Sony develops back-illuminated CMOS image sensor with global shutter

Feb. 16, 2018
Sony Corporation has announced that its developed a back-illuminated CMOS image sensor with global shutter functionality.

Sony Corporationhas announced that its developed a back-illuminated CMOS image sensor with global shutter functionality.

The newly-developed, pixel-parallel, analog-to-digital converters provide the function to instantly convert the analog signal from all pixels, simultaneously exposed, to a digital signal in parallel, according to Sony. This new technology was announced at the International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC) on February 11, 2018 in San Francisco.

Sony’s new sensor is a 1.46 MPixel sensor with a 6.9 µm pixel size that can reach a maximum frame rate of 66- fps. In low power mode, the sensor has a dynamic range of 65.7 dB, and in low-noise mode, a dynamic range of 70.2 dB. The new sensor comes with the developed low-current, compact A/D converters positioned beneath each pixel. These A/D converters, according to Sony, instantly convert the analog signal from all the simultaneously exposed pixels in parallel to a digital signal to temporarily store it in digital memory.

This architecture reportedly eliminates focal plane distortion due to readout time shift, making it possible to provide a global shutter function, which Sony says is an industry-first for a high-sensitivity, back-illuminated CMOS image sensor with pixel-parallel A/D converter with more than one megapixel.

Pictured: Captured image - F2.8, 7300lux, exposure time: 0.56ms, γ1.0.

Read more on the development here.

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About the Author

James Carroll

Former VSD Editor James Carroll joined the team 2013.  Carroll covered machine vision and imaging from numerous angles, including application stories, industry news, market updates, and new products. In addition to writing and editing articles, Carroll managed the Innovators Awards program and webcasts.

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