Light & depth sensor

Samsung’s Advanced Institute of Technology has created what they claim is the first CMOS sensor that can collect both visible light data (which you’d use for a normal digital image) and depth data (like a Kinect). It’s accomplished by mixing in depth-sensing pixels with the RGB photosites normally found on such sensors.

The sensor, strictly speaking, doesn’t capture an RGB and depth image at the same time due to wavelength filter restrictions, but it can effectively time-share the available resources to make it appear as though that’s the case. It captures a 1920×720 color image and a 480×360 depth image.

Source: TechCrunch.

Kodak sells image sensor business

Eastman Kodak Company announced that it has completed the sale of its Image Sensor Solutions (ISS) business to Platinum Equity, a global firm specializing in the merger, acquisition and operation of companies that provide services and solutions to customers in a broad range of business markets.

While the financial details were not disclosed, Kodak will have continuing access to the image sensor technology involved in this transaction for use in its own products. Included in the sale is a 263,000 square foot facility in Eastman Business Park in Rochester, N.Y., that houses manufacturing and research facilities.

Source: Kodak.

Backside Illumination Technology

OmniVision Technologies, Inc., the largest CMOS image sensor manufacturer today, believes it has found an answer to the sensor shrinkage problem in a novel design that adopts backside illumination (BSI) technology.

Together with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp. (TSMC), OmniVision developed "process tweaks" that allow OmniVision to offer a CMOS sensor with improved image quality while extending its pixel roadmap down to 0.9 micron pixels, according to the company.

OmniVision said that it's ready to start sampling next month an 8-Megapixel product using the new BSI-based sensor design called OmniBSI.

Source: EETimes.