News About Latest Technolog : Camera market flipping to new sensor technology

The new sensors use a technology called backside illumination, and chipmakers including Sony and Samsung are leading the charge to build them into a variety of cameras. And though it's a premium feature today, it's spreading rapidly across the market.

"It's more aggressive than we expected even two years ago," Yole Developpement analyst Jerome Baron said in a talk last week at the Image Sensors Europe conference here.

Image sensors are special-purpose, light-sensitive chips packed with complicated technology. But backside illumination, or BSI, is pretty easy to understand: flip the sensor around so the light it's detecting isn't partially blocked by a bunch of electronics. What used to be the back of the sensor is now facing outward toward the light.

Better sensitivity
The advantage, illustrated among other places in the iPhone 4 camera, is better light sensitivity. That opens up new options for camera makers.

One option is to offer more pixels without degrading how well each pixel works, yielding more detailed photographs. Another option is better image quality with the same number of pixels, something that's useful when taking photos or videos in dim indoor light.

Either way, it's a compelling option. And though BSI adds new manufacturing costs and challenges, photographers often pay extra for a better image--either to make a mobile phone perform more like a point-and-shoot or to make a higher-end SLR shoot better in dim conditions.