A breakthrough development for digital cameras is coming from a name unfamiliar to most camera buffs.
Boise, ID-based chipmaker Micron Technology today announced it’s developed the world’s smallest 8-megapixel image sensor.
New digital cameras based on this technology will be able to capture action shots much quicker then current cameras. Another plus: these cameras will also be able to capture and playback high definition (HD) video in the standard 30 frames-per-second rate used in film recording. Many digital cameras offer a more limited movie mode of 15 frames-per-second.
Micron Better known for its computer memory chips, Micron already ships a 5-megapixel image sensor in volume which supports HD video. Cameras incorporating Micron’s 5-megapixel technology are slated to appear later this summer and fall. “Micron has not been a leader in the megapixel area so this is a breakout part for them,” Jon Peddie, president of Jon Peddie Research, told internetnews.com. “Mainstream digital cameras based on the 8-megapixel sensor will only be limited by memory, and guess who sells memory?” There are some high-end cameras based on CCD “We’ve caught up with CCDs and I think we’ve leap-frogged that technology with our new product,” Suresh Venkatraman, director of digital camera segment at Micron, told internetnews.com. With the new Micron image sensor’s continuous-shot mode, photographers will be able to get precise action shots as fast as ten pictures a second in full 8-megapixel resolution. At a lower 2-megapixel resolution, the sensor is capable of capturing more than 30 pictures a second. Venkatraman said Micron has an even smaller, 1.4 micron pixel prototype capable of 12-megapixel resolution. That technology should start appearing in cameras by 2008. said it’s produced a prototype of the 8-megapixel sensor. The company plans to start shipping sample units to digital camera manufacturers this fall with full mass production to hit in the first half of 2007.
