Recently disbanded Japan Association of Super-Advanced Electronics Technologies (ASET) presents its progress in 3D TSV chips stacking, its TSV process flow and application to image sensors:
FBK Gain-Modulated APD ToF Camera Demo
FBK (Trento, Italy) published a Youtube video about its SOI (Smart Optical Sensors) research unit, also featuring a demo of its Gain Modulated APD 3D camera:
Geo Semi Announces Geometric Processing Engine
Geo Semiconductor announces the GW3300 and GW3400 programmable geometric processors. The GW3300 integrates fully programmable geometry processing engine can correct for complex lens distortion, perspective and rotational misalignment, as well as brightness nonuniformity in real time with as low as 1/6 frame of latency. The GW3400 integrates the above GW3300 features with an Apical ISP with HDR. The Apical ISP applies different processing to each pixel of each video frame to pull out hidden detail in shadows and highlights while preserving colors, local contrast and natural appearance. The ISP also has support for HDR sensors.
The eWARP features include pincushion/barrel distortion correction, keystone correction, rotational misalignment correction, stitching of multiple cameras, stitching of multiple projectors, digital calibration, custom lens design, and ePTZ (electronic Pan, Tilt, and Zoom). Data is processed with 1/32 pixel accuracy for:
The eWARP features include pincushion/barrel distortion correction, keystone correction, rotational misalignment correction, stitching of multiple cameras, stitching of multiple projectors, digital calibration, custom lens design, and ePTZ (electronic Pan, Tilt, and Zoom). Data is processed with 1/32 pixel accuracy for:
- Precise convergence, alignment, and stitching of cameras and projectors
- Precise correction of lens distortion, including ultra wide angle lenses
- Supporting custom and tailored innovative lens designs
- Factory, field, and self-calibration
- 190° WFOV Fisheye Lens image restoration with increased resolution and Zero Content Loss
- 533MHz DDR3 SDRAM supporting high resolutions
- Projection distortion correction
- Electronic Pan / Tilt / Zoom
- 16b pipeline in HDR/WDR ISP
- Supports resolutions from 720x480 up to 4kx4k
- 360 degree rotation correction
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| GW3400 Block Diagram |
Intel on Camera Communications
Rick Roberts from Intel Labs presented "On Study Group Status for Camera Communications" at IEEE P802.15 Working Group for Wireless Personal Area Networks (WPANs):
Imaging Forum's 1st ADC Session is Fully Booked
Albert Theuwissen posts that the first ADC session of Imaging Forum scheduled for Dec. 16-17, 2013 is fully booked now. All new registrations are automatically linked to the second session of the forum scheduled for Dec. 19-20, 2013, which has the same agenda. There are no plans for the third session.
Rambus: "No More Patent Lawsuits"
Korea IT Times quotes Rambus CMO Jerome Nadel visited South Korea in June: "Rambus will not go for patent infringement lawsuits from now on. Our strategy for the IP licensing business has shifted to mutual cooperation. The ongoing patent lawsuit against SK Hynix will be our last and we will remove the stigma of being labeled as a patent troll." Rambus is said to be transforming into a communications semiconductor company that covers sensor and network technologies.
Meanwhile, Ronald Black, Rambus CEO, has shown a block diagram of Binary Pixel test chip in his recent presentation at India Electronics and Semiconductor Association (Youtube playlist is here, part 2, starting at 10:10). This looks like a different test chip from the one published a month ago.
Meanwhile, Ronald Black, Rambus CEO, has shown a block diagram of Binary Pixel test chip in his recent presentation at India Electronics and Semiconductor Association (Youtube playlist is here, part 2, starting at 10:10). This looks like a different test chip from the one published a month ago.
Samsung Starts Mass Production of 13MP, 1.1um Pixel Sensor for Galaxy S4, Note III
Korea IT Times reports that Samsung System LSI Division has launched a mass production of 13MP image sensor for smartphones this May. The newspaper's source said, "Samsung Electronics’ mobile communications division is planning to order 80-90 million CISs for 13 megapixel camera modules this year." Up to recently, the main supplier of sensors in this category was Sony. Now, Samsung LSI joins it too.
Apparently, the article is talking about S5K3L2 sensor, which is still marked as sampling at Samsung web site. The newspaper says that the noise and color have been improved over the previous generation 1.1um sensor, possibly talking about the announced in 2011 S5K3L1Y.
Samsung Q2 2013 earnings report forecasts strong growth in sales of high resolution image sensors:
Apparently, the article is talking about S5K3L2 sensor, which is still marked as sampling at Samsung web site. The newspaper says that the noise and color have been improved over the previous generation 1.1um sensor, possibly talking about the announced in 2011 S5K3L1Y.
