SmartSens: Image Sensor Connecting the Future of Intelligent Living - Recapping of SmartSens Partnership Meeting SPM 2020

2020-11-24

The SmartSens Partnership Meeting (SPM) 2020, was held on November 20 in Shanghai, China. SmartSens’ partners from different sectors, industry customers, and prominent media friends came together for a technological feast.

Dr. Richard Xu, Founder, Chairman and CEO of SmartSens, opened SPM with a speech on the company’s achievements past year, the latest CIS technological innovation, and the strategic development of the next era of CMOS image sensor.

Facing the unpredictable and strained international market, and its impact on the global semiconductor industry, Dr. Xu said, “SmartSens has always respected the general trend of the globalization with all parties working together to craft the future of the CIS industry.”

In addition to the continuous increase in sales, SmartSens’ product lines and application areas have also been expanding. SmartSens not only continues to maintain its leading market share in the field of security applications, but also achieved a significant milestone with its Global Shutter image sensors that were deployed in 2017 to be one of the leaders in total shipments of consumer-grade CMOS sensors. Just prior to SPM 2020, the company officially entered the mobile phone market with the release of a full range of 2MP-13MP sensors under its new Cellphone Sensor (CS) series. Dr. Xu proclaimed that the combination of a comprehensive product line, high-quality and superior service management along with the enhanced R&D concepts are bound to make SmartSens’ road to future development broader and more far-reaching.

Moving forward together. SmartSens is grateful for you!

Dr. Xu directed his gratitude towards SmartSens’ business partners and customers for their commitment and trust. The core design ideology of all SmartSens product has always been based on customers’ requirements for performance and functionality, addressing their increasing and differentiated needs. Such high efficiency can only achieve by seamless collaborations and partnerships at every link in the chain.

As its shipment volume continues to increase, SmartSens has been able to keep up with timely delivery of products, it is due to the company’s relationship with its Fab partners. These world-renowned manufacturers have expressed their unwavering support for SmartSens, ensuring the company’s stability of the supply chain, which is crucial to serving customers in all sectors.

In the future, SmartSens will continue to collaborate with partners, including technology sharing, market promotion, industrial innovation, and joint development.

Hardcore black technology—showcasing core-focused expertise

SmartSens strives to provide customers with innovative and unique intelligent imaging solutions with cutting-edge technology. In order to meet and advance the needs of its customers in different sectors, SmartSens has been focusing on the innovation and R&D of imaging technology for many years, with the performance advantages, it stands out the company from the competitors by virtue of its technological prowess. At SPM 2020, Dr. Xu introduced SmartSens’ latest eight black technologies.

Advanced RGBW & RGBIR technology

By adopting the new FBDTI and LNG technologies that were previously reserved exclusively for high-end mobile phone sensors, SmartSens was able to reduce the crosstalk issues of white pixel or IR pixel to RGB pixel, making RGBW and RGBIR technologies a reality for security applications for the first time. The result is a significantly improved imaging performance in security cameras in low-light conditions as well as full-color night-vision performance.

2nd Gen SmartGS® technology

The rapid construction of smart cities has contributed to the acceleration of smart machine vision adoption in industries such as Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS). In response to this trend, SmartSens proudly announced its 2nd Gen SmartGS® Technology. It increases photo sensitivity and night vision by increasing the pixel size of the images—resulting in 30% improvement to image clarity. At the same time, SmartSens is leveraging parallel voltage domain reading to greatly increase the maximum shutter speed and improve clarity in capturing fast-moving objects. Using on the new pixel technology, SmartSens was able to reduce the reading noise of its 2nd Gen SmartGS® sensors by half. Moreover, its zone HDR technology greatly improves its dynamic range and addresses the issue of overexposure of signal lights during nighttime photography.

Dr. Xu also shows the audience the blueprint of the upcoming 3rd Gen SmartGS® Technology, which builds on the performance of the 2nd Gen expected to be available in 2021.

SFCPixel® technology & PixGain technology

High sensitivity and excellent night-vision capabilities have been the technological staple of SmartSens products. Dr. Xu revealed the secrets of this technology and introduced SmartSens’ patented SFCPixel® technology. This technology enables products to achieve higher sensitivity, and subsequently achieve better night-vision imaging effects. Through the use of PixGain technology, it produces high-quality imaging that takes into account both the low-light conditions during nighttime and the bright-light environments under daylight. These two technologies have been applied to SmartSens’ new CS series.

AI Smart Sensor Chip Platform

SmartSens upholds the vision of “helping people see and understand the world better,” and has always focused on developing AI smart sensor chip platform. Solving the bottleneck problems of transmission and real-time performance in AI operations by putting algorithms in front of the chip level can provide a powerful boost for the future development of the AI field.

Strong partnerships building the future together

Mr. Sean Chen, Deputy Director of TSMC, gave a speech introducing TSMC’s latest process R&D and capacity planning. He also strongly endorsed SmartSens’ production capacity manufacturing. In the future, TSMC will continue to work with SmartSens to help China's semiconductor industrial chain achieve global cutting-edge quality and maintain a state of sustainable development.

Samsung Semiconductor Corporate VP Mr. Minghui Zhu said in his speech that the cooperation between Samsung and SmartSens has been an absolute pleasure and summarized SmartSens’ growth in recent years with three characteristics: The first one is “speed.” He was deeply impressed by SmartSens’ high efficiency. The second one is “high, big, and up,” which describes its technological innovation ability. The third one is "strategic vision.” In the future, Samsung will continue to support SmartSens’ strategic development and look forward to more joint ventures between the two companies.

Dennis Huang, Senior Director of Nexchip, said in his speech that Hefei and SmartSens share common grounds on the process development plans and that the cooperation is progressing smoothly. He also pointed out that Hefei is currently implementing a new plan to boost production capacity, hoping to further support SmartSens’ chip development in China.

A bright and promising future ahead

At SPM 2020, Dr. Xu announced three major events that will commemorate this important milestone. These include the brand new SmartSens office building that is under design and renovation for an April 2021 unveiling. The second is the new 20-acre Kunshan testing center with a capacity of 100kk/mon, which will be completed next year.

The theme of SPM 2020, “Focused Expertise. Empowerment +”, carries the meaning that SmartSens strives to advance its focus on the innovation and development of CMOS image sensor technology and products with the spirit of the highest craftsmanship. Through the effort to empower a larger variety of industry need, enhance customer application terminal differentiation and intelligent added value, SmartSens will continue to live up to its customers’ expectation. We express our most sincere gratitude to all of our partners on this journey as we look to the future and reach new heights together.