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InvenSense, a leading provider of motion sensing solutions for mobile applications, has announced it will be addressing image quality problems in the high-growth camera phone market with their miniature image stabilization system, due out in the second half of this year.
InvenSense has created the world’s smallest dual-axis gyroscope, which they say promises to answer the camera phone industy's need to accurately sense natural hand jitter. As a single-chip silicon device based on MEMS technology, InvenSense’s solution is over 5 times smaller than the smallest competing devices that typically use older piezo-type technology, enabling InvenSense’s gyroscope to fit into any camera phone. Proprietary wafer-level integration is said to allow the gyroscope to meet the high-performance requirements for image stabilization applications, while meeting the strict size and cost requirements of mobile handset manufacturers.
“The resolution of the camera phones continues to increase every year, with 1 mega pixel representing the majority of camera phone shipments this year, and 4 mega pixels forecasted to represent the majority of shipments in 2010,” said Scott Smyser, director and principal analyst for Communications and Consumer Electronics at iSuppli, an El Segundo, CA-based market research firm. “However, while resolution of camera phones continues to increase, other technical necessities for better image quality, such as image stabilization, continue to be overlooked. Adding image stabilization to camera phones will help to propel the usage of camera phones further.”
“With the introduction of 3- and 5-mega pixel image sensors by all major sensor providers and the eagerness of handset makers to introduce new features that differentiate their products, image stabilization has taken a front seat. A number of camera module makers are trying hard to offer solutions in the coming months,” said Steve Nasiri, president and chief executive officer of InvenSense. “The one key obstacle has been the lack of a tiny, high-performance and low-cost gyroscope suitable for sensing hand motion. InvenSense’s IDG-1000 product family offers an integrated dual-axis gyro solution that can overcome these challenges for module makers.”
The company is ramping production of its dual-axis gyro products for the digital still camera market with volume shipments for autumn 2006 models, and is sampling image stabilization devices for camera module makers.
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