Renesas Electronics Releases Advanced-Functionality Driver IC

As the pixel density and performance of smartphone cameras has greatly improved in recent years, consumers have come to expect to have the same functionality and performance as standalone digital cameras. The ability to capture high-definition, high-quality still photos and video is a key requirement for today’s consumer. As a result, conventional electronic image stabilization functions are no longer adequate to meet demand for high picture quality in mobile devices. Electronic image stabilization is being used alongside optical image stabilization, and their uses can be divided among different types of tasks.

To meet these evolving requirements, Renesas has developed a power-efficient OIS driver IC that incorporates the company’s deep expertise in optical image stabilization technology and integrates a CPU, a DSP, and peripheral parts on a single chip to enhance performance. In addition, Renesas is providing a comprehensive development environment, including firmware, development tools, evaluation boards, and manuals, to help system manufacturers meet their development requirements and accelerate the implementation of advanced optical image stabilization functionality into mobile platforms.

Key features of the new OIS driver IC:

• (1) 32-bit CPU, DSP, and flash memory, enabling advanced three-servo control

  The high-performance 32-bit CPU and DSP is suitable for servo control processing support for three-servo control. This makes it possible to drive different types of actuators, including voice coil motors (VCM) (Note 1), piezoelectric elements (Note 2), and shape-memory alloy (SMA) (Note 3) actuators. This single-chip device also supports multiple autofocus functions. In addition to open loop (Note 4) autofocus, the newer bidirectional (Note 5) and closed loop (Note 6) autofocus types are supported, enabling more compact camera modules for slimmer smartphone form factors.

• (2) Firmware and development tools matched to customer requirements, helping to reduce the development workload and shorten the time needed

  Development tools and environments matched to manufacturer requirements are available. Renesas also offers evaluation boards (available separately) that can be used to start evaluation work right away, helping to reduce the development workload and shorten the time required.
  • Development of control firmware by the manufacturer
    Resources such as sample source code and manuals are available to help manufacturers develop control firmware in a short amount of time.
  • Customization by the manufacturer of reference control firmware provided by Renesas
    Reference firmware and application notes are available, along with development tools and manuals that manufacturers can use to customize the firmware quickly.
  • Standard control firmware provided by Renesas, without modification, for customer use
    Resources such as application notes and tool usage manuals are available for manufacturers to use the standard control firmware.This makes it possible to implement optical image stabilization at an early stage.

• (3) Parameters for adjusting individual differences to reduce the burden imposed by performance inconsistency among individual camera modules during mass production

  With over 80 million OIS driver ICs shipped, Renesas provides the ability to adjust individual parameters, which can be used to automatically compensate performance inconsistency among individual camera modules during mass production. By storing the parameters in the on-chip flash memory of the IC, it is possible to compensate for performance inconsistency among individual devices without the need to reprogram (overwrite) the firmware, decreasing the workload during mass production.

• (4) Support for a variety of OIS methods, including lens shift, lens tilt, and module tilt