Color Shading Discussion

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Albert Theuwissen discusses color shading measurements in his latest post in "How to measure..." series: "Even if the shading component is small, it can result in (minor) changes in spectral response across the sensor. These type of errors can have a severe effect on colour shading in a colour sensor and can make colour reconstruction pretty complicated. So it absolutely worthwhile to check out the shading under light conditions."
1:18 AM

SPIE HDR Course

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There is an HDR course planned for SPIE Defense, Security+Sensing Conference in Baltimore, MD on April 23-27, 2012. "High Dynamic Range Imaging: Sensors and Architectures" 4-hour course by Arnaud Darmont, Aphesa "describes various sensor and pixel architectures to achieve high dynamic range imaging as well as software approaches to make high dynamic range images out of lower dynamic range sensors or image sets".
6:08 AM

Primesense Lays Off 50 out of its 190 Employees

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Globes: PrimeSense is firing 50 of its 190 employees. The company is holding hearings for employees today, ahead of sending them pink slips later this week. PrimeSense is cutting its workforce in all departments: marketing, R&D, and operations.

Update: Hebrew-language newspaper Calcalist adds few details about Primesense status (Google translation here). Few key points from the article:
  • Primesense was profitable in 2011, but it is not clear if it turns a profit in 2012
  • Kinect sales are heading down, albeit no numbers were quoted
  • Primesense has secured design wins for two more generations of Kinect, up to 2014. After that point Microsoft's plans are unknown.
  • So far Primesense sold 20 million 3D cameras for Kinect
1:24 PM

Fraunhofer Lateral Drift PD Used for ToF Imaging

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Laser Focus World: Fraunhofer Institute for Microelectronic Circuits and Systems (IMS; Duiburg, Germany) lateral-drift-field photodiode (LDPD) achieves a complete charge transfer from the pixels into the readout node in just 30ns - quite an achievement for 40 sq.um-large pixel. The researches used LDPD to create 128 × 96 pixel ToF sensor and a human arm was easily imaged in 3D using the sensor within a standard camera setup in conjunction with a 905 nm pulsed source (with a pulse duration of 30 ns) operated at 10 kHz. Responsivity of the LDPD was 230 μV/W/m2 and dynamic range was about 60 dB. The sensor is made in 0.35um process. The pixel fill factor is 38%.


Update: Fraunhofer's Annual Report gives more information about the LDPD pixel and ToF sensor:

Fig. 1. LDPD ToF pixel cross-section

"The photodiode is divided in two main parts: a pinned surface one and a part which resembles a buried CCD cell, as it can be observed in Fig. 1. The pixels and the entire sensor have been fabricated in the 2P4M automotive certified 0.35 μm CMOS technology at the Fraunhofer IMS with the addition of an extra surface-pinned n-well yielding a non-uniform lateral doping profile, as shown in Fig. 1 (upper picture). The doping
concentration gradient of the extra n-well was chosen in such a way that it induces an intrinsic lateral drift field parallel to the Si-surface in the direction of the pixel readout node (x-axis in Fig. 1) as well as from the periphery of the n-well in the direction of the n-well centre (y-axis in Fig. 1).

The potential distribution within this intrinsic lateral drift-field photodiode (LDPD) n-well resembles a hopper leading the photogenerated charge directly to the assigned readout nodes. It remains fully depleted during operation, sandwiched between the substrate and a grounded p+ pinning layer on top of it (see Fig. 1). In this manner, the almost noiseless reset and readout operations of the photodetector are enabled.

A buried collection-gate (CG) is fabricated at the one end of the n-well, which remains biased at a certain voltage VCG. It induces an additional electrostatic potential maximum in the system and enables the proper and symmetrical distribution of the signal charge among the readout nodes. Each of the four transfer-gates (TX) plays two main roles:

1) it serves to create a potential barrier in the well to prevent the collected charge to be transferred into any of the three “floating” diffusions (FD) aimed at pixel readout or the so called “draining” diffusion (DD) permanently biased at a reset potential
2) to facilitate the transport of the photocharge into a desired FD or the DD."
2:58 AM

GSM Based SMS Driven Automatic Display Toolkit for College Noticeboard (Electronics Project)

