OmniVision to bring backside illumination technology to image senors – BSI coming to consumer market

It’s refreshing to see a manufacturer in the mobile space actually paying attention to quality over quantity – image quality over pixel quantity, that is.

OmniVision has taken a bit of a higher road in the cameraphone business with their push towards higher-quality image sensors (CMOS sensors) in favor of pixel-packed sensors. The company has announced (PDF link) that it will bring backside illumination (BSI) technology to the consumer market with a newly announced OmniBSI 8-megapixel CMOS image sensor.

BSI technology essentially increases the image sensor’s ability to gather light. Rather than have incoming photons (light) hit the front-side of the image sensor (front-side illumination), BSI technology dictates that the light illuminates, or hits, the backside of the CMOS sensor. In so doing, BSI allows for the light to pass relatively unobstructed to the light-gathering pixels – obstacles like metal and dielectric layers. CMOS image sensors using BSI technology benefit from improved light absorption, thinner camera modules, increased sensitivity and F stops, and reduced crosstalk.

The technology is not new, nor is it novel. But, as the world’s largest image sensor manufacturer, Taiwan-based OmniVision will be the first to bring the technology to the mass-market. We’re crossing our fingers to see this technology actually make it to market with quality optics and image processing to back up the new image-sensor badness.

[Via: EETimes]