The camera in the phone you’re going to buy next year may record HD video, and take better pictures if OmniVision has anything to say about it. Today they’ve announced the OV5653, OV5650 and OV2665 camera sensors based on the 1.75 micron process technology. Each of those tiny pixels packs a light sensitivity higher than 1400mV/lux-sec, which is a 40% increase over previous models. The higher end models, the OV5653 and OV5650, will do 720p video at 60 frames per second and 1080p at 30 fps. Both are only .33 inches small, and support the RAW image format, but the probability of a mobile phone maker supporting that is between slim and none. The OV2665 is a 2 megapixel sensor that is .2 inches small. All of these new sensors will start being produced in volume during the second half of this year, so expect to see them in devices hitting the market in 2010.
OmniVision also that in terms of volume, the 2 megapixel sensor clearly leads today. By 2011, which is only 2 years away, they predict that 5 megapixel sensors in mobile phones will be common place. I don’t doubt that for a second.
[Press Release PDF link]
[15 page presentation in PDF, recommended read]
[8 page technology backgrounder, for the imaging professionals out there]
[Video explaining OmniVision’s technology process]
[Via: DigiTimes]