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The main aim of the project will be to design a SMS driven automatic display toolkit which can replace the currently used programmable electronic display. It is proposed to design receive cum display toolkit which can be programmed from an authorized mobile phone.
The message to be displayed is sent through a SMS from an authorized transmitter. The toolkit receives the SMS, validates the sending Mobile Identification Number (MIN) and displays the desired information after necessary code conversion.
The system is made efficient by using ‘clone’ SIMs of same MIN in a geographical area so that the same SMS can be received by number of display boards in a locality using techniques of time division multiple access. Started of as an instantaneous News display unit, we have improved upon it and tried to take advantage of the computing capabilities of microcontroller. We envision a toolkit that will not only display message but also can be used to do some mechanical work.
Looking into current trend of information transfer in the campus, it is seen that important notice take time to be displayed in the notice boards. This latency is not expected in most of the cases and must be avoided.
It is proposed to implement this project at the institute level. It is proposed to place display boards in major access points. The electronics displays which are currently used are programmable displays which need to be reprogrammed each time. This makes it inefficient for immediate information transfer, and thus the display board looses its importance. The GSM based display toolkit can be used as a add-on to these display boards and make it truly wireless. The display board programs itself with the help of the incoming SMS with proper validation. Such a system proves to be helpful for immediate information transfer.
The system required for the purpose is nothing but a Microcontroller based SMS box. The main components of the toolkit include microcontroller, GSM modem. These components are integrated with the display board and thus incorporate the wireless features. The GSM modem receives the SMS. The AT commands are serially transferred to the modem through MAX232. In return the modem transmits the stored message through the COM port. The microcontroller validates the SMS and then displays the message in the LCD display board. Various time division multiplexing techniques have been suggested to make the display boards functionally efficient. The microcontroller used in this case is Philips P89C51RD2BN. Matrix Simado GDT11 is used as the GSM modem. In the prototype model, LCD display is used for simulation purpose. While implementation this can be replaced by actually display boards.
The results presented in the thesis support the proper functionalities and working of the system. The timing diagram suggests the response of the modem to various AT commands.
8:24 AM

Remote Controlling of Home Appliances using Mobile Telephony (Electronics Project)

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In modern days, we must use various high-tech machineries and equipments to get our jobs done and make the life easier. These machineries should be controlled by the homeowner from any location as the homeowner might be away from home at workplace or traveling in a different place in the weekend. Thus a system of remote monitoring and controlling are very much necessary.
Smart home is one of these types of system equipped with home appliances which we wish to control smartly from anywhere. Some products are commercially available which allow remote home appliance controlling through internet which is undoubtedly emerging. But it lacks the true sense of real mobility and security, making the remote home appliance controlling a limited term than it is supposed to be.
In search of a true remote and adequately secure solution to be really effective and practicable, mobile telephony is better than any other solutions. Mobile phones have become almost an inseparable part of civil lives today. In this paper we introduce a new mechanism so that the ordinary services of the mobile phones can be leveraged to communicate with and control the home appliances and make our homes a really smart one.
Author: Rifat Shahriyar | Enamul Hoque | S.M. Sohan | Iftekhar Naim | Md. Mostafa Akbar | Masud Karim Khan
9:06 PM

Green Supply Chain Management in Thailand: An Investigation of the Use in the Electrical and Electronics Industry (Management Project)

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The objective with this project is to clarify the advantages – both economic and environmental – that companies in the Thai electronic manufacturing industry can draw from managing their supply chain and adding a green aspect to it. This through investigations of the concept known as Green Supply Chain Management (GSCM). The research will assist companies with scarce knowledge of green supply chain management in making decisions and priorities in that area.
Semi-structured interviews were performed on sight in Bangkok, Thailand and surrounding region. These provided insight and knowledge of the situation and today-state regarding environmental awareness and GSCM implementation within the Thai Electrical and Electronics Industries. Interviews were performed with representatives and experts from different sectors – from universities, industry and supporting agencies and serve as the foundation for the research.
A model has been developed out of previous research and findings that could suit the Thai industry. This model can be seen as guidelines in the work towards becoming green and aims at continuous improvement of the organizations environmental performance.
In Thailand today companies do not see the benefits of themselves review their organizations environmental impact or developing in this area. Environmental awareness among the public is low and the lack of demand for green products result in few drivers for companies to become green. Also the lack of proper legislation and compliance audits are part of the problem. Missing environmental education and knowledge are extensive and improvements needed. The concept of GSCM is not wide spread but popularity is increasing steadily. Some environmental initiatives are though performed in the industry but not under the name of the concept. Customer demands, legislation and education should be the main focus areas for developing the industry.
From the today state at a very basic low much is to be done. Fear of large investments, cost and the lack of knowledge are obstacles to the development. This research shows that these concerns are to be avoided. And by following the model in this thesis companies can find proper knowledge in the area of GSCM. Concluded is that with understanding of the concept and proper implementation from the right knowledge Thai companies can gain great advantages in the future – both economical and environmental.
Source: Linköping University
Author: Wallerius, Joel | Zakrisson, Marcus
8:52 PM

