OREANDA-NEWS. Toshiba Corporation (TOKYO: 6502) today announced details of the full line-up of its new series of high performance BSI CMOS image sensors equipped with Phase Detection Auto-Focus (PDAF)[1]. Following on from the already announced 16-megapixel(MP) T4KC3-121[2], the company has unveiled 8MP (T4KA3-121), 13MP (T4KB3-121) and 20MP (T4KA7-121) sensors. Sample shipments of devices in the series will start in August, and they will be rolled out in turn.

 

Originally developed for SLR cameras, PDAF locks in focus at speeds much faster than the auto-focus systems used in smartphones and tablets. This is driving demand for PDAF on those platforms.
 

In addition to securing high-speed focus of still and moving objects, for needle-sharp, natural images and movies, the new CMOS image sensors also make it possible to create even thinner smartphones and mobile devices: Toshiba’s PDAF does not require a space for an AF sensor in the camera module, as they are embedded in the CMOS image sensor itself.
 

Toshiba’s main goal with its new line-up of CMOS image sensors is to empower users to capture beautiful images and movies. Toward this, in addition to PDAF, Toshiba supports functionalities such as Bright Mode[3], high speed image capturing and HDR[4]. They also achieve low power consumption and are in the world’s smallest class of chip size[5].