When it comes to cameras, Sony is one of the leading camera sensor manufacturers and battles the likes of Samsung and Omnivision. Sony is generally working on the state of the art tech when it comes to photography, whether you are talking smartphones or otherwise. Just now, they have announced an innovation that should make smartphone photography even better.
Sony Aims to Take Mobile Photography to a Whole New Level
Sony has announced what it is calling the world's stacked CMOS image sensor that has a "2-Layer Transistor Pixel." But what exactly does it mean?
Whereas conventional CMOS image sensors’ photodiodes and pixel transistors occupy the same substrate, Sony’s new technology separates photodiodes and pixel transistors on different substrate layers.
In addition to that, Sony also posted an image to give a better idea of what has changed compared to the conventional sensors that we have seen in smartphones. You can look at the picture below and see if you can understand.
According to Sony, this solution will double a sensor's saturation signal level, resulting in a more comprehensive dynamic range. The firm has also stated that moving the pixel transistors to a separate substrate frees up space and allows the company to increase the size of the amp transistors. A further explanation suggests that the larger amp transistors result in notably reduced noise, which theoretically should be beneficial for low-light photography. The company also adds that the tech will allow the sensor's pixels to maintain or improve the existing performance even at smaller pixel sizes.
In simpler words, we can assume that Sony believes that this tech could be the way to get higher resolution smartphone cameras with smaller pixels. Which would allow Sony to go as high as 108-megapixel cameras like Samsung is doing or even higher.
Sony has confirmed that this tech is meant for smartphones. However, they have not given us a timeline for when one should expect to see the smartphones utilizing this tech, considering how Sony sensors are found worldwide and from other companies. It would be exciting to see this sensor tech come to life and just how far this will take the smartphone cameras.
