Lucent Technologies Inc says that it has developed a high quality CMOS sensor chip that will make cheap miniature digital cameras a reality. Researchers at the company say that the applications for the chips could include 3D imaging systems, video conferencing, security systems, toys and robots. The design has been developed over six years at LucentÆs Bell Laboratories. Mark Loinaz, the Bell Labs researcher who headed up the Lucent project, said that the high quality CMOS sensor had been made possible by the increasing density of chip arrays. The chip has a pixel resolution of 352 by 288. Each pixel relates to a sensor and an amplifier and a switch. Light is shone on the sensor, which creates electrons, which are transmitted by the amplifier to the operative area for processing. Additional hardware on the chip handles digital color processing and image refinement. The chip runs at 3.3 volts, much less than traditional designs, so a video camera using the chip could run for up to five hours on a nine volt battery. The technology has been licensed to Vanguard International Semiconductor who will start production later this year. Video Cameras based on the technology are expected to cost around $50.
The industry has been grappling with the problem of developing a high quality CMOS image sensor for 20 years. Vision Group Plc of Scotland offers a range of CMOS-based products from 164 by 124 sensors to a 1.3 million pixel resolution color sensors. However, the company has found it difficult to find a market for its pioneering work and was bought out by STMicroelectronics NV in December last year.
Meanwhile, Intel Corp, Siemens and Motorola Inc have all pumped money into research and development but with little result. Current digital cameras and video cameras mostly use charge coupled device (CCD) chips as image sensors. However, CCD chips are expensive to produce because they do not use standard CMOS processes and can only handle imaging. This means that cameras have to use a board for digital color processing, digital to analog conversion and clock generators. Loinaz said that the new design combined the sensor duties with the digital color processing and the other functions in a single piece of silicon.
