SmartSens accelerates its deployment of high-end mobile phone CIS to push mobile phone cameras to match the capabilities of professional cameras

April 26, 2024, Shanghai, China— SmartSens (Shanghai) Electronic Technology Co., Ltd. (stock abbreviation: SmartSens, on April 17, the "Global CMOS Sensor Application Technology Summit & Awards Ceremony" co-organized by Chaodian Think Tank and Shenzhen Camera Industry Association was successfully held in Shenzhen . With the theme of "Smart Imaging, Great Potential", the summit brought together many well-known companies and experts in the industry to hold exciting discussions on the cutting-edge technology applications and market development trends of CMOS image sensors.

At the summit, Mr. Jin Fangqi, Vice President of SmartSens Industrial and Emerging Chip Division, delivered a wonderful speech entitled "Focus on Imaging Technology, Exploring the Future of Light and Shadow", sharing the global CIS market trends with the industry audience attending the summit, and in-depth introduction of SmartSens' advanced CIS technology and product development direction. In his speech, Jin Fangqi said that just as the view expressed by SmartSens founder Dr. Xu Chen in an interview before - mobile phone cameras are catching up with professional camera capabilities, SmartSens is accelerating the layout of high-end mobile phone CIS, which is constantly promoting the improvement of mobile phone camera performance.

Regarding the global CIS market trend, Mr. Jin Fangqi shared: "Thanks to the increase in applications in mobile phone multi-cameras, automotive and emerging machine vision, global CIS demand has resumed steady growth after a slight decline in 2022. Global CIS shipments will reach approximately 7 billion units in 2023 and are expected to reach 7.5 billion units in 2024."

From the perspective of segmented applications, the top five applications of global CIS shipments in 2022 are: mobile phones, automobiles, computers, security and consumer. Among them, the application demand for in-vehicle CIS has shown a continuous upward trend with the development of intelligent driving technology, and in 2022 it has surpassed security to become the second largest application field of CMOS image sensors. In addition, it is worth mentioning that the global smartphone market has shown a strong recovery momentum, with shipments reaching 289 million units in the first quarter of 2024. IDC predicts that smartphone shipments will reach 1.2 billion units in 2024. Mr. Jin Fangqi said that SmartSens is optimistic about the recovery and subsequent growth of the smartphone market, and is accelerating the layout of smartphone CMOS image sensor product business, especially high-end flagship CIS products. SmartSens insists on creating high-end imaging technology and provides support for the market recovery through a series of mobile phone CIS product layouts.

CIS is a competitive field for domestic semiconductors and has always attracted much attention from the industry. Among the top ten CIS companies in the world, there are three Chinese companies, including SmartSens, which account for about one-fifth of the global market share . Based on the sharing of the global market situation, Mr. Jin Fangqi further introduced SmartSens' exploration and achievements in the CIS field.

As a high-tech enterprise engaged in the research and development, design and sales of CMOS image sensor chip products, SmartSens has always focused on the innovation and development of high-end imaging technology, and has achieved outstanding results in the highly competitive CIS market environment. According to the latest data report, in 2022, SmartSens not only ranked first in the global security CIS market with a market share of 33.3%, but also ranked fourth in the world in the field of automotive CIS. In the field of drone image sensors, SmartSens leads the world with a market share of more than 80%. In addition, in the field of mobile phone CIS, SmartSens has entered the mobile phone CIS product market since 2020. According to the latest statistics from Chaodian Think Tank, SmartSens has ranked among the top 5 in global mobile phone CIS shipments in 2023.

Mr. Jin Fangqi mentioned that SmartSens' outstanding achievements in the global CMOS image sensor market are inseparable from its profound technological accumulation and innovation. It has launched more than 10 chip-level black technologies to date.

As a technology leader in security CIS, SmartSens has accumulated a series of dark-light imaging technologies in the security field, including SFCPixel, PixGain, Lightbox IR, and ultra-low noise peripheral reading circuits, which have improved the performance of its security CIS products in terms of sensitivity, color, noise control, and high-temperature stability, thereby successfully creating super-star-level high-end smart security CIS star products such as SC850SL and SC880SL.

In terms of machine vision, SmartSens is a global pioneer in BSI (back-illuminated) + global shutter technology. According to reports, SmartSens published a SmartGS technology paper at the ISSCC (International Solid-State Circuits Conference), known as the "highest-level conference in the field of integrated circuit design" in 2019. Subsequently, its first BSI+global shutter image sensor product achieved a leading market position in global emerging field global shutter CMOS image sensor shipments the following year. So far, SmartSens' SmartGS technology CIS products have covered machine vision sub-sectors such as consumer (drones, sweepers), industrial (industrial cameras), and ITS intelligent transportation systems.

Nowadays, some flagship mobile phone models have achieved rapid flash shooting of ultra-high-speed moving objects, and even the speeding cars in the F1 race can be clearly photographed, which further confirms the trend that the capabilities of mobile phone cameras are catching up with professional cameras. "The performance of mobile phone cameras is gradually catching up with professional cameras. Therefore, we believe that future mobile phone CIS should have better resolution, higher sensitivity and dynamic range, lower noise and power consumption, and faster focus response." said Jin Fangqi of SmartSens. It is understood that SmartSens has accumulated fast focus technologies including small pixel technology of SFCPixel-2 and SFCPixel-SL, AllPix ADAF (100% full pixel focus technology) and PDAF (phase detection focus), and has accelerated its layout in the field of high-end smartphone applications. In October 2020, SmartSens launched a full range of image sensor products for mobile phone applications. Since March 2022, SmartSens has successively launched four image sensor products for high-end mobile phone applications, namely SC550XS, SC520XS, SC580XS and SC5000CS.

It is worth mentioning that the 50-megapixel high-performance mobile phone image sensor product SC580XS won the "2024 Global CMOS Industry Star Product Award" at this summit. SC580XS is built on the 22nm HKMG Stack process, equipped with SmartSens' new generation pixel technology SFCPixel-2, PixGain HDR, AllPix ADAF and other technologies and processes, with high dynamic range, low noise, 100% full pixel focus, ultra-low power consumption and other performance advantages, bringing excellent quality images to flagship smartphone main cameras.

In the field of automotive imaging, which continues to grow rapidly, Jin Fangqi introduced that SmartSens has begun to exert its strength in the field of automotive CIS since 2020. In order to ensure the image performance of the product, SmartSens has not only applied a series of advanced dark-light imaging technologies accumulated in the security field to automotive imaging applications such as driving recorders, but also developed a variety of high dynamic range technologies, such as PixGain HDR technology based on rolling shutter technology, which can help ADAS imaging and other automotive imaging applications capture accurate and motion-artifact-free images during high-speed driving. According to reports, in terms of the reliability and functional safety of automotive CIS, SmartSens has successively obtained the three major automotive-grade certifications of AEC-Q100, ISO26262, and IATF16949 in the past four years, and has the ability to design and develop automotive-grade CIS chips to quality control. So far, SmartSens has released nearly 15 automotive-grade CIS products, covering ADAS perimeter/front view, panoramic surround view, and in-cabin applications.

From the former dominance of Sony and Samsung to the more diversified market segmentation today, Chinese companies represented by SmartSens are gradually refreshing the global CIS market landscape with their advanced technological innovation capabilities and service levels, providing more diverse and richer product choices for terminal CIS applications, and continuously promoting the rapid development and progress of the CIS industry.