Arrow Electronics and Appletec agree compact camera modules
Fast prototyping for new designs and re-engineering existing products is assured following an agreement signed by Arrow Electronics with Israeli company, Appletec. As a result, Appletec will produce a range of compact camera modules (CCMs) exclusively for Arrow.
The CCMs are intended for developers who want to add an embedded vision capability to products used in sectors including industrial, medical, security and automotive. A customisation service will support a variety of interconnect solutions.
The choice of CCM will depend on a number of factors in the requirements of the application. For example, the amount of detail to be captured will determine the choice of resolution and frame rate, while the selected field of view (FOV) and depth of field will reflect the area to be covered.
The Arrow CCMs use CMOS image sensors from onsemi and can utilise the image signal processor (ISP) on the customer’s main board. Two fixed focus CCMs are available initially, offering 0.3 or 4Mpixel sensors and FoV ranging from 49 to 84 degrees. Frame rates range from 36.7 frames per second (at 720p) and 75 frames per second (at VGA) up to 360 frames per second. A CCM with auto-focus and 13Mpixel sensor will be added soon offering 30 frames per second and 64 degree FoV.
A fourth CCM, based on a 1.26Mpixel, 30 frames per second sensor has an integrated image flow processor, enabling vision functionality even for microcontroller platforms without additional hardware components.
System developers can write their own software drivers for the CCMs or make use of the driver produced by eInfochips, an Arrow company, which is due to be released at the end of Q1 2022.
Companies that wish to accelerate development times even deploy one of Arrow’s camera reference designs.
Arrow Electronics says it guides innovation forward for over 180,000 leading technology manufacturers and service providers.