Interim Management (Management Project)

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The economic context changes, companies adapt and recruitment evolves. As future managers and leaders, or simply new actors in the working environment, this is our duty to be aware of the demand of the market.
The economic situation has a huge impact on the recruitment and this more so in a crisis period (Aswegen, 2009). In order to respond of the need of flexibility, facing crisis situation or simply facing the need of change, Interim Management seems to correspond to this request or is at least one of the tools that companies can take into consideration.
During the previous phase of our thesis, we realized that only a few people were aware of this promising concept of management. It became a challenge for us, we wanted to know more about this topic and to write a paper in order to share the knowledge that we would gather through the process of depicting this emerging phenomenon called, Interim Management‟ while remaining objective.
During our research and interviews, we met recruitment consultants, Interim Managers, and corporate human resources directors; all of these meetings helped us to understand companies’ needs and what they expect when hiring Interim Managers. Our thesis aims at explaining and depicting the emerging concept of Interim Management in order to give our vision of the reality.
Source: Linnaeus University
Author: Brossault, Romain | Jaussoin, Rémi

8:47 PM

The Story Behind the Nokia 41MP Camera

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The official Nokia Conversations blog published a post by Damian Dinning on the journey to the 41MP camera phone. Some quotes:

"the innovation and news is NOT the number of pixels but rather HOW those pixels are used."

"For some of our team, it’s taken over five years to bring this to the market..."

"After developing several optical zoom modules, we were still seeing significant performance trade-offs caused by optical zoom: performance in low light; image sharpness at both ends of the zoom range; audible noise problems; slow zooming speed and lost focus when zooming during video. We became convinced this could never be the great experience we once hoped. You’d need to accept a bigger, more expensive device with poor f no., a small and noisy image sensor and lower optical resolution just to be able to zoom."

"We had often debated that, for the vast majority, 5-megapixels completely fulfils their real world needs, but the market for many years has been pixels, pixels, pixels. It’s hard to block that out. Our friends at Carl Zeiss believed the same."

"This is, without doubt, our most complex imaging project to date."
5:59 AM

Baird: Omnivision to Supply Sensors for iPad 3 and iPad mini

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Reuters: Baird expects Omnivision to supply a 5MP sensor for the rear camera and a 1MP sensor for the front camera of the iPad3. Baird also said Omnivision may supply sensors for an upcoming iPad mini.

The brokerage expects Sony to remain the rear-camera supplier of the iPhone5, but believes OmniVision could be a potential second supplier.
11:03 AM

Omnivision, ST, Toshiba, Samsung, Sony Modules Reverse Engineered

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Nantes, France-based SystemPlus Consulting published a number of camera module reverse engineering reports.

Nokia 2330 camera phone reverse engineering revealed that it uses two suppliers for its VGA camera module: ST with Heptagon wafer-scale optics and Toshiba with Anteryon wafer optics. Both ST and Toshiba sensors have 2.2um pixels and use 0.18um process.

Omnivision's OVM7692 VGA CameraCube report flyer shows its 1.75um pixel layout at the poly and diffusion level showing quite nice fill factor and no SEL transistor:


Another Omnivision's 1.75um pixel is used in 5MP OV5650 taken from iPhone 4. That one is using 0.11um BSI process.

iPhone 4S camera has also been reverse engineered and Sony's 8MP BSI IMX145 sensor identified, made in 90nm process. For both iPhone back and front cameras, Tong Hsing (former ImPac) was identified as ceramic packaging supplier and LG Innotek as the module vendor.

