New CMOS image sensor lowers cost of 2-Mpixel digital cameras

JULY 15--IC Media Corp. (San Jose, CA; www.ic-media.com) has introduced the ICM-109T 2-Mpixel CMOS image sensor, designed to provide high-quality images required for mainstream digital cameras and to make 2-Mpixel cameras more affordable. IC Media is sampling and taking orders now for September 2002 volume shipments of this high-integration, single-chip camera.

IC Media was able to achieve high-quality imaging by using 4.9 x 4.9-μm pixels. This image quality allows the ICM-109T to effectively compete against CCD-based designs. A big advantage of the ICM-109T design is that it is an electrical pin-for-pin drop-in replacement for IC Media's popular ICM-108B 1.3-Mpixel CMOS sensor. This means that customers can do one board design and use it for both 1.3- and 2-Mpixel camera designs.

By using 0.25-μm process technology, IC Media reduced the size and power requirements for digital-camera designers. It draws less than 50 mA at 3.3 V in stand-by mode, and the power requirement remains less than 60 mA at 10 frames per second and less than 100 mA at 20 frames per second. The ICM-109T uses a dual voltage power scheme for maximum dynamic range with 2.5 V for the circuit and 3.3 V for the sensor array.

The single-chip digital color imaging device incorporates a 1600 x 1200 sensor array capable of operating at up to 20 frames per second with subsampled quarter and quarter-quarter (1/16) resolutions, operating at higher frame rates in a progressive manner. Correlated double sampling is performed by the internal 11-bit analog-to-digital converter and timing circuitry. The output is 10-bit raw data that can be fed to other DSP, color processing, or compression chips.