Backside illumination may sound like something a proctologist would use in a poorly-lit examining room, but it's actually a re-imagining of the CMOS sensor that brings the photodiodes closer to the action, thus delivering brighter images from smaller packaging.
OmniVision and
Sony both have their takes on the tech and now Toshiba is putting it into a 14.6 megapixel sensor for cellphones and compact cameras. The company claims light absorption is boosted by 40%, resulting in bright pictures despite the high-density 1/2.3-inch sensor. Early production will begin before the end of the year but manufacturing lines won't start firing en masse until sometime next summer, meaning yet another dark and murky winter of dark and murky pictures.
posted Oct 27th 2009 9:34AM
I dunno, I just feel the article was ruined with the proctologist "joke"... what a turn-off....
No need to get all butthurt about it.
complaint dept is in the rear.
toshiba atleast can turn out a product; sony's been touting backlight for years, with nothing to show for it.
....
WHAT?
scape, what rock have you been living under for the last 10 months? Sony released products with their Exmor-R back-illuminated CMOS sensor technology back in January 2009. Go Google HDR-XR500V or HDR-XR520V. Joining those Handycam camcorders earlier this month were two Cyber-shot cameras, the DSC-TX1 and DSC-WX1.
Hopefully this results in less noise.
Instead of a 14.6 MP sensor, they should make it a 7 MP with with double the pixel pitch, now we are talkin.
Exactly. I'm getting sick of this never-ending megapixel race that doesn't achieve anything other than making consumers buy larger memory cards. Its hard enough finding a compact digicam with usable ISO 400 images, with more and more getting noisy even at ISO 200. Just cap the megapixel to 10MP or something.
Agreed. Why does a cellphone need to have more megapixels than a full frame D3s?
Also, I'd rather see such a backside illuminated sensor in a DSLR...
"Backside illumination may sound like something a proctologist would use in a poorly-lit examining room"
This is why I come to engadget.
what sort of measurement is "1/2.3-inch"
a fractadecimal...
I was going to say the same thing.. How does that work. (half and a third of a half?)? or is it mean to mean (1 to 2.3)
Who knows why they uses this silly jargon. But they refer to it as "One over two point three"
I know that good point and shoot cameras used to have 1 over 1.8
and most cell phones have 1 over 2.5
so is 1/1 a square inch?
It's in Amurrcun and if you dun like it you can git' out!
A quick trip to Wikipedia can answer your question: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image_sensor_format#Compact_digital_camera_formats
And the source of that information: http://www.dpreview.com/learn/?/Glossary/Camera_System/sensor_sizes_01.htm
That is the normal way that image sensors are measured. If you think that's messed up wait until you find out that it's based on the radius of a TV vacuum tubes from the 50s.
http://www.dpreview.com/news/0210/02100402sensorsizes.asp
in b4 self proclaimed photo experts complaining about how much 14.6 MP phone cameras will suck.
PUT EXMOR - R SENSORS INTO THE SONY DSLR'S PLEASEEEE!
I don't really want more than 2 MP on a cellphone. It's not like I'm trying to get prints off the thing... it's for uploading pictures and video to the web.
Pretty stupid idea on a cellphone. We need less, not more, pixels and better optics.
This is why i hate people who don't educate themselves...
Cause of dumb people who go like "hey 14 megapixels, that's better then a nikon d3s!"....
I don't need backside illumination, my backside has sunshine coming out of it already!
Why?
Who would ever need their phone to have 14.6 MP?
These companies are just doing this to make money of the stupidity of most consumers.
The wires and stuff normally only take up less than 20% of the pixel area, so moving them to the back doesn't gain you all that much. The benefits do increase as the pixels get smaller since the wiring area stays roughly constant. And the pixels in a 14MP - 1/2.3" sensor are pretty darn small...