“One image is worth a thousand words”. Images are found everywhere in our world, whether in our everyday life or in the most demanding technical applications. The applications listed below are only some examples of the markets where IMASENIC is active and our image sensors can be found. If you have different imaging applications where you would require a new sensor, don’t hesitate to come and talk to us. We will do what is possible and … more to help you!
Medical
Digital imaging is already present in many areas of medicine, and new areas will also benefit from it. Almost every person has had a radiography taken at some point in their life. IMASENIC’s patented technology produces stunning images for dentists around the world, so that they can see minute details of the teeth. Our high dynamic range technology also virtually eliminates the risk of having to take the same picture twice, thus reducing the dose to the patient.
For large area X-ray imaging, IMASENIC technology can make very large area sensors, beyond the limit of the size of a CMOS wafer, so that it can be used in areas like mammography or chest radiography where large areas are required. The large pixel size of our wafer-scale Sagara1212 sensor can be ideal for many of these applications.
Our time-of-flight technology would give access to fluorescence lifetime imaging, thus helping tagging different markers, also during in-vivo imaging.
Life Science
If it was needed, the recent pandemic has highlighted the importance of life sciences in our daily life. Without a prompt reconstruction at atomic scale of the structure of the Covid-19 virus, it would have been much more difficult the fast development of vaccines that save probably millions of life. Only a few weeks the first appearance of the virus, its structure could be determined thanks to CMOS image sensors used in a Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM). IMASENIC is now working with the market leader Thermo Fisher Scientific and the group of the Nobel laureate prof Richard Henderson at the Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB) in the Unite Kingdom to develop the next generation of sensors and cameras for the TEM market. See more details here.
Scientific
The scientific market always has challenging requirements, often pushing the boundaries of the performance envelop. Low-noise is a constant one, but not the only one, and it often goes with high dynamic range. Look at our IMA300 family for an example of this type of requirements. Fast sensors are also needed, with megapixel resolution at tens of thousands of images per second. Our Sagara1212 is the fastest wafer-scale sensor, boasting 4Mpixel at over 5,000 fps on a die as large as a single 200mm wfer. And even ultra-fast, reaching and surpassing the barrier of millions of frames per seconds, while keeping high resolution, megapixel or similar. For earth observation, our large area sensor technology can give high resolution sensors with large pixels for outstanding sensitivity and image quality.
Space and earth observation
Special care is required to develop high-performance image sensors capable to live in the harsh environment of space. Radiation hardness is always required, both for total dose and for single event upsets. We have developed our proprietary structures to achieve the required radiation resistance, both for the sensing elements and the surrounding electronics. Low noise sensors like our IMA302 can help seeing faint celestial objects as well as space debris.
Industrial
Industrial applications are many and very diverse. Image sensors there often needs to be fast, sensitive and high resolution. IMASENIC’s team is expert in high-speed sensors. Our Sagara1212 sensor achieves the fastest frame rate for wafer-scale image sensors. The IMA300 family shows the low-noise performance of our sensors. The sensors in this family have a pixel pitch of 8µm which small enough to achieve large pixel count with a reasonably large sensor, and large enough to achieve very good sensitivity, thanks also to its BSI technology.
Fast-image sensors also requires readout / proximity electronics which is capable to handle the data rate. We have developed the High Speed Link (HSL) technology to address these needs of the market, thus reducing cost and time to market for high throughput demanding applications.
For the semiconductor industry and not only, efficient detection of ultraviolet light is needed. IMASENIC masters the back-side technology that can give high quantum efficiency in this range of the photon spectrum.
Automotive
A lot of developments are going on across the automotive industry to increase the safety of the experience a ultimately making vehicles totally autonomous. Image sensors are essential to give the vehicle the knowledge of the environment. Seeing 2D images in visible light is clearly important, but other modalities are also needed. First of all, the distance of object is, needless to say, important. Our Depth Scanning Image Sensor technology allows to do this while also getting high quality 2D images with a single sensor. This reduces complexity of a camera, and, as a consequence, the cost, also increasing the reliability of the system.
Photography and video
The high sensitivity and low noise of our IMA302 shows well what IMASENIC can give to this market IMA302 has a full-franme format and in the same family and with the same low noise performance, we have the IMA304, with its medium-format. We have global shutter sensors that avoid the artefacts of rolling shutter. High speed sensors can give fantastic slow motion. Our large area designs is well suited for medium format photographic sensors.
