• The Exist project addresses the need for improved and advanced image capturing techniques and further explores the potential of these. Applicable in multiple domains of the society like agriculture, healthcare, broadcast, security ...
• A first objective of the project is to increase the resolution of imaging systems. Higher resolution images give sharper detail in e.g. broadcast TV, in surveillance cameras, in industrial inspection cameras etc. Image sensors are built for 4K UHD imaging and a broadcast camera with this sensor was introduced on the market during this project. A large format 32Mpixel sensor has been built and experimented and a 14Mpixel sensor was built for industrial and security applications. All system components to support such high resolution were developed like high resolution zoom lenses, image processing SW for image improvement (de-noising, lens-aberration correction, demosaicing etc) and all HW to support the high-resolution image data streams.
• A second objective was to improve Time-of-flight imaging systems. A specific research domain is the development of an image capturing system that combines colour images and depth sensing to build compact systems (e.g. for VR and AR applications). SDS did build a dedicated image sensor with mosaic pixel layout. Commercially-available RGB filters were deposited onto the pixels with colour functionality and a NIR filter was deposited by IMEC, on the pixels with depth sensing functionality. Image data processing including novel demosaicing and colour correction was added. The resulting system has been successfully built and demonstrated in a VR game application.
• As a third objective, hyperspectral imaging was investigated and brought to a next level from technology to applications. Several application areas learned how to benefit of hyperspectral imaging by small systems based upon integrated image sensors. Hyperspectral image data capturing and processing were investigated in agriculture, medical, and security applications.
This research also indicated the limitations of hyperspectral imaging in terms of sensitivity in real application scenarios.
• As the last objective, a novel TDI image sensor has been built. This kind of imagers allows for image capturing at low light levels or at high speed and finds its typical application in e.g. space observation, inspection of e.g. pcb or flat panel A CCD-in-CMOS process is developed and improved. In this process a dedicated image sensor was designed to combine the benefits of CCD imaging with the on-chip read-out capabilities of CMOS to achieve a very fast TDI and even multispectral imager.
