Rabu, 04 Maret 2015

Taiwan and China CIS Foundries

Digitimes posts an article on Taiwan and China CIS foundries. Few quotes:

"TSMC has been the major CIS module production partner for OmniVision although the module vendor is also outsourcing part of its production to China-based XMC. However, the partnership between TSMC and OmniVision may change in the future as China-based Hua Capital, an investment firm, has offered a bid to acquire OmniVision, indicated the sources.

UMC has tied up with STMicroelectronics to develop 65nm BSI CIS technology and is currently producing BSI products at its Fab 12i in Singapore.
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Teledyne Dalsa Announces New X-Ray Imagers

Marketwired: Teledyne Dalsa new dental Xineos models, including the 1511, 1501 and 2301 utilize Teledyne DALSA's sixth generation radiation-hard CMOS active pixel design with active areas of 15x11cm, 152x7mm, and 228x7mm respectively. The new sensors offer switchable saturation dose, low dissipation power and built-in gain, offset and defect correction.

"With the addition of our new Xineos CMOS X-Ray detectors, we're offering dental equipment manufacturers a complete portfolio of more versatile, more flexible, lower dose and cost effective options to satisfy a wider range of dental practices," commented Dr. Mila Heeman, Senior Marketing Manager at Teledyne DALSA. "Our detectors allow dentists to offer a more precise diagnosis as a result of our continued commitment to improving CMOS X-Ray technology."

Xineos range of X-Ray sensors features high frame rate in range of 30-45fps. Dalsa Youtube video demos X-ray imaging at high speed:


ON Semi Shows its OIS Solution

ON Semi demos its OIS solution in this Youtube video. The frequency range of the company's demo covers 1Hz to 10Hz camera shake speed, a bit slow for consumer cameras, but might fit to some other applications:

Mobileye Unveils its 4th Gen Vision Processor

PRNewswire: Mobileye introduces its 4th generation system-on-chip, the EyeQ4, consisting of 14 computing cores out of which 10 are specialized vector accelerators for visual processing and understanding. The first design win for EyeQ4 has been secured for a global premium European car manufacturer for production to start in early 2018. The EyeQ4 would be part of a scalable camera system starting from monocular processing for collision avoidance applications, in compliance with EU NCAP, US NHSTA and other regulatory requirements, up to trifocal camera configuration supporting high-end customer functions including semi-autonomous driving. The EyeQ4 would support fusion with radars and scanning-beam lasers in the high-end customer functions.

"Supporting a camera centric approach for autonomous driving is essential as the camera provides the richest source of information at the lowest cost package. To reach affordable high-end functionality for autonomous driving requires a computing infrastructure capable of processing many cameras simultaneously while extracting from each camera high-level meaning such as location of multiple types of objects, lanes and drivable path information," said Amnon Shashua, cofounder, CTO and Chairman of Mobileye. "The EyeQ4 continues a legacy that began in 2004 with EyeQ1 where we leveraged deep understanding of computer vision processing to come up with highly optimized architectures to support extremely intensive computations at automotive compliant power consumption of 2-3 Watts."

The EyeQ4 provides "super-computer" capabilities of more than 2.5 teraflops within a low-power (approximately 3W) automotive grade system-on-chip.

EyeQ4-based ADAS uses computer vision algorithms like Deep Layered Networks and Graphical Models while processing information from 8 cameras simultaneously at 36fps. The EyeQ4 will accept multiple camera inputs from a trifocal front-sensing camera configuration, surround-view-systems of four wide field of view cameras, a long range rear-facing camera and information from multiple radars and scanning beam lasers scanners. Taken together, the EyeQ4 will be processing a safety "cocoon" around the vehicle – essential for autonomous driving.

Engineering samples of EyeQ4 are expected to be available by Q4 2015. First test hardware with the full suite of applications including active safety suite of customer functions, environmental modeling (for each of the 8 cameras), path planning for hands-free driving and fusion with sensors, is expected to be available in Q2 2016.


Thanks to MM for the link!

Selasa, 03 Maret 2015

TowerJazz Makes IR Sensors for Intel RealSense Cameras

GlobeNewswire: TowerJazz begins mass production of an IR sensor used by Intel in one of its new 3D sensing solutions. Intel chose TowerJazz's 0.11um IS11 process, due to its pixel performance in NIR combined with high speed, high QE and high optical resolution. The unique pixel developed by TowerJazz for Intel is a 3.5um global shutter very fast pixel that allows high QE in NIR, specifically at the scanning laser wavelength with high sensor resolution.

"Partnering with TowerJazz was a part of our success in producing our advanced image sensor for 3D imaging and was a natural choice as they were able to offer the required technical specifications and performance for this breakthrough technology," said Sagi Ben Moshe, Director Depth Camera Engineering, Intel Corporation.

"This collaboration between Intel and TowerJazz was a natural fit. Intel's leadership in this market, combined with our leading technology that provides outstanding pixel performance for near IR 3D imaging, along with the proximity of our Israel fab with Intel Israel, the group developing this technology, was an ideal alignment," said Russell Ellwanger, CEO, TowerJazz. "We are very excited to partner with Intel to produce lifestyle changing technology that will revolutionize the way we interact with devices in both our professional and personal lives. We highly value our business relationship with Intel and look forward to further collaboration on their sensing technology."

"It is truly amazing and thrilling to see our lengthy experience in the imaging field and our own CMOS image sensor technology developed in-house, combined with all of the R&D work we have undertaken for many years come to fruition in such a groundbreaking way," said Dr. Avi Strum, VP and GM, CMOS Image Sensor Business Unit, TowerJazz. "Intel sensing solutions will bring consumers new experiences and will change the way people capture and share 3D images. We are very proud of our work with Intel and our ability to assist them in bringing cutting-edge technologies to market quickly and in high volume."

TowerJazz stock jumped by 7.5% after the announcement:

Altera, Cadence Demos

Altera shows its low power stereo vision FPGA solution in this Youtube video:



Cadence Youtube video presents is video/imaging DSP IP platform, says it consumes 10x less power:

Samsung Announces 8MP RWB ISOCELL Sensor

Business Wire, Samsung Tomorrow: Samsung’s 8MP ISOCELL RWB CMOS image sensor, the S5K4H5YB, is aimed to front-facing mobile cameras. By combining ISOCELL technology with the newly developed RWB (Red-White-Blue) color filter, the new image sensor enhances light sensitivity and color fidelity, allowing an improvement of over 3 dB in SNR in low light settings. In addition, unlike other types of color pattern configurations, the high similarity between the RWB and RGB patterns eliminates the need for an RGB convertor in a RWB filter, which prevents unnecessary color deviation.

Physical barriers between each ISOCELL pixel allow 30% decrease in crosstalk and 30% increase in full-well capacity when compared to "conventional" BSI sensors, possibly, S5K4H5YC.

Samples of the 8 MP RWB ISOCELL image sensor are available for customers and mass production of the product is scheduled for Q2 2015. Incidentaly, the S5K4H5YB has already been announced a year and a half ago. By that time, Samsung said "The S5K4H5YB is currently sampling to customers with mass production scheduled for Q4 2013." However, in the earlier announcement, Samsung has not mentioned RWB CFA.

Samsung S5K4H5YB product page says that it's already in production: