Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

The most common types of digital sensors are CCD (Charge Coupled Device) and CMOS (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor). In the 1980s, CCD entered the consumer market and firmly occupied the mid-to-high-end market for nearly 30 years. CMOS was originally synonymous with cheap, low-quality, but gradually became mainstream after 2008.

Today, I take you back to the development process of CMOS after 2000.

Canon was the first major camera manufacturer to bet on CMOS: the EOS D30 digital SLR released in October 2000 used Canon's self-developed APS-C frame of about 3.25 megapixels CMOS. Since then (with the exception of the EOS-1D released in 2001), Canon interchangeable lens digital cameras have been developed using CMOS.

So who is the next CMOS vendor? It's hard to guess, but it's Sigma. To be precise: In February 2002, Foveon announced the three-layer photosensitive Foveon X3 sensor. I checked the original press release and confirmed that the Foveon X3 uses a "CMOS semiconductor process." Sigma was the first manufacturer to select the Foveon X3 sensor and acquired Foveon completely in 2008.

(For Foveon X3, there will be time to open a separate article later)

Nikon wasn't idle during this time either: in July 2003, the newly released D2H flagship SLR featured an indigenously developed APS-C frame of about 4.1 megapixels LBCAST sensor (closer to CMOS, but with JFET detection transistors rather than MOSFETs). Nikon claims that LBCAST has faster speed than CCD and less dark noise than CMOS, and is just as power-efficient as CMOS.

What about Sonny? Sony introduced the interchangeable lens still camera Mavica with CCD in 1981, and gradually became the largest CCD supplier in the world market. It didn't ignore CMOS either: in August 2007, Sony introduced the sensor IMX021 (APS-C frame of about 12 million pixels) with Column-Parallel A/D Conversion Technique and dual noise reduction technology, bringing CMOS sensors to a whole new era.

* Digital SLRs with IMX021 include Sony A700 and Nikon D300.

After the introduction of IMX021, Sony registered the "Exmor" trademark for CMOS with column parallel A / D conversion technology. After that, the development of CMOS technology is basically the development of Sony Exmor.

In June 2008, Sony announced the development of back-illuminated CMOS, which became Exmor R. The Sony WX1/ TX1, released in 2009, was one of the first digital cameras to feature back-illuminated CMOS, and Apple began buying Sony sensors in bulk, starting with the iPhone 4S.

* For the difference between backlighting and stacking, please refer to previous articles. This time, we will not merge them first.

In the EOS 7D, released in September 2009, Canon began to use gapless microlens technology to make full use of the effective area of the photosensitive element.

In September 2011, Nikon launched the NIKON 1 series micro-camera with Aptina CMOS, which emphasizes focus and continuous shooting speed rather than effective pixels-ideal, but realistic.

* Continue digging, NIKON 1 is able to write a camera chronicle.

In September 2014, Samsung introduced the NX1, the first micro-camera with large size (APS-C) back-illuminated CMOS, with about 28 million effective pixels and phase focus (also including cruciform focus). Samsung Semiconductor does have the strength to challenge Sony, but unfortunately Samsung cameras do not persist.

In 2015, Sony introduced the micro-camera 7 RM2 with full-frame back-illuminated CMOS, and the black card cameras RX100M4 and RX10M2 with 1.0 stacked CMOS (with DRAM). The A6300 micro-unit, released a little later (February 2016), also uses (front-lit) CMOS with copper connections. All size are advancing.

* In this paper, stack type and multilayer type are collectively called stack type.

In 2016, Canon introduced the 1DX Mark II, 80D and 5D4, all of which used CMOS with built-in ADC to greatly improve the dynamic range.

In April 2017, Sony introduced the Alpha 9 with full-frame stacked CMOS (with DRAM), bringing faster focus speed, low-distortion high-speed electronic shutter and 20FPS AF / AE continuous shooting-the micro-single camera also surpassed the traditional digital SLR in speed.

In July 2020, Canon introduced the EOS R5, proving that traditional (front-lit) CMOS still has considerable shooting performance. In April of the following year, Canon launched EOS R3, which adopted self-developed full-frame CMOS with about 24 million pixels stacked, closing the gap with Sony.

In February 2022, Panasonic launched GH6, which uses a "dual gain" sensor similar to that on a movie set to turn on dynamic range enhancement.

As early as late 2021, Sony announced a new generation of CMOS with double-layer transistor pixel technology. By 2023, the product equipped with this technology was finally mass-produced and first applied to the wide-angle main camera of Sony Xperia 1V mobile phone. Sony has named the sensor with a two-layer transistor pixel structure Exmor T.

It is estimated that we will not see Exmor T sensors on interchangeable lens cameras for a short time.

This article comes from Weixin Official Accounts: Camera Notes (ID: xjbiji), by Teng Feiet

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