynote on Autonomous Driving, Computer Vision and Machine Learning at CVPR 2016:



Thanks to DS for the link!

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Huffington Post publishes an interview with Almalence CEO Eugene Panich. His response on the question "Where are mobile phone cameras headed in the next five years?"

These are a handful of ideas that may be tested in the coming years:

• Array cameras, from many small cameras placed in a small array, to an array of big (normal mobile size) cameras occupying large part of phone.
• Mobile phones with four cameras placed at considerable distances (like in the corners) to achieve good 3D performance
• Pop-up and other mechanically transforming cameras implementing either optical zoom feature or accommodating large sensors
• Additional wide-angle, 180 or even 360 degree cameras
• Attachable camera modules (making the device bigger but allowing better imaging)

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IEEE Standards Association (IEEE-SA) forms Automotive Image Quality Working Group. IEEE P2020 standard addresses the fundamental attributes that contribute to image quality for automotive Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) applications, as well as identifying existing metrics and other useful information relating to these attributes.

Those who want to join the project should contact the Working Group Chair, Robert Stead.

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EETimes publishes image sensor companies market shares, based on Yole's June 2016 report:

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China-Japan-based contact image sensor maker Weihai Hualing Opto-Electronics Co. (WHEC) publishes a company introduction video:



Another video compares the company's CIS with CCD:

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ARMDevices publishes a video interview with Christophe Premont of ISORG:

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SMIC publishes a webcast on LFoundry acquisition with few details on LFoundry business:

• Aptina remains a bulk of the business
• The utilization rate was 60% in the last few months, or 70% averaged over the last year
• The drop in utilization is explained by too much "concentration on one customer"
• SMIC copper process might be ported to LFoundry
• No commitment on capacity expansion or R&D investment
• All employees are retained

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Samsung Patent application US20160173800 "Image sensor for performing coupling-free readout, and device having the same" by Kyoung Min Koh, Ju Ha Kim, and Jae Cheol Yun talks about the coupling between the column-parallel ADCs:

"A coupling effect is generated between adjacent analog-to-digital converters by parasitic capacitance that is present between the adjacent analog-to-digital converters. In particular, the coupling effect which is increased as a difference between pixels signals becomes large increases non-linearity of each of analog-to-digital converters. The non-linearity is one of sources of errors of an analog-to-digital converter."

Samsung team proposes to change the pixel readout order so that the pixels with similar values read simultaneously:

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BusinessWire: LFoundry (Italy) and its investor Marsica Innovation S.p.A. (MI) announce the agreement to sell to SMIC a 70% stake of LFoundry for 49M Euros. At the closing, SMIC, LFoundry and MI will own 70%, 15% and 15% of the corporate capital of the target respectively.

In fiscal year 2015, LFoundry revenue was 218M EUR. LFoundry’s capacity is 40,000 8-inch wafers per month. LFoundry used to be Micron's fab manufacturing image sensors for Aptina and continues it now as an independent foundry. At the same time, LFoundry offers 110nm CIS process on the foundry basis.

Sergio Galbiati, the Managing Director of MI and Chairman of LFoundry srl, said, “This is the beginning of a new era for LFoundry and our Italian fab. We are pleased to become part of a very strong worldwide player, SMIC. Together we can further improve LFoundry’s strength on optical sensor related technology, which is well recognized worldwide, and continue to contribute to the growth of technology in Europe, thanks to our partnerships with many relevant players. The agreement with SMIC will enable us to have a stronger level playing field in Europe.”

LFoundry, Avezzano, Italy

Thanks to ESG for the link!

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