Rolling-shutter CMOS image sensors set new low-power industry benchmark

onsemi has introduced the Hyperlux LP family of rolling-shutter image sensors, which offers lower power consumption than any other product in the class while producing crisp, vibrant images even in difficult lighting conditions.

The Hyperlux LP family is comprised of three image sensors: 

• AR0544 with 5 Mpixel resolution
• AR0830 with 8.3 Mpixel resolution
• AR2020 with 20 Mpixel resolution

All members of the Hyperlux LP family have the same pixel size and optical performance. Each product line is made up of multiple variants which give design engineers the flexibility to meet the needs of a wide range of application requirements. Options include mono, red/green/blue (RGB) and RGB + infrared variants in both packaged and bare die formats.

The sensors’ low-power performance is valuable because cameras for applications such as machine vision or surveillance are often placed in locations that can be difficult to reach for replacing or recharging a battery. Numerous features of the Hyperlux LP products support low system power consumption: 

• Wake-on-motion: enables the sensor to operate in a low-power mode which draws a fraction of the power needed in high-performance mode. Once the sensor detects movement, it moves to a higher-performance state before image capture begins
• Smart ROI: detects more than one region of interest (ROI) to give a context view of the scene with reduced bandwidth, and a separate ROI in the original detail
• Near-Infrared (NIR) performance: produces superior image quality due to the innovative silicon design and pixel architecture, with minimal supplemental lighting

In addition, the Hyperlux LP image sensors reduce the burden on a host image signal processor or system-on-chip by pre-processing the image data to produce an application-specific output.