Monday, August 16, 2010

BSI Reaches VGA Class Sensors

PR Newswire: Omnivision announced 1/13-inch OV7727, the first VGA sensor built with OmniBSI technology. Based on 1.75um OmniBSI pixel, the OV7727 delivers low-light performance of 1300 mV/lux-sec. It also enables complete camera modules with Z-height as low as 2.2 mm for integration with sub-2mm LCDs for next generation super-thin notebooks, netbooks and tablet computers.

The OV7727 comes with a full array of image processing functions, including AE control, gamma correction, automatic WB control, and defect pixel correction.

"VGA sensors are generally considered low-end and low-cost, but the OV7727 is quite the opposite in terms of performance. It is a very high-end VGA product, and currently the only sensor on the market that can meet the size, cost and performance requirements of the next generation high-end notebook market," said Nicholas Nam, senior product marketing manager at OmniVision. "We listened to our customers and realized there was real demand for thinner yet better performing notebook cameras to facilitate the continued design shrink in the notebook market."

The OV7727 is now available for sampling and is expected to enter mass production in September 2010.

9 comments:

  1. If Omnivision can afford to do a VGA BSI sensor they must be years ahead of whoever is in second place.

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  2. I keep hearing OV/TSMC are having yield problems with BSI. But if they were, seems like they coundn't do a BSI VGA chip. So have the BSI yield problems been fixed?

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  3. i believe from last i heard from the company, they were unable to say when the yield problems would be worked out. there are many people spreading false optimism about omnivision because they are trying to profit or not lose as much on company stock they own.

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  4. OV has a habit publishing press releases of samples which never make it. Come to think of it they have a habit of issuing press releases of products that never even sample.

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  5. Well down the learning curve on BSI. Yields are good and getting better.

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  6. What are examples of OV sensors announced but not sampled?

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  7. Wild guess : What is the buyer of OV7727? After leaving "VGA company" in history, why OV turn it nose in VGA again ?

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  8. Actually, this announcement is not as outlandish as it might appear at first glance.

    VGA is just a resolution figure. Sure, it was once a popular resolution for existing optics and relatively large available pixels, then went out of fashion when people figured out how to make smaller pixels.

    The real story here is the short optical stack. Probably to make a camera module that is 2.2 mm thick and that meets routine field-of-view requirements, you need to have a very small focal plane area, and VGA resolution is maybe a best result you can get using 1.75 um pixels. (My guess is that the company picked VGA as a well-known, easily-marketed resolution and then determined the module height accordingly.)

    So, this VGA chip is likely a high-cost, high-margin product, not one that will be competing with low-cost, low-margin, physically-larger VGA chips.

    As an afterthought, I don't have and never have had stock or another financial interest in OmniVision or any of its competitors.

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  9. Or, they committted to too much BSI capacity and meeded something to fill the line.

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