JULY 17--IMS Vision (Stuttgart, Germany; www.ims-vision.de), a joint venture company of Omron Corp. (Kyoto. Japan; www.omron.com) and Institut fur Mikroelektronik (IMS; Stuttgart, Germany), has developed an active-pixel, logarithmic, transformation-type CMOS image sensor that exceeds conventional performance. Compared to the HDRC-1 (a 170-dB dynamic-range CMOS) sensor, a performance improvement of 10 times is realized.
"Taking advantage of IMS technology, the 10-fold improvement in performance was achieved from innovations in HDRCR pixels and signal paths," says Bernd Hoefflinger, chairman of the IMS Vision advisory board and a member of the Vision Systems Design editorial advisory board. As a result, sensing over an ultrawide-bandwidth illumination level of between 0.001 and 500,000 lux is possible, in addition to a resolution of 768 x 496 pixels--30% greater than the conventional HDRC sensor.
This CMOS image sensor can capture an image with a very large contrast, in particular, in situations where the light changes from counterlight to darkness, such as when applied to a vehicle-equipped camera, welding and smelting furnace monitoring, and tunnel surveillance, among others. These applications can be handled by conventional image sensors, but environments for which the human eye would be light-blinded. The new sensor brings improvements in performance to low-level illumination, and is well suited to vehicle night-vision sensors and security cameras.
Aiming to contribute further to vehicle safety, security, and comfort, Omron's Automotive Electronic Components Co. will develop and offer this high-performance CMOS image sensor as a vehicle-equipped camera. Omron has acquired an exclusive license to sell IMS VISION HDRC products in automotive-components markets worldwide.
