The Eastman Kodak Company was released Color Filter Pattern technology with a new CMOS pixel to create the KODAK KAC-05020 Image Sensor, which is a 1.4µm, five megapixel device.
Designed for mass-consumer camera applications such as mobile phones, Kodak’s new sensor enables a new level of resolution in small optical formats, using significantly smaller pixels.
The Kodak Truesense CMOS Pixel’s design and architecture has been re-engineered for the device. In a standard CMOS pixel, signal is measured by detecting electrons that are generated when light interacts with surface of the sensor. As more light strikes the sensor, more electrons are generated, resulting in a higher signal at each pixel.
In the Kodak Truesense CMOS Pixel the underlying polarity of the silicon is reversed, so that the absence of electrons is used to detect a signal. This change enabled a series of improvements to the design and structure of the pixel that ultimately results in CMOS imaging performance that rivals that available from CCD image sensors.
Light sensitivity in the new sensor is enhanced through the use of the recently announced Kodak Truesense Color Filter Pattern, which adds panchromatic, or clear, pixels to the red, green and blue pixels already on the sensor. Since these pixels are sensitive to all wavelengths of visible light, they collect a significantly higher proportion of the light striking the sensor. This provides a 2x to 4x increase in sensitivity to light (from one to two photographic stops) compared to current sensor designs, improving performance in low light and reducing motion blur in action shots.
At five million pixels, the KAC-05020 provides the highest resolution available in the popular ¼” optical format, and enables imagery up to ISO 3200 and support for full 720p video at 30fps. The sensor is also supported by the Texas Instruments’ OMAPT and OMAP-DM solutions, enabling a host of KODAK Image Processing and Enhancement Features (such as digital image stabilisation, rapid auto-focus, red-eye reduction, and facial recognition) that provide digital camera-like performance in a camera phone.
