Albert Theuwissen Receives European SEMI Award 2014

SEMI: Albert Theuwissen, CEO of Harvest Imaging and professor at Delft University of Technology, is the recipient of the European SEMI Award 2014. The Award, which recognizes Theuwissen’s outstanding contribution to the continuing education of engineers, was presented during the SEMICON Europa Executive Summit in Grenoble On Oct 7, 2014.

Albert Theuwissen worked for nearly 20 years at Philips Research and then at DALSA in lead engineering and management roles. In 2001, Theuwissen became a part-time professor at Delft University of Technology. In 1995, he wrote the textbook “Solid-State Imaging with Charge-Coupled Devices” which is now a standard reference work in the field of solid-state imaging.

After “retiring” in 2007, Theuwissen founded Harvest Imaging and has played a major role in the continuing education of engineers in the field of solid-state imaging and digital cameras. He has taught and trained over 3,000 engineers at image sensor companies (such as Kodak, Sony, Samsung, Aptina, ST Microelectronics, Micron, Intel, Philips, Canon, DALSA, and Panasonic) and consumer product companies (such as Nokia, Sony-Ericsson, Motorola, Siemens, Research InMotion, Thomson, and many others). In addition, he has conducted short courses at IEEE’s IEDM, ISSCC, ICIP and SPIE’s Electronic Imaging Conference.

Continuing education — outside of the scope of university professors operating as part-time short-course instructors — within the industry is critical. By educating technologists and application specialists, Theuwissen created a successful model for future technological education: the entrepreneur-educator.

“Albert recognized the need for technical education and created a successful continuing education offering that navigates and conforms to the competitive and proprietary IP environment, benefitting thousands of electron-device engineers and also the industry,” said Heinz Kundert, president of SEMI Europe. “It is an honor to recognize Albert for his outstanding contributions to the European semiconductor and microsystems industry.”

The European SEMI Award was established more than two decades ago to recognize individuals and teams who made a significant contribution to the European semiconductor and related industries. Prior award recipients hailed from these companies: Infineon, Semilab, Deutsche Solar, STMicroelectronics, IMEC, Fraunhofer Institute, and more.

Congratulations, Albert!

Update: Somebody (not Albert) sent me a picture from the award ceremony:

Omnivision Announces Another Stacked Sensor

PRNewswire: OmniVision announced the OV16850, a 16MP imager for smartphones. Using an 1.12um pixel and leveraging OmniVision's stacked die technology, the PureCel-S OV16850 captures stills and video in native 16:9 aspect ratio.

"16-megapixel sensors represent another milestone in the 'megapixel race' for higher resolution cameras in smartphones. Coming in a native high definition 16:9 aspect ratio, the OV16850 is designed with the smartphone camera user's experience in mind," said Bahman Hadji, product marketing manager at OmniVision. "As smartphone OEMs increase display resolutions to 1080p Full HD (FHD) and 1440p Quad HD (QHD), the OV16850 offers a camera experience matching these display aspect ratios and filling the smartphone screen without any loss in field-of-view for snapshots and video. It also utilizes OmniVision's stacked die technology and a high chief ray angle to enable a 16-megapixel camera solution in a compact 9.5 mm x 9.5 mm x 5.5 mm module."

The 1/2.6-inch OV16850 is capable of capturing full-resolution 16MP images at 30fps, 4K2K video at 30fps, QHD video at 60fps, and 720p video at 120fps. It is said to deliver the best-in-class sensitivity, SNR, and full-well capacity for a 1.12um pixel. Additionally, the OV16850 features alternate-row HDR mode.

The sensor is currently sampling and is expected to enter volume production in Q1 2015.

Sharp Presents Colorized NIR Camera

Nikkei Tech publishes quite a controversial story on the new Sharp technology: Sharp has developed a camera that colorizes NIR nighttime video and exhibited it at Ceatec Japan on Oct. 7-11, 2014. The company plans to commercialize it in a monitoring camera in November 2014, and to use it in automotive camera later on. The camera color filter "separates near-infrared light into red, green and blue lights. The filter is not made of an organic material but an inorganic material."