Samsung Galaxy S II 8MP camera uses Samsung's S5K3H2Y sensor based on 1.4um BSI pixels in 90nm process.

Sony Ericsson S006 camera-phone module features Sony-made 16MP array of 1.12um BSI pixels. The module uses piezoelectric AF and has quite densely packed optics:

10:49 AM

sCMOS in 2 min

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Photonics Online published Youtube video of CIS1021 sCMOS sensor presentation by Fairchild Imaging - BAE systems:


5:18 AM

Aptina Announces CSP Version of Native 1080p Sensor

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Aptina announces the cost-effective 2.2um pixel AR0330CS sensor providing 3.2MP still image captures, and and HD video for consumer pocket digital video (DV), camcorder, web, sports action and video conferencing and other camera applications.

The only difference from AR0330 sensor announced a year ago appears to be a 6.28mm x 6.65mm CSP package and a slower frame rate of 30fps in 1080p mode, whereas the last year's sensor had ceramic package and was capable of 60fps at 1080p resolution.

The AR0330CS is currently sampling with mass production expected in Q2 CY2012.
5:03 AM

Casio Depth Sensing

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Casio depth sensing patent application US20120050713 describes quite a similar idea to Microsoft's et. al double helical proposal. Differently from Microsoft, Casio uses two projectors 121 and 122 with diffractive patterns 131 and 132:


The projectors light beams generate the distance-dependent rotating pattern similar of Microsoft's one:


The angle between the dots gives depth information to the sensor 140.
12:04 PM

Omnivision Stresses Sensors, Apple Splits Them

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Omnivision's patent application US20120038014 proposes a stress film to passivate the backside surface:


"For a BSI CMOS image sensor, dark currents may be a particular problem. A typical BSI CMOS image sensor has dark current levels that are over 100 times greater than that of a front side illuminated sensor.

A BSI image sensor's backside surface stress may affect its dark current level. The present application discloses utilizing structures and methods to adjust the stress on a CMOS image sensor's backside silicon surface, thereby reducing the dark current effect by facilitating the movement of photo generated charge carriers away from the backside surface.

Stress on a backside silicon surface may be adjusted by forming a stress loaded layer on the surface. A stress loaded layer may include materials such as metal, organic compounds, inorganic compounds, or otherwise. For example, the stress loaded layer may include a silicon oxide (SiO2) film, a silicon nitride (SiNx) film, a silicon oxynitride (SiOxNy) film, or a combination thereof."

Apple parent application US20120044328 proposes to split image sensor into three - one luminance sensor and two chrominance ones:


"Typically, the luminance portion of a color image may have a greater influence on the overall image resolution than the chrominance portion. This effect can be at least partially attributed to the structure of the human eye, which includes a higher density of rods for sensing luminance than cones for sensing color.

While an image sensing device that emphasizes luminance over chrominance generally does not perceptibly compromise the resolution of the produced image, color information can be lost if the luminance and chrominance sensors are connected to separate optical lens trains, and a “blind” region of the luminance sensor is offset from the “blind” region of the chrominance sensor. One example of such a blind region can occur due to a foreground object occluding a background object. Further, the same foreground object may create the blind region for both the chrominance and luminance sensors, or the chrominance blind region created by one object may not completely overlap the luminance blind region created by a second object. In such situations, color information may be lost for the “blind” regions of the chrominance sensor, thereby compromising the resolution of the composite color image."

So Apple proposes to use two chrominance sensors and the following processing flow:

1:23 AM

Tessera DOC Gets into Mass Manufacturing Business

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Business Wire, PR Newswire: Tessera subsidiary, DigitalOptics Corporation (DOC), acquires "certain assets" of Vista Point Technologies, a Tier One qualified camera module manufacturing business, from Flextronics.

DOC will pay approximately $23M in cash for "certain assets" of Flextronics's camera module business located in Zhuhai, China. The transaction, which is expected to close in Q3 2012, if not sooner, includes existing customer contracts and a lease to an approximately 135,000-square-foot facility. The transaction also includes an intellectual property assignment and license agreement, and a transition services agreement. DOC intends to offer employment to a portion of the existing work force of the Flextronics camera module business in Zhuhai, China. DOC anticipates that the business will have a capacity to manufacture approximately 50M camera module units per year.

