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OmniVision is releasing four new mobile camera sensors– OV20880, OV20880-4C, OV16885 and the OV16885-4C.

Better Dynamic Range (DR)

The 16MP and 20MP sensors will offer better DR than their previous generation of sensors. This is done by utilizing their PureCel Plus and PureCel Plus-S 2nd generation technology, which allows the pixels to collect more of a charge before clipping highlights. The full well charge capacity has been increased by 20%.

DR is one of the big limitations of mobile phone camera sensors, which is why we often see blown out white skies and areas of pure black shadows in some typical phone images.

Better low-light performance

According to OmniVision, the new technology will increase sensitivity by 12.5%. This is achieved by utilizing a new composite metal grid structure. This structure gives us better pixel quantum efficiency and improves low-light performance.

Color crosstalk

What is color crosstalk? Due to pixel size decreasing as manufacturers pack on more pixels in small sensors, there is photon and electron leakage between the pixels. That is, color data is tainted by neighboring pixels due to small pixel size and density.

The new OmniVision sensors will improve color crosstalk signal-to-noise-ration (SNR) by 10lux. This should mean a modest improvement in low-light images from OV sensors.

Improving tones

The non-C OmniVision sensors will improve DR by recording two exposures at the same time. This is coined zHDR. The chip will expose some pixels with a long exposure and others with a short, and then combine them to increase DR.

OmniVision 4C sensors

The 4C type sensors from OmniVision carry a non-standard color filter array pattern that make it easier to combine signals from four pixels, which gives us cleaner images.

Brighter lenses

Often you will see cameras in mobiles touted as f1.8, f2.0, and f2.2. This is called aperture and essentially this is how big the “pupil” of a lens is. The smaller the number, the bigger the lens opening. The bigger the lens opening, the more light it can collect at any given time. Think of our own eyes and how our pupils get much bigger in low-light so they can collect more light data.

The improvements in OmniVisions’s sensors allow for larger apertures, which means brighter images and faster exposures.

Phase detection auto-focus (PDAF) and 4K

The sensors will be capable of PDAF and 4K. PDAF is a type of auto-focus that uses two sensor points. Due to the difference in the two points, an exact distance can be determined faster than traditional auto-focus.

OmniVision new sensor release date

The 20MP OV20880 and OV20880-4C, and the 16-megapixel OV16885 and OV16885-4C samples have already been released to manufacturers and we should begin to see them in our mobiles as early is Q1 2017.