The near-infrared LEDs emit light to a distance of 5 to 10m. The reflected light passes through the lens and the newly-developed filter to a Sharp CCD and then used to produce a color image. No further technology details are reported.

TowerJazz and KERI Collaborate to Bring Commercial X-Ray Sensor to Market

Business Wire: TowerJazz and the Korea Electrotechnology Research Institute (KERI), a non-profit government-funded research institute in Republic of Korea, announce an on-going collaboration which has led to successful development of a X-Ray image sensor which is ready for the commercial market.

Since 2009, TowerJazz has partnered with KERI to provide pixel IP, special R&D assistance and other support. The global X-ray equipment market for medical, dental and veterinary applications reached the $10 billion mark in 2012 and should increase by 18% to $12 billion by 2017, according to IMS Research. KERI already has agreements with various commercial companies for technology transfer and detailed plans are under discussion now. KERI expects mass production to begin in 2015 for this CMOS image sensor and expected sales revenue could easily reach over $10M per year once ramp up occurs.

“With the great support of TowerJazz, our image sensor is ready to be commercialized. Since the beginning, TowerJazz has been supporting and encouraging us throughout the development process by providing specialized technical service and prompt response from on-site experts with diverse experience. We will maintain our strong relationship while starting production in the coming year for this product and we look forward to future cooperation at TowerJazz’s 12” fab in Japan through TowerJazz Panasonic Semiconductor Co.,” said Dr. Sung Chae Jeon, Principal Research Engineer, KERI.

Invisage Gets Venture Loan

Marketwired: Horizon Technology Finance Corporation, a finance company that provides secured loans to venture capital and private equity backed development-stage companies, announces it led a venture loan facility, in which Square 1 Bank participated, for InVisage Technologies, Inc. InVisage will use the funds primarily for working capital purposes.

"We are pleased to add InVisage to our top tier list of venture loan portfolio companies," stated Gerald A. Michaud, President of Horizon. "InVisage's QuantumFilm platform and series of products address the fundamental physics limitations of today's silicon-based image sensors used in smartphone cameras and other applications. This loan facility provides InVisage with strategic capital to support the manufacturing and commercialization of its products."

InVisage President and CEO, Jess Lee, shared, "We are pleased to have Horizon as one of our investment partners and are fortunate to have attracted top-tier investors that share our vision of creating the next era of cameras -- fast, thin, high performance -- to transform the mobile, photography and connected device segments. This significant loan facility is an affirmation of the growth opportunity we see for our QuantumFilm™ platform and series of products. We now have additional financial flexibility to drive and market our capabilities to Tier 1 customers."

In April 2014, Invisage announced its latest funding round of $18M, bringing the total investment to more than $100M.

Slanted Edge MTF Measurement, Step-by-Step

Albert Theuwissen publishes a step-by-step guide of slanted edge MTF measurement.

MTF obtained by the slanted edge method.

Omnivision Announces its First Stacked Sensor

PRNewswire: OmniVision announces the OV13860, a 1/2.6-inch PureCel-S OV13860 image sensor uses large 1.3um pixels and leverages OmniVision's new stacked die technology.

"Today's smartphone OEMs are conscious of the fact that users expect higher resolution cameras in their smartphones. But this increase in resolution is often accomplished by a reduction of pixel sizes, which results in a loss of camera performance and low-light sensitivity," said Bahman Hadji, product marketing manager at OmniVision. "The OV13860 is the ideal solution to this dilemma: a unique 1/2.6-inch 13-megapixel sensor with 1.3-micron pixels – 35 percent larger in size than traditional 13-megapixel sensors. Despite its 1/2.6-inch optical format, the OV13860 uses a high chief ray angle (CRA) to enable a camera module z-height of 5.5 mm, suitable for today's slim smartphones. With its large pixels and high CRA, the OV13860 provides an extraordinary 'no-compromise' imaging solution for next-generation flagship smartphones."

