Sony develops ‘world’s first stacked CMOS image sensor technology with 2-layer transistor pixels’: Digital Photography Review

Sony Semiconductor Solutions Corporation (Sony) has announced it developed ‘the world’s first stacked CMOS image sensor technology with 2-layer transistor Pixels.’ This new technology separates the photodiodes from the pixel transistor into different substrate layers, nearly doubling the amount of light a pixel can capture compared to other conventional image sensors.

Sony says its proprietary ‘2-Layer Pixel Transistor’ technology divides photodiodes (which convert photons into electrical signals) and pixel transistors (which drive those electrical signals) onto different layers of substrates arranged in layers. overlap. In addition to the optimized architectures, Sony says this stacking technology also allows them to increase the size of the amp transistors. These two benefits mean that the individual pixels will have almost twice as much signal saturation and will be able to reduce the noise of images taken in low light environments.

A comparison illustration showing how a conventional stacked CMOS sensor incorporating photodiodes and pixel transistors (left) compared to Sony’s new ‘2-layer transistor Pixel’ (right).

Specifically, Sony says ‘The extended dynamic range and noise reduction available from this new technology will prevent underexposure and overexposure in settings with a mix of bright and dim lighting. (e.g. backlit settings) and enables high-quality, low-noise images even in low-light settings (e.g. indoors, night). ‘

Sony didn’t say when we’ll see this inside consumer image sensors, but in the last sentence of the release, Sony has hinted that it’s designed with image sensors in mind. smart.