ON Semiconductor’s latest 8-megapixel image sensor enables stunning 4K video quality

ON Semiconductor (onsemi, NASDAQ: ON), a leader in smart power and smart sensing technologies, announced the launch of an innovative image sensor – AR0822. The device’s embedded high dynamic range (eHDRTM) capability and optimized near-infrared (NIR) response are critical for applications with harsh lighting conditions, such as security surveillance, body cameras, doorbell cameras and robotics. The sensor’s low-power architecture and wake-on-motion feature are designed to significantly reduce system power consumption.

The AR0822 is an 8-megapixel (MP) stacked 1/1.8-inch (8.81 mm diagonal) back-illuminated (BSI) CMOS digital image sensor based on 2.0 µm pixels. It has an effective pixel array of 3840(H) × 2160(V), is capable of shooting 4K video at 60 frames per second (fps), captures images in linear or eHDRTM mode (120dB), and uses rolling shutter readout.

“The AR0822 achieves industry-leading performance in low-light conditions while enabling customers to achieve the desired 120 dB eHDRTM at lower system power and cost,” said Ross Jatou, Senior Vice President and General Manager of the IntelliSense Division at ON Semiconductor. This combination gives our customers strong support to meet the market demand for more advanced imaging and power saving solutions and longer battery life.”

A major challenge for today’s image sensors is the need to operate in uncontrolled light conditions. Specifically, scenes with high dynamic range (HDR), that is, images with particularly bright and dark areas. While many HDR techniques use multiple exposure outputs, sending images from up to three different exposures to an image signal processor (ISP) for combination, this approach requires up to three times the system bandwidth and more expensive components, especially at higher resolutions. The AR0822 embeds HDR functionality to reduce system bandwidth and processor power consumption, while also compensating for motion and flickering light sources through intelligent linearization and exposure combination to achieve excellent image quality.

For internet of Things (IoT) applications, in order to meet customer expectations for low-power operation and longer battery life, the AR0822 optimizes system power consumption with dedicated functions such as wake-up on motion. Most cameras run in a lower power mode when in standby and resume normal operation when motion is detected to save power. These systems often require sensors and processors to work together to detect motion. The AR0822 can intelligently detect motion changes in the scene with its motion wake-up function, which puts the processor into a low-power standby mode until the sensor detects motion and triggers the processor to resume working mode.

AR0822 also has enhanced near-infrared sensitivity and sophisticated camera functions such as binning/windowing. The device is designed for harsh environments and operates over the -30 °C to 85 °C (junction temperature) temperature range.