Kodak says its new 5-megapixel sensor will fit in the small camera packages of mainstream mobile phones.
(Credit: Kodak)Eastman Kodak hopes turning one aspect of chip design on its head will help improve cell phone cameras--or at least help their image quality catch up with their megapixel increases.
"We believe we've created a new camera sensor product that rivals that of real cameras, but it's small enough to be used in a camera phone," said Fas Mosleh, manager of CMOS market work for Kodak's professional and applied imaging group.
There have been nice cameras in high-end mobile phones such as Nokia's N95, but Kodak believes its technology, built into a 5-megapixel sensor product to ship by the end of the year, will help bring better cameras to mainstream mobile phones.
Semiconductor chips currently detect light essentially by counting how many electrons result from light striking a pixel on the image sensor. More intense light means more electrons, and that electronic signal can be converted into digital data.
But Kodak believes it can get some improvements by rewiring the image sensor design to detect the absence of electrons instead--in effect counting "holes" rather than electrons. To do so, some sensor circuitry must be rewired, but Kodak argues that the technology produces less noise than conventional sensors.
The upshot, as promised by Kodak: better picture quality, or the same picture quality when shooting in dim light conditions such as those that prevail in most indoor scenes.
A basic problem with image sensors is the challenge of distinguishing the light's signal--the actual photons striking the sensor--from electronic noise within the sensor. That problem gets worse as pixels get smaller, so more megapixels isn't necessarily progress.
"Image quality has been deteriorating because your image resolution has been going up. Pixelization is better, but your low-light performance is worse," Mosleh said. "If you pick up a camera phone from 2003 or 2004 and compare to one from 2008, that old one will produce nicer pictures."
For product purposes, Kodak is pairing the hole-detector technology with a new color filter array Kodak calls Clear Pixel that's designed to improve low-light performance even more by devoting some pixels to measuring just brightness instead of color.
The 5-megapixel technology package, called the KAC05020, will fit into a small package measuring about .25 inch square and costing between $3 and $6 in large quantities, depending on what associated technology and software is included, Kodak said. It will support capture of 720p high-definition video, too.
Kodak researchers are presenting the sensor technology at the International Solid-State Circuits Conference on Monday in San Francisco.
The hole-detector pMOS technology could apply to larger sensors, but its benefits are clearer on small sensors, Mosleh said.
Kodak will offer KAC05020 samples in the second quarter, with high-volume shipments in the fourth quarter, the company said.
The hole detection, called pMOS in contrast to the usual NMOS sensors, can be built with no changes to semiconductor manufacturing, Mosleh said. However, some changes are necessary. "Pixel designers who have been working with collecting electrons now are collecting the absence. And the circuits coming off the sensor need to be repositioned, so support electronics need to be changed," he said.
Kodak's Clear Pixel technology, a variation on the Bayer pattern color filter array the company invented decades ago and now almost universal in digital cameras, is designed to improve sensitivity by devoting more pixels to detecting light intensity rather than color.
(Credit: Kodak)Eastman Kodak will receive royalties from Matsushita Electric Industrial through a settlement of a July patent infringement suit, according to a regulatory filing Thursday.
On December 21, Kodak settled suits with Matsushita, better known in the United States by its Panasonic brand, and with a Matsushita subsidiary, Victor Company of Japan (JVC).
Under terms of the settlements, the companies signed cross-licensing agreements granting each company access to the others' patents, Kodak said in the filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Both settlements are "royalty-bearing to Kodak," the company said.
Eastman Kodak has sued Panasonic, claiming the Japanese company infringed four patents relating to digital cameras.
The suit, filed July 25 in U.S. Federal Court in the Eastern District of Texas, targets Panasonic, its Japanese parent company, Matsushita Electric Industrial (MEI), and two Matsushita subsidiaries, Victor Company of Japan (JVC) and JVC Americas.
"Kodak has attempted to resolve the matter with MEI for a number of years. The discussions between the companies have not led to a suitable license agreement, so we have decided to file a complaint in order to protect the investment in technology that we make on behalf of our shareholders, and to protect the interests of other licensees," Kodak said in a statement.
The defendant so far isn't offering its version of events. "Matsushita Electric is aware of the suit but declines to comment," spokesman Jim Reilly said.
Kodak accused Matsushita of infringiung patents No. 5,016,107, "Electronic Still Camera Utilizing Image Compression and Digital Storage" from 1991; No. 5,164,831, "Electronic Still Camera Providing Multi-format Storage of Full and Reduced Resolution Images" from 1992; No. 5,493,335, "Single Sensor Color Camera With User-Selectable Image Record Size" from 1996; and No. 6,292,218, "Electronic Camera for Initiating Capture of Still Images while Previewing Motion Images" from 2001.
Eastman Kodak just sold its first CMOS image sensor for digital cameras. The customer? Eastman Kodak.
OK, that's being a little flippant. Kodak's camera division is separate from its sensor division, and the latter must compete with other suppliers for the camera business, so the deal is a significant achievement in the company's attempt to transform its sensor business.
Kodak will use its new KAC-05011 sensor in the new Easyshare C513, a $99 model with a 3X optical zoom lens and 2.4-inch LCD screen. It's due to ship this month, Kodak plans to announce Tuesday.
CMOS, which stands for complementary metal oxide semiconductor, is the ordinary process by which computer processors and memory are made. Most digital camera sensors today are built with the more specialized CCD, or charge-coupled device, technology.
Kodak's sensor group builds its own CCD products, but it's begun a parallel effort to design CMOS sensors built by IBM and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp. (TSMC). Selling the CMOS sensor--a 5-megapixel model the company promised earlier this year--is a milestone indicating Kodak has attained a certain level of expertise.
All things being equal, a CMOS sensor costs somewhere between 5 and 15 percent less to build than a CCD sensor, but Kodak is interested in the CMOS market more because it also can incorporate some processing tasks, said Michael DeLuca, Kodak's marketing manager for image sensors. For example, it can incorporate circuitry for basic sensor functions such as analog-to-digital conversion or chip timing, he said. And in the longer run, it could house circuitry for reconstructing full-color images from sensors using Kodak's new color filter patterns.
Ultimately, CMOS will likely replace CCD in some product categories, DeLuca predicted.
"For mass-market consumer products, it's probably a question of time," he said.
CMOS sensors are widely used in mobile phone cameras but are less common elsewhere in the digital camera market. The most notable example is Canon, which uses CMOS sensors in its SLR cameras--including some "full-frame" 36-by-24mm ones that are very large by digital camera standards.
The company also has said the sensor will be used in mobile phones.
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