Samsung has launched two new ISOCELL Vizion sensors tailored for robotics and XR (extended reality) applications. The ISOCELL Vizion 63D and ISOCELL Vizion 931 will bring enhanced visual capabilities to the next generation of high-tech products such as the company’s upcoming XR headset. The new sensors will make their way into non-Samsung products too.
Samsung debuts new ISOCELL Vizion sensors
The ISOCELL Vizion 63D is a time-of-flight (ToF) sensor that can accurately measure the depth and distance of an object. It uses the principle of echolocation that bats use to navigate in the dark. The sensor measures the time taken by the emitted light to travel to and from an object. It can also measure the phase shift between emitted and reflected light to create a 3D image of the object’s surroundings.
Thanks to the added capabilities, Samsung’s ISOCELL Vizion 63D qualifies as an indirect ToF (iToF) sensor. The company claims “exceptional accuracy and clarity” of its 3D sensing and depth measurement. This makes the sensor ideal for industrial robots, XR devices, and facial authentication systems “where high-resolution and precise depth measuring are crucial.”
The new ISOCELL Vision sensor comes with an integrated depth-sensing hardware image signal processor (ISP)—it is the industry’s first such solution. Thanks to this innovative one-chip design, it reduces power consumption by 40 percent compared to the previous-gen ISOCELL Vizion 33D. It can process images at up to 60fps in QVGA resolution (320×240 pixels) and achieves a maximum of 640×480 pixels resolution.
The ISOCELL Vizion 63D has an optical format of 1/6.4 inches and features the industry’s smallest 3.5μm pixels. The product also boasts backside scattering technology (BST) for enhanced light absorption. It offers the highest level of quantum efficiency, reaching 38 percent at an infrared light wavelength of 940nm. “This enables enhanced light sensitivity and reduced noise, resulting in sharper image quality with minimal motion blur,” Samsung explains.
The ISOCELL Vizion 931 can capture the entire scene at once
Samsung’s second new ISOCELL Vizion product is a global shutter image sensor that can capture the entire scene at once. While the traditional rolling shutter sensors scan a scene line by line from top to bottom before capturing it, the ISOCELL Vizion 931 does that at once, similar to how human eyes see. This allows for sharp, undistorted images of moving objects. The sensor is ideal for motion-tracking in XR devices, gaming systems, robots, and drones.
In XR applications, Samsung’s ISOCELL Vizion 931 can enable rapid and effective iris recognition, eye tracking, and facial and gesture detection. Thanks to a 640 x 640 pixels resolution (VGA or Video Graphics Array) in a small form factor, it captures crisp images of rapid movements without the “jello effect.” The sensor delivers an industry-leading quantum efficiency of 60 percent at 850nm infrared light wavelength.
Samsung says this was made possible by the use of an insulation layer between pixels, which helps in light absorption. Called Front Deep Trench Isolation (FDTI), the solution works alongside the BST method used in the ISOCELL Vizion 63D. The ISOCELL Vizion 931 can seamlessly connect up to four cameras to the application processor with minimal wiring.
“Engineered with state-of-the-art sensor technologies, Samsung’s ISOCELL Vizion 63D and ISOCELL Vizion 931 will be essential in facilitating machine vision for future high-tech applications like robotics and extended reality (XR),” said Haechang Lee, an Executive Vice President at Samsung. The Korean behemoth has already provided samples of the new ISOCELL Vizion products to OEMs worldwide.
2023-12-21 15:05:49