How Sony wants to improve smartphone cameras – Times of India

Sony is one of the leading camera sensor makers, along with brands like Omnivision and Samsung. The company has introduced another potential innovation in this space. Sony revealed its latest innovation in smartphone camera technology at the IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting. The Japanese company unveiled the world’s first multi-layered CMOS (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor) image sensor that comes with a 2-layer transistor pixel.
Sony has also posted an image to give a better idea of what is new compared to traditional sensors. The dual CMOS image sensor is different from the conventional CMOS image sensors as it has independent photodiodes along with pixel transistors on multiple substrate layers. A CMOS image sensor comes with a layered construction which includes a pixel processor with back-illuminated pixels piled up over a logic processor that has signal processing circuits.
Unlike old CMOS image sensors, which come with photodiodes and pixel transistors on the same substrate layer, Sony’s technology has photodiodes and pixel transistors on different substrate layers.
Sony claims that this solution will double a sensor’s saturation signal level which will therefore produce a wider dynamic range. The company even mentioned that moving the pixel transistors to a different layer reduces space wastage and increases the size of amp transistors. It explained that larger amp transistors produce significantly reduced noise, which can be very important for low-light photography. The company also adds that this tech will allow the pixels on a sensor to hold or increase its present performance which is expected to work even at smaller pixel sizes.
According to Sony, this tech will be the key for smartphone cameras with higher resolution and smaller pixels. This can also turn out to be a crucial enabler if the brand ever wants to follow Xiaomi or Samsung and offer 108MP or 200MP cameras.
The company mentioned that this tech is developed only for the smartphones, but it hasn’t provided a timeline for when to expect the first sensors with this layout. However, it’s still very exciting to know that camera sensor innovators are exploring this space.