Omnivision launched their first smartphone image sensor today with TheiaCel™ Technology.
Takeaway Points
- OMNIVISION announces the launch of the industry’s first smartphone image sensor with TheiaCel™ Technology.
- The image sensor is called OV50K40.
- OV50K40 is reaching human eye-level high dynamic range (HDR) with a single exposure.
- TheiaCel™ technology was launched last year for the automotive market, said Jayaseelan.
OMNIVISION: First Smartphone Image Sensor
Omnivision, a premier worldwide innovator in semiconductor solutions specializing in cutting-edge digital imaging, analog, and touch and display technologies, today announced the launch of their first smartphone image sensor with TheiaCel™ technology. According to their press release, the smartphone image sensor called OV50K40 is reaching human eye-level high dynamic range (HDR) with a single exposure.
Gerrit Schneemann, Founder and Principal Analyst, explained that OMNIVISION is addressing a key challenge in smartphone photography with the launch of the OV50K40 image sensor.
“With the launch of the OV50K40 image sensor, OMNIVISION is addressing a key challenge in smartphone photography today: images in challenging lighting conditions. Improvements in these situations are critical for smartphone OEMs to differentiate their handsets from the competition, as overall camera quality has improved. The OV50K40 enables OEMs to integrate a sensor with enhanced HDR capabilities to deliver clear pictures in challenging lighting—all with a single exposure.” Gerrit said.
OV50K40
According to the report, the OV50K40 is a 50-megapixel (MP) image sensor that features a 1.2-micron (pm) pixel in a 1/1.3-inch optical format with high gain and correlated multiple sampling (CMS) for optical performance in low-light conditions. It supports 4-cell binning for 12.5 MP at 120 frames per second (fps) and 60 fps with HDR, with 4x sensitivity. Quad-phase detection (QPD) enables ultra-fast autofocus performance. An on-chip QPD re-mosaic provides full 50MP Bayer output, premium-quality 8K video, and 2x crop-zoom functionality.
Arun Jayaseelan, the senior product marketing manager, said that consumers have hit their limit with the quality of photos and videos on mobile phones and that today Omnivision has disrupted the mobile phone industry with their new technology.
“Consumers have hit their limit with the quality of photos and video from mobile phones on the market today, especially for images taken during sunrise and at night with bright lights in the background. But today, Omnivision has disrupted the mobile phone industry with our new TheiaCel™ technology,” said Arun.
“Our OV50K40 image sensor offers the highest single-exposure HDR image capture in mobile phones,” he added.
TheiaCel™ Technology
According to Jayaseelan, TheiaCel™ Technology was launched last year for the automotive market. TheiaCel™ harnesses the capabilities of lateral overflow integration capacitor (LOFIC) technology, together with OMNIVISION’s proprietary HDR technology, to enable superior image quality regardless of lighting conditions. The first application of TheiaCel™ Technology is focused on substantially pushing low-light performance and eliminating LED flicker in 2.1 µm pixel-generation automotive applications, in which LOFIC is combined with DCG™ HDR Technology.
In the digital world today, technological companies and manufacturers are constantly striving to create devices that are not only aesthetically pleasing but also comfortable to hold and use.
About OMNIVISION
OMNIVISION is a global fabless semiconductor organization that develops advanced digital imaging, analog, and touch & display solutions for multiple applications and industries, including mobile phones; security and surveillance; automotive; computing; medical; and IoT / emerging applications. Its award-winning innovative technologies enable a smoother human/machine interface in many of today’s commercial devices
