Either way, its a compelling option. And though BSI adds new manucturing costs and challenges, photographers often pay extra for a better image--either to make a mobile phone perform more like a point-and-shoot or to make a higher-end SLR shoot better in dim conditions.
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Cutting Edge
BSI is chiefly useful in smaller sensors today where pixels are small and noise speckles are more of a problem. But, asked if Sony planned to expand to high-end gear such as SLR cameras or professional video cameras, Haruta indicated that was a possibility. In the future there are some other areas we will go, he said.
The CMOS image sensor will be beyond the human eyes in the future, said Tsutomu Haruta, senior manager of Sonys Semiconductor Business Group, in a talk at the conference.
Theres more, though, said Avi Strum, general manager of the specialty business unit of image sensor designer TowerJazz.
So naturally, theres plenty ofresearch into better image sensor technology. BSI is catching on, but it still suffers a fundamental weakness: silicon-based image sensors arent as sensitive to green and blue light as it is to red.
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With backside illumination, light detected by a silicon chip isn&39;t blocked by image sensor electronics.
If you have a higher fill ctor, you can make higher sensitivity or you can make higher resolution, Baron said. Its a key revolution.
Deep Tech
Cutting Edge
Thus, the increasingly bullish Yole market forecast.
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Its more aggressive than we expected even two years ago,Yole Developpementanalyst Jerome Baron said in a talk last week at theImage Sensors Europe conferencehere.
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The new sensors use a technology calledbackside illumination, and chipmakers including Sony and Samsung are leading the charge to build them into a variety of cameras. And though its a premium feature today, its spreading rapidly across the market.
Most sensors today employ front-side illumination, in which transistors and wires necessary to transmit image-sensor data are on the suce of the chip cing the outside of the camera. A lot of recent image sensor work has focused on reducing the number of transistors and on letting multiple pixels on the sensor share the same electronics. That improves the fill ctor, the percentage of each pixel that can be used to gather light.
Sony, a leader in backside illumination designs for image sensors, shows the better performance the technology offers while taking pictures in dimmer conditions.
Tsutomu Haruta, senior manager of Sony&39;s Semiconductor Business Group, speaking of Sony&39;s BSI approach at a conference in London.
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Technically Incorrect
Sonys sensors are used not only in its own still cameras and video cameras but also in SLR cameras from Nikon and Pentax. The company isnt afraid to raise expectations about backside illumination and other technologies it plans to use in its sensors.
Stephen ShanklandStephen Shankland writes about a wide range of technology and products, but has a particular focus on browsers and digital photography. He joined CNET News in 1998 and since then also has covered Google, Yahoo, servers, supercomputing, Linux and open-source software and science.
Digital Media
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Crave
Theres a big manucturing challenge to BSI, though. Different materials must be bonded together, and layers must be ground away with high precision.
The advantage, illustrated among other places in theiPhone 4 camera, is better light sensitivity. That opens up new options for camera makers.
Image sensors are special-purpose, light-sensitive chips packed with complicated technology. But backside illumination, or BSI, is pretty easy to understand: flip the sensor around so the light its detecting isnt partially blocked by a bunch of electronics. What used to be the back of the sensor is now cing outward toward the light.
Better sensitivity
Sony is outgrowing the rest of the pack, in part because of its early adoption of backside illumination in its Exmor R line of BSI sensors, Baron said. Samsung is moving the same way, he added, and others are following suit. Canon, a pioneer in CMOS image sensors, is still relevant, but is looking for partners for their future sensors.
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Analyst firm Yole Developpement expects backside illumatCamera market flipping to new sensor technologyion image sensors to dominate the market.
One company trying to leapfrog the current image sensor technologyInVisage, which is developing a technology it calls QuantumFilm. As with BSI, its light-sensitive layer isnt behind the circuitry. But unlike BSI, it uses precisely sized particles of semiconductor material sensitive specifically to visible light.
With backside illumination, though, the fill ctor can go all the way up to 100 percent.
Yole expects BSI sensors will spread both to high-end and low-end cameras.
Backside illumination also helps with dynamic range (the ability to capture details in both shadows and bright areas), video frame rate, rapidly transferring data off the chip, and whats called angular response. With BSIs better angular response, pixels on the edge of an image sensor--where light often arrives at an angle--can come closer to the performance of pixels at the center of a sensor, where light more often arrives perpendicularly.
How InVisage and other challengers will re isnt yet certain. What is clear, though, is that there is plenty more change in store for digital photography.
Image sensors are a vast and important market. Not only does it reach millions of mainstream consumer devices, its also important to medical instruments, vehicle safety systems, security cameras, and many other markets.
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One option is to offer more pixels without degrading how well each pixel works, yielding more detailed photographs. Another option is better image quality with the same number of pixels, something thats useful when taking photos or videos in dim indoor light.
Sony offers BSI only in video camera sensors today, but its expanding to mobile devices, too, Haruta said. He showed off two new small sensors, a type 1/2.8 16-megapixel chip with pixels measuring 1.12 microns and a type 1/3.2 8-megapixel model with pixels measuring 1.4 microns. (A type 1/2.8 sensor measures about 6.2x4.6mm, and a type 1/3.2 sensor is even smaller, at about 4.5x3.4mm.)
Cutting Edge
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Camera market flipping to new sensor technology,LONDON--A new type of image sensor thats been flipped front to back is beginning to give photographers a better view of the world.
Stephen Shankland, whos covered the computing industry since 1998 and was a science reporter before that, here delves into a wide range of technology trends and offers hands-on tests. His particular interests include Web browsers, cameras, standards, research, science, and start-ups.
In 2011, backside illumination sensors should account for 20 percent of the $5.6 billion revenue from image sensors built with the mainstream CMOS (complimentary metal oxide semiconductor) process, and are growing st, according to Yole statistics. By 2015, it should be 70 percent of an $8.2 billion CMOS image sensor business.
Sony out front with backside illumination
Apple
Longer-term challengers
