Sector News

Smartphone cameras increasingly require 3D vision capabilities as differentiating factor. Hence, Infineon Technologies developed the REAL3™ IRS2381C, a premier 3D imager sensor solution especially designed for the mobile device market.

The Embedded Vision Alliance now awarded the 3D Time-of-Flight (ToF) single chip solution as “Product of the Year” in the category “Sensors”. The Award recognises the innovation and achievement of the industry’s leading technologies, services, and products from companies enabling next generation of practical applications for computer vision.

“Congratulations to Infineon for winning Best Sensor in our 2019 Vision Product of the Year awards,” said Jeff Bier, Founder of the Embedded Vision Alliance. “Innovative sensor designs, like Infineon’s 3D Image Sensor, are enabling new 3D vision experiences such as smartphone face recognition and augmented reality. Infineon has been a pioneer in creating 3D image sensors for visual AI applications. I applaud the company’s ongoing investment in innovation and quality in this rapidly changing and often confusing market. I’m proud that Infineon is a member of the Embedded Vision Alliance and delighted they have been recognised with this outstanding honour.”

“We would like to thank the Embedded Vision Alliance for having honoured us with the ‘Product of the Year’ Award, which recognises Infineon’s innovation and performance of our REAL3™ ToF-based 3D imager the category ‘Sensors’, said Philipp von Schierstaedt, Vice President, RF & Sensors, Infineon. “Building upon the combined expertise of Infineon and pmdtechnologies, the novel sensor delivers a new level of 3D camera capabilities in mobile device applications. Infineon’s REAL3TM ToF sensor enables a unique user’s experience in secure face-authentication, computational photography and seamless AR-applications”.

Time-of-Flight (ToF) is the most advanced image sensing technology powering 3D cameras in new generation mobile devices and is posed to fuel the dramatic growth of 3D image sensing application market expected for future years. “Time-of-flight” stands for the time the photons need to travel from the camera to the subject or object of desire and back to the REAL3 sensor. Behind this concept there is unparalleled innovation: it enables the next level of highly secure user smartphone interaction.

The awarded IRS2381C image sensor ensures a high-quality, real time and secure 3D vision experience with supreme performance at all light conditions including outdoor. Compared to other 3D technologies like structured light, Infineon’s 3D ToF technology reduces the number of key components from three to two. Moreover, as distance is measured directly, it requires the least computational resources on the application processor. All this makes the application much more reliable, reduces the size and leads to more competitive costs, while enormously cutting the power drain.

Availability

The new 3D image sensor chip was developed in Graz, Dresden and Siegen and combines the know-how of Infineon’s German and Austrian locations in a single solution. With proven high volume production and a fast, in-factory enabled and lifetime valid calibration process, IRS2381C is the 3D image sensor of choice for 3D camera manufacturing in mobile device applications. More information about Infineon’s 3D image sensor family is available at www.infineon.com/real3.