Flextronics will retain a portion of Vista Point Technologies assets, but repurpose them and focus engineering talent toward "strengthening its ability to deliver manufacturing services".

"The Zhuhai Camera Module Business will allow us to drive rapid market introduction of DOC's next-generation technology in a manner that complements our existing collaborations with camera module makers. We believe our approach is the best way to address the requirements of Tier One OEM manufacturers, which require that camera modules be delivered through dual sourcing from high-volume manufacturing facilities," said Robert A. Young, Tessera CEO.

"This transaction is a critical step in our strategy of transforming DOC from an optical and image enhancement software and components business into a Tier One qualified, vertically integrated supplier of next-generation camera modules to the $9-billion market for mobile cameras," Young continued. "In parallel, we continue to have active discussions with multiple Tier One OEM manufacturers of mobile phones regarding our MEMS autofocus product, and remain on track to obtain a design win in the first half of 2012 and to begin high-volume manufacturing in the fourth quarter of 2012," said Young.

"These assets will enable DigitalOptics Corporation to significantly increase sales of the imaging technologies we've acquired and developed over the past five years. Our strategy is to combine our breakthrough autofocus solutions with our other proprietary technologies so that DOC will become a leading supplier of integrated camera modules in the mobile phone market," said Bob Roohparvar, president of DigitalOptics Corporation.

DOC has been developing its capacity to oversee the high-volume manufacturing operations required by mobile phone makers. DOC's steps in the past year have included hiring more than a dozen executives and managers who have experience in engineering scale-up as well as in manufacturing at similar facilities.

Thanks to SF for sending me the news!
9:37 AM

Nemotek Presents Most Advanced VGA Wafer-Level Camera

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Sensors Magazine: Morocco-based Nemotek Technologie debuts what it says the world's first two element wafer-level camera, Exiguus H12-A2. The Exiguus H12-A2 features high resolution and less than 0.5% overall distortion all in an 1/10-inch form factor.

The Exiguus H12-A2 is reflowable, and offers sophisticated camera functions, such as auto exposure control, auto white balance, black level calibration, noise reduction, flicker detection and avoidance, color correction and saturation and lens shading correction.

"Today we unveil the first camera that successfully incorporates a two element wafer-lens and is technically more complex while providing better resolution than any current wafer-level offering on the market to date," said Hatim Limati, VP of sales and marketing for Nemotek Technologie. "The Exiguus H12-A2 produces extraordinarily clear, sharp pictures which make it the perfect choice for a wide range of applications. With this new achievement, we are able to further showcase our position as the industry's leader in innovation and design."

In addition, Nemotek marks its debut into the High End VGA market with another new camera based on a 720P High End sensor.

Samples of Nemotek's Exiguus H12-A2 and its High End VGA camera are currently available.
2:00 AM

IC Insights: DSC Market Stable, Camera Phones Growing

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IC Insights' report "IC Market Drivers" gives an outlook of DSC vs Camera Phone markets:


DSC unit shipments increased by a compound average growth rate (CAGR) of slightly more than 37% in the 2000-2005 period, but slowed to 9% per year between 2005 and 2010, and are projected to rise by merely 2.1% annually from 2010 through 2015.
7:14 AM

Eric Fossum Talks About Sensor Technology Trends

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Image Sensors 2012 Conference published an interview with Eric Fossum answering on sensor technology questions. Some quotes:

Q: What new disruptive technologies do you see on the horizon?

A: Well of course my own pet project - Quanta Image Sensing (QIS)- could become a major disruption. I don't expect lightning to strike twice but as I like to say, you can't win the lottery if you don't buy a ticket. Computational imaging is getting interesting but it might be a few years before Moore's Law catches up to the aspirations of computational imaging and enables its full potential. I think computational imaging combined with the QIS could become a major paradigm shift but it is still early in that game. I think use of non-silicon materials could be disruptive if any of them work out. But, silicon is an amazing material and manufacturing and noise issues with non-silicon materials are non-trivial. Meanwhile, the rate of continuous improvement is so large that emerging technologies have to mature rapidly to have enough compelling advantage that they can grab a toehold in the marketplace once they get there. To that end, even a few years of continuous improvement can look disruptive to the user community.
3:18 AM