OmniVision unveils 64MP sensor with 1.0µm pixels

Back in February OmniVision unveiled a 64 MP 1/1.7” sensor, which had 0.8 µm pixels. Now the company has come up with a larger 64MP solution – this one measures 1/1.34” and has 1.0µm pixels. This sensor can be used in wide and ultrawide cameas.

The larger pixels on the new OmniVision OV64A are 60% more sensitive to light compared to 0.8µm pixels, says the company, which makes the sensor superior in low light. Naturally, it has a 4-cell color filter (aka Quad Bayer) for pixel binning.

While it can output 8K video at 30fps, a more interesting mode is 4K with 4-in-1 binning, resulting in quite large 2.0µm effective pixels. When used for stills, this same binning mode can output 16MP images.

OmniVision OV64A sensor: 1/1.34" size, 1.0 µm pixels, Quad Bayer filter, on-chip HDR processing

And it’s not just binning, the sensor supports 2- and 3-exposure staggered HDR, another way to improve image quality in challenging lighting. There is hardware on the chip that does 3-exposure, 4-cell HDR and tone mapping. This is faster than sending the data to the phone’s chipset to perform the calculations, which helps reduce motion artifacts.

Besides 8K, OV64A sensor is capable of 4K 120 fps video with electronic image stabilization and it also offers 1080p/240 and 720/480 modes.

Mass production of the OV64A is expected to begin before the end of this year. OmniVision quotes a forecast by TSR, which says that 322 million image sensors with resolution of 50 MP or higher will be shipped inside smartphones in 2021 and the company wants a piece of that action.

Source | Via