VGA camera shrinks to sixth-inch format

Toshiba will start mass production of its latest series of VGA camera modules, the TCM8230MD series, in May this year.

Toshiba will start mass production of its latest series of VGA camera modules, the TCM8230MD series, in May this year.

The modules, among the industry's smallest, integrate Toshiba's complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) image sensor and a digital signal processor (DSP) on a single chip.

Advances in process technology and design optimisation have allowed Toshiba to reduce individual pixels from 5.4 to 3.75um.

The miniaturisation allows a total of 330,000 signal pixels to be arranged in a 492 x 660 array on single chip with a one-sixth-inch optical format.

The resulting camera module is slimmer, smaller and consumes less power, but continues to offer 330,000-pixel image quality.

As the mobile phone market seeks out smaller and slimmer designs that support integration of increasingly diverse applications, Toshiba's latest camera module directly meets the requirements of phone makers.

TCM8230MD, the latest of Toshiba's VGA camera modules, and the smallest yet, incorporates a double lens and the CMOS image sensor, and is embedded with a digital signal processor (DSP) that supports the VGA format.

