Samsung Electronics, one of the leaders in mobile camera technology has announced two new camera sensors in a blog post. The ISOCELL HP1 offers industry-first 200MP resolution based on 0.64 µm-pixels and new pixel-binning technology, ChameleonCell. Meanwhile, the ISOCELL GN5 is a super-slim 1.0µm 50MP sensor with elevated autofocusing.
Duckhyun Chang, Executive Vice President of Sensor Business at Samsung Electronics said, “Samsung has been pioneering ultrafine pixel technologies that are taking high-resolution image sensors to the next level”, to which he added, “with the ISOCELL HP1 that is breaking barriers and ISOCELL GN5 bringing ultrafast autofocus, Samsung will continue to lead the trend for next-generation mobile imaging technologies.”
Samsung ISOCELL HP1: 200MP Sensor
Samsung is the first to introduce a 200MP camera sensor for mobile devices. The sensor is based on Samsung’s most advanced 0.64μm-sized pixels. The images retain a high amount of detail even when cropped or resized and this helps keep the images sharp. In bright outdoor conditions, this sensor is capable of capturing UHD images all thanks to the 200-million pixels sensor.
ChameleonCell is new pixel-binning technology is introduced with the ISOCELL HP1. This new pixel-binning uses a 2×2, 4×4, or full pixel layout depending on the environment. The 200MP sensor turns into a 12.5MP sensor and the 0.64μm-sized pixels turn into 2.56μm pixels by merging 16 neighbouring pixels. Now, this 2.56μm pixel sensor captures a lot more light as compared to 0.64μm and so results in better images in a low light environment.
On the video recording front, this sensor is capable of capturing 8K (7,680 x 4,320) video at 30-FPS with very little loss in the FOV (field of view). This is possible as the sensor comes down to 50MP by merging the four neighbouring pixels.
Samsung ISOCELL GN5: Hi-Res Images With All-Directional Autofocus
The GN5 is the industry’s first sensor to be based on 1.0μm that integrates Dual Pixel Pro, Samsung’s all-directional technology that boosts autofocusing capabilities.
This sensor places two photodiodes within 1.0μm pixel of the sensor, these are the smallest photodiodes in the industry and are placed either horizontally or vertically that recognise pattern changes in all directions. There are one million phase-detecting, multi-directional photodiodes which cover all areas of the sensor making the autofocusing capabilities of the GN5 very quick with sharper images in both daylight and low-lit environments.
Front Deep Trench Isolation (FDTI), Samsung’s proprietary pixel technology has been used for the first time on a Dual Pixel product in the industry. This photodiode helps the sensor to absorb more light and retain more information leading to improving the photodiodes’ full-well capacity (FWC) and decreasing crosstalk within the pixel.
