Faster, Better, and Cheaper—Over the years, this has been the driving force for productivity in a variety of markets and applications. Camera manufacturers are no exception, because the ability to quickly and efficiently bring new camera models to market can bring significant benefits. Competitive Advantage.
One of the easiest ways is to use a leveraged camera design - a single camera's basic architecture can be used to support a variety of end products. For many years, ON Semiconductor has been working to make full use of its entire industrial product lineup of image sensor designs. This 'product line' approach can be used with industrial cameras. For example, many ON Semiconductor's Interline Transfer CCD image sensors share a common architecture that enables a single camera design to support a variety of different image sensors, and our PYTHON The family of CMOS image sensors uses only two PCBs to support all eight resolutions in the family (from VGA to 25 Mp).
But if this design flexibility can be extended to product dimensions, not just resolution? This is the concept behind ON Semiconductor's new CMOS image sensor X-Class platform that allows a single camera design to support different pixel characteristics. Today, a single camera design can not only expand the number of pixels in the image sensor, it can also expand the type of pixels used - whether it is a global shutter, rolling shutter, increased dynamic range, or other different functions. Just place the pixels The common high-speed, low-power frames used in the X-Class platform can take full advantage of the single camera design to provide the required support, thereby accelerating the time to market for new camera designs and simplifying supply chain logistics.
The first pixel deployed on this platform is a brand new 3.2 μm design that provides excellent global shutter imaging performance with low noise and high dynamic range. This XGS pixel ('X' is X-Class, 'GS') is the global shutter ) Can develop high-resolution, high-performance industrial image sensors in compact sizes, such as the new XGS 12000 and XGS 8000 image sensors.
Both new devices provide the small footprint and low power consumption required for 29 x 29 mm2 camera designs, making them ideal for embedded vision deployments. Their main difference is resolution and frame rate: 1' optical specification XGS 12000 provides 12MP (MP) resolution, frame rate up to 90 fps; and 1/1.1' optical specification XGS 8000 offers full 4k/UHD resolution (4096 x 2160 pixels) The frame rate is up to 130 fps. Moreover, since the two can be used not only for monochrome and color configurations, but also for different speed grades, their most suitable configuration can be matched to a given application - whether it is for a general-purpose machine Visual (such as inspection and industrial automation), still used for broadcast or surveillance.
The X-Class platform and its new XGS 8000 and XGS 12000 image sensor changes how to make full use of the camera design to support a wide range of products, giving camera manufacturers new dimensions of design flexibility. With future XGS resolution and other pixel options Adding to the X-Class platform, camera manufacturers will be able to quickly and fully utilize a single camera design to support more product resolution and functionality at a higher price/performance ratio. That is: Faster, Better, and Cheaper.