The OV13860 is the first in the family of BSI PureCel sensors based on the company's stacked die technology. Among the OV13860's advanced features is autofocus contrast calculation at 120fps while imaging at full 13MP resolution to enable a fast autofocus system. When paired with a high-speed actuator, the OV13860 can provide for nearly instant AF by delivering contrast statistics at up to four times faster than traditional single frame-based contrast calculations. The OV13860 also supports alternate row dual-exposure HDR mode for delivering HDR video in challenging lighting scenes.

The OV13860's large 1.3um pixel is said to have an improved high- and low-light performance, SNR, and full-well capacity when compared to products with 1.12um pixels. The OV13860 can capture full-resolution 13MP still images at 30fps or record 4K2K video at 30fps, 1080p at 60fps, or 720p at 120fps. Each video output format includes additional pixels to support EIS.

The OV13860 is currently sampling and is expected to enter volume production in Q4 2014.

Primesense Scanning ToF Patent Application

Primesense (Apple now) has filed US20130207970 patent application "Scanning depth engine" by Alexander Shpunt and Raviv Erlich and, more recently, PCT applications "Depth Scanning with Multiple Emitters" by Alexander Shpunt, Ronen Einat and Zafrir Mor, "Mems hinges with enhanced rotatability" by Raviv Ehrlich and Yuval Gerson, and "Detecting failure of scanning mirror" by Alexander Shpunt that present ToF approach based on scanning micro-mirror and APD:

TSMC Files Pixel-Level Interconnect in Stacked Sensors Application

TSMC patent application US20140264508 "Structure and Method for 3D Image Sensor" by Min-Feng Kao, Dun-Nian Yaung, Jen-Cheng Liu, Chun-Chieh Chuang, Feng-Chi Hung, Shuang-Ji Tsai, Jeng-Shyan Lin, Shu-Ting Tsai, and Wen-I Hsu describes pixel-level interconnect in stacked sensors (BDCT=backside deep contact, BSSI=backside silicon):

Polarization Sensitive Current-Mode Sensor

Vision Systems Design: Proceeedings of the IEEE publishes an open-access invited paper "Bioinspired Polarization Imaging Sensors: From Circuits and Optics to Signal Processing Algorithms and Biomedical Applications" by Timothy York, Samuel B. Powell, Shengkui Gao, Lindsey Kahan, Tauseef Charanya, Debajit Saha, Nicholas W. Roberts, Thomas W. Cronin, Justin Marshall, Samuel Achilefu, Spencer P. Lake, Baranidharan Raman, and Viktor Gruev.

The paper proposes to use polarization imaging to detect cancer cells. For unknown reasons, the pixel is current-mode based:

Current-mode pixel schematic and peripheral readout circuitry of the imaging sensor. The pixel’s readout transistor operates in the linear mode, allowing for high linearity between incident photons on the photodiode and output current from the pixel.

Cross section of the pinned photodiode together with the reset,
transfer, readout, and select transistors. The diode is an n-type diode
on a p-substrate with an insulating barrier between. The readout
transistor operates as a transconductor, providing a linear
relationship between accumulated photo charges and an
output current.

The 7.4um-sized pixel in 180nm process shows excellent PRNU of less than 0.1% rms, in spite of Gm variations between the pixels:

Histogram of all responses of pixels in the imaging array to a uniform
illumination at room light intensity. The fixed pattern noise of the
current-mode imaging sensor

Omnivision Proposes Increasing Pixel Crosstalk in RGBC Sensors

Omnivision patent application US20140267848 "Image sensor with pixels having increased optical crosstalk" by the company's President Raymond Wu says "some RGBC patterns may suffer from color aliasing. [...] Color aliasing occurs at least partly due to the alignment of the clear filters within the RGBC pattern. Image sensors with clear pixels are more prone to color aliasing since clear pixels do not produce any color information of their own other than the intensity of light."

"Accordingly, embodiments of the present disclosure intentionally increase optical crosstalk in the pixel array in order to reduce the effect of color aliasing. [...] In conventional image sensors, optical crosstalk is an unfavorable effect that is mitigated because light straying from neighboring pixels may tend to distort the true color information of the target pixel. However, optical crosstalk has the unexpected benefit of blending the color of the target pixel with its neighboring pixels, thereby reducing color aliasing. Embodiments of the present disclosure intentionally induce and/or increase optical crosstalk as a desirable feature of CMOS image sensors to reduce the effects of color aliasing.

...it may be advantageous to have color pixels increase crosstalk, but to have clear pixels not. In other words, light incident on color pixels may be directed into neighboring clear pixels, but light incident on clear pixels will substantially remain within the clear pixels."

Few ways to increase the crosstalk are proposed. The one below shows a BSI example:

206 x 156 pix Thermal Camera for $199

PRNewswire: Following FLIR One steps, Seek Thermal announces the Seek thermal camera that plugs into iPhone and Android devices. The Santa Barbara, CA-based startup seems to be well funded to buy a thermal.com domain name to promote its sales. The spec is quite impressive for a $199 camera:

• True Thermal Sensor
• 206 x 156 Array
• 32,136 Thermal Pixels
• 12μm Pixel Pitch
• Vanadium Oxide Microbolometer
• Chalcogenide Lens
• 36° Field of View
• Magnesium Housing
• Long Wave Infrared 7.2 - 13 Microns
• -40C to 330C Detection
• Framerate < 9Hz

"Seek's breakthrough technology lets people see heat for the first time, something that only government agencies and companies could afford in the past," said Seek Thermal CEO, Robert Acker. "The Seek camera not only gives average consumers the capabilities in home improvement and safety and security that only professionals used to have, but we are also especially excited about the hundreds of new use cases for thermal that our camera will enable."

Thanks to JZ for letting me know!

Another FLIR One alternative, Hema-Imager Kickstarter project, fell short from its $205,000 fundraising goal recently. HemaImaging product was supposed to use German Heimann Sensors Gmbh thermopile array.

Caeleste Rad-Hard Design Tutorial

Caeleste publishes Bart Dierickx' tutorial "Radiation hard design in CMOS image sensors," presented at CPIX Workshop held in Bonn, Germany on Sept 15-19, 2014. It's a very nice overview of radiations effects combined with some countermeasures. Few slides out of 53 ones:

v6 of DxO Analyzer Announced

DxO Labs announces version 6 of its Analyzer with a slew of new features:

• HDR testing supporting up to 120dB
• Automated lighting system
• Video analysis now includes exposure, white-balance, sharpness and texture with changing lighting
• New MTF-based calibration for testing higher resolutions
• 6-Axis video image stabilization testing
• 3D camera characterization

Sony Product Sheets Restrict Applications

Sony publishes product sheets of its recent stacked sensors that have quite unusual restrictions on the sensor uses:

The 20MP 1/2.3-inch IMX220 document says:

The 13MP 1/3.06-inch IMX214 is intended for cellular phones or tablet devices. The note in the doc says:

The 1.07MP 1/8.32-inch IMX188 product sheet (non-stacked "regular" BSI) says:

Update: Apparently, most of the product briefs released recently have these restrictions. Few more examples: IMX208, IMX219, IMX135.

A Closer Look at iPhone 6 and 6 Plus Cameras

Chipworks publishes a more detailed report on iPhone 6 and 6 Plus cameras, both front and rear. All cameras have stacked sensors made by Sony. The front FaceTime camera has 2.2um pixels (up from 1.75um in iPhone 5s) and features an interesting CFA pattern: