Toshiba has announced that it will launch a new 20-megapixel (MP) CMOS image sensor, the TCM5115CL, as the latest addition to its sensor line-up for digital still cameras. TCM5115CL offers the industry's highest resolution in the 1/2.3 inch optical format, using backside illumination technology (BSI) to improve sensitivity and imaging performance. Sampling of the new sensor will begin at the end of January 2013 and mass production will follow in August 2013. Continued advances in the resolution offered by compact digital cameras -now in the range of 10-16MP - have brought with them the challenge of improving performance and picture quality with smaller pixels. The TCM5115CL does just this by achieving a 15% improvement in full well capacity - the amount of charge an individual pixel can hold before saturating - against Toshiba's previous generation 16MP sensor. TCM5115CL is designed to meet the demands of high quality, fast frame rate image capture and HD video recording supporting smooth, slow motion playback, and delivers 60fps at 1080p and 100fps at 720p.

Samsung Electronics has announced its high resolution 1.2-megapixel, 1/8.2-inch CMOS image sensor (CIS) system-on-chip (SoC), the S5K8AA. The new S5K8AA expands the company's product line-up of image sensors that support HD video and video telephony with an offering that can be used in camera modules shorter than 3mm for slim mobile device designs. The new S5K8AA supports 30 frames per second (fps) at HD (720p) video and 60fps at VGA resolution. Low-light sensitivity during real-time video capture is enhanced by Samsung's 1.4 micrometer (um) backside illumination (BSI) pixel technology, the company said. Samsung's S5K8AA image sensor is currently sampling to qualified customers.

Toshiba has announced a new 1.12-micrometer-pixel CMOS image sensor (CIS), the latest addition to its CIS lineup. Sampling of the new sensor will begin in end-July followed by mass production at the end of 2011. Toshiba said it has made full use of the advantages of back-side illumination technology (BSI) to realize image pixels with a pitch of 1.12 micrometers, and to pack 8.08 million of them into a 1/4-inch sensor. Toshiba expects BSI CISs to become the mainstream technology in portable digital technology, with applications expanding from mobile phones and digital cameras to smartphones and tablets. CISs are a focus product of Toshiba's Analog and Imaging Systems business, according to the company.