14 DAY TRIAL // Not long after revealing the existence of a VGA sensor for ultrathin notebooks, OmniVision is now making a similar announcement, only this time it has completed a system-on-chip CMOS image sensor based on the 1.75-micron OmniBSI backside illumination pixel architecture.
The new image sensor goes by the name of OV9740 and is a 1/6.5-inch SoC image sensor that can enable HD video on a variety of electronics.
What this means is that portable media players (PMPs), webcams, TVs and mobile phones will support 1,280 x 720 HD videos at 30 fps (frames per second).
This capability is made possible by the company's high-end image signal processor and the aforementioned 1.75-micron OmniBSI backside illumination pixel architecture.
Together, these two can perform automatic gain control, automatic exposure control, gamma correction, defect pixel correction, auto black level calibration, lens correction and edge enhancement.
All of these functions are programmable through a standard serial camera control bus interface.
A final specification od the sensor is “advanced automatic white balance and color noise reduction in the YUV domain while maintaining high frequency details and delivering clear, sharp still image and video capture.”
Finally, the image sensor has a low-light sensitivity of 1,300 mV/lux-sec.
"Driven by the strong increase in consumer video content on social media websites such as YouTube and Facebook and the advent of sophisticated mobile entertainment platforms, the market is rapidly shifting to HD video in devices ranging from notebooks, PMPs and smart phones to home entertainment devices like TVs and set-top boxes," said Nicholas Nam, director of product marketing at OmniVision.
"With the OV9740, OmniVision delivers a compact, cost efficient HD imaging solution on a single chip, offering optimal performance and excellent low-light sensitivity across the entire spectrum of product platforms," he added.
Though mass production is only slated to cSoCommence in September, samples of the OmniVision OV9740 are already shipping.