OmniVision Doubles the Cell Phone Camera Resolution Ante
OmniVision Technologies announced on September 28 the OmniPixel2TM CMOS image sensor architecture with a pixel size less than half the size of OmniVision's previous image sensors. Earlier this year, OmniVision sensors ushered 1.3 megapixel resolution cameras into the mainstream cell phone camera market. The new OmniPixel2TM sensors will allow cell phone manufacturers to move to higher resolution cameras with no increase in image sensor size.
The OmniPixel2TM architecture achieves a pixel size of only 2.2 x 2.2 microns. This was accomplished by a new pixel design, a new zero-gap micro-lens and improved quantum efficiency. Quantum efficiency, a measure of the ability to capture photons, was increased by using a new, proprietary OmniVision process. The benefit is greater dynamic range, the ability to capture pictures over a wider range of lighting conditions.
The 30% decrease in pixel size combined with the above mentioned process improvements on both the sensor and system level allows image sensors with approximately twice the resolution in the same package as previous image sensors. Thus, cell phone manufacturers can double the resolution of cell phone cameras by changing virtually nothing but the image sensor.
Cell phone cameras are rapidly becoming the consumer's camera of choice for impromptu snapshot opportunities. Today's 1.3 megapixel cell phone cameras do not do well in poor lighting conditions and do not provide very good detail, but changes are coming. Higher resolution cameras, made possible by better technology, such as the OmniPixel2TM architecture, will greatly improve cell phone camera pictures. Better lenses and improved digital processing are not far behind. Because they are bigger, digital still cameras can accommodate better lenses than cell phone cameras. For that reason, and others, point-and-shoot digital still cameras are not going away. But, they are going to see real competition from cell phone cameras. Within the next few years, cell phone cameras are going to be able to provide pictures of an amazing quality, and our phones are always with us.
