Toshiba America Electronic Components (TAEC), a company that collaborates with technology firms to develop breakthrough designs, has introduced a new CMOS image sensor, which provides the smallest pixel size via the usage of back-side illumination technology (BSI).
Toshiba hopes that the BSI CMOS image sensors with their ability to capture HD images and conform to tight form factors would soon become a mainstream technology, which would be used in a range of handy digital devices such as digital cameras, mobile phones, tablets and smartphones.
According to Andrew Burt, Vice President of TAEC, image sensors must also correspondingly shrink in size along with portable smartphones and digital devices, and this would pose a great challenge to imaging subsystem designers. He further mentioned that the BSI technology has surmounted or triumphed over the problem by using the lens on its silicon substrate, at the rear section of the sensor, where light absorption is limited due to the wiring. This positioning would increase absorption and light sensitivity and thus permits Toshiba to develop finer quality image pixels in much smaller CMOS image sensors. Video applications such as video chat or video capture could also be done by the BSI CMOS image sensors because of the enhanced sensitivity features.
The sensors would also include a 0.25” optical format along with 8 megapixels wherein each pixel would measure 1.12 µm. Video capture would be supported by the sensor at up to 60 frames per second in both 720p and 1080p HD.
Sampling of the sensor is expected to start by the end of July 2011, while mass production is set for the fag end of the year. .
Source: http://www.toshiba.com/