Samsung Announces Mass Production of Industry’s First Mobile Image Sensor with 1.0μm Pixels
As mobile devices get thinner, the components inside them must scale down, too. Samsung’s latest chip, the 1.0μm-pixel-based 16 megapixel (MP) CMOS image sensor, did exactly that. It brings high resolution imaging to one of the slimmest smartphones in the market.
Image sensors hold an array of pixels, or pockets that collect light particles called photons. Better the image sensor, the more light it accurately captures through its pixels, which it then converts into electrical signals. Therefore, more pixels that are larger in size allow for better picture quality.
Slimmer devices have less space for interior components, so pixels get smaller as well, making the absorption of photons much more complicated. To continue to achieve high-resolution imaging, the solution thus far has been to maximize the photon absorption of each pixel. When it comes to the limitations due to scaling, however, this method still faces a number of challenges. The pixels’ sensitivity to light may decrease while loose photons create crosstalk that causes noise.
Samsung introduced ISOCELL technology in 2014 which reduces crosstalk of photons between pixels by 30 percent and has a 20 percent wider chief ray angle, allowing pixels to collect more light so as to capture colors more precisely.
The 1.0μm-pixel-based image sensor measures only about 5mm high, roughly 20 percent thinner than the previous 1.12μm model and offers comparable image quality. Device manufacturers now have more flexibility in designing products that are sleek and stylish and capable of taking high resolution, share-worthy photos.
Joanne Carter
Joanne Carter, creator of the world’s most popular mobile photography and art website— TheAppWhisperer.com— TheAppWhisperer platform has been a pivotal cyberspace for mobile artists of all abilities to learn about, to explore, to celebrate and to share mobile artworks. Joanne’s compassion, inclusivity, and humility are hallmarks in all that she does, and is particularly evident in the platform she has built. In her words, “We all have the potential to remove ourselves from the centre of any circle and to expand a sphere of compassion outward; to include everyone interested in mobile art, ensuring every artist is within reach”, she has said. Promotion of mobile artists and the art form as a primary medium in today’s art world, has become her life’s focus. She has presented lectures bolstering mobile artists and their art from as far away as the Museum of Art in Seoul, South Korea to closer to her home in the UK at Focus on Imaging. Her experience as a jurist for mobile art competitions includes: Portugal, Canada, US, S Korea, UK and Italy. And her travels pioneering the breadth of mobile art includes key events in: Frankfurt, Naples, Amalfi Coast, Paris, Brazil, London. Pioneering the world’s first mobile art online gallery - TheAppWhispererPrintSales.com has extended her reach even further, shipping from London, UK to clients in the US, Europe and The Far East to a global group of collectors looking for exclusive art to hang in their homes and offices. The online gallery specialises in prints for discerning collectors of unique, previously unseen signed limited edition art. Her journey towards becoming The App Whisperer, includes (but is not limited to) working for a paparazzi photo agency for several years and as a deputy editor for a photo print magazine. Her own freelance photographic journalistic work is also widely acclaimed. She has been published extensively both within the UK and the US in national and international titles. These include The Times, The Sunday Times, The Guardian, Popular Photography & Imaging, dpreview, NikonPro, Which? and more recently with the BBC as a Contributor, Columnist at Vogue Italia and Contributing Editor at LensCulture. Her professional photography has also been widely exhibited throughout Europe, including Italy, Portugal and the UK. She is currently writing several books, all related to mobile art and is always open to requests for new commissions for either writing or photography projects or a combination of both. Please contact her at: [email protected]