Samsung Q2 2013 earnings report forecasts strong growth in sales of high resolution image sensors:
Sharp Shows its 1st CMOS Sensor Product
While Cadence has already announced that Sharp uses its CAD tools for CMOS sensor design, the last year's Sharp catalog listed only CCDs. The new catalog shows a CMOS sensor, for the first time. The new 14.5MP RJ53Z1BA0LT is based on 1.4um pixels and features 1080p60 mode:
SK Hynix Sampling 1.12um Pixel Sensor
SK Hynix Q3, 2013 Databook lists a new 8MP 1/4-inch image sensor, the Hi-841 (YACG4A1C), featuring 1.12um pixels. The sensor's speed is 30fps at full resolution, 10b RAW output. The product status is marked as "sampling":
Omnivision Files for ToF Sensor Patent
Omnivision's patent application US20130181119 "Shared time of flight pixel" by Manoj Bukumandla and Sasidhar Saladi describes a ToF image sensor based on in-phase/out-phase sensing of a pulsed illuminator. It's nice to see yet another major image sensor manufacturer working on ToF concepts.
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| Omnivision's ToF Pixel |
Nikon Proposes Stacking of AF and Imaging Sensor Layers
Nikon patent application US20130182173 "Solid-state imaging device and electronic camera" by Hironobu Murata proposes a nice idea to combine a dedicated AF sensor with an imaging sensor without losing any light (in theory). The idea is simple: RGB color filter array does not use roughly 2/3 of the light in each pixel, why not use the lost light by a complementary-colored organic AF sensor stacked on top on the regular Bayer-pattern sensor:
Dual-ISO Mode in Canon DSLRs
Bitbucket's Magic Lantern project comes up with an interesting firmware hack on Canon DSLRs. Apparently, Canon hardware allows changing the readout or ADC gain at a fast pace, every two rows. So, every two rows one can flip the effective ISO, for example, between 100 and 1600 to get an extended dynamic range at the expense of reduced vertical resolution:
Pixart Adopts BDA FastSPICE
Business Wire: Berkeley Design Automation announces that PixArt has selected the company’s Analog FastSPICE (AFS) Platform for block-level characterization, full-circuit verification, and device noise analysis of their image sensor designs.
"Our unique image sensing technologies have stringent circuit verification requirements to achieve low cost, low voltage, small dimensions, and outstanding quality," said Ian Wang, Department Manager, Design Supporting Department, PixArt Imaging. "We selected the AFS Platform because it provides the accuracy and performance we require. For our key circuits, AFS delivers nanometer SPICE accuracy 5x faster than traditional SPICE and AFS Transient Noise has excellent correlation to silicon measurements."
"Our unique image sensing technologies have stringent circuit verification requirements to achieve low cost, low voltage, small dimensions, and outstanding quality," said Ian Wang, Department Manager, Design Supporting Department, PixArt Imaging. "We selected the AFS Platform because it provides the accuracy and performance we require. For our key circuits, AFS delivers nanometer SPICE accuracy 5x faster than traditional SPICE and AFS Transient Noise has excellent correlation to silicon measurements."
First Imaging Forum Opens Registration
Albert Theuwissen announces that the first imaging forum will focus on "ADCs for Image Sensors" to be held on Dec. 16-17, 2013, in Delft, the Netherlands. The agenda is fixed, and registration for the forum is open.
The basic intention of a forum is to have a scientific and technical in-depth discussion on one particular topic. The audience will be strictly limited to enhance and stimulate the interaction with the speaker(s) as well as to allow close contacts between the participants. The forum is intended for imaging engineers working on systems or projects in which analog-to-digital converters determine (part of) the sensor/camera performance.
The lecturer is Prof. Marcel Pelgrom, known to every analog designer by his classical works on MOSFET mismatch in Philips. For the last 20 years everybody uses his model in Monte-Carlo simulations integrated into all major circuit simulators.
Because of the great response on the first announcement, a second session of the forum is scheduled to take place on Dec. 19-20, 2013. Same location, same agenda, same speaker.
The basic intention of a forum is to have a scientific and technical in-depth discussion on one particular topic. The audience will be strictly limited to enhance and stimulate the interaction with the speaker(s) as well as to allow close contacts between the participants. The forum is intended for imaging engineers working on systems or projects in which analog-to-digital converters determine (part of) the sensor/camera performance.
The lecturer is Prof. Marcel Pelgrom, known to every analog designer by his classical works on MOSFET mismatch in Philips. For the last 20 years everybody uses his model in Monte-Carlo simulations integrated into all major circuit simulators.
Because of the great response on the first announcement, a second session of the forum is scheduled to take place on Dec. 19-20, 2013. Same location, same agenda, same speaker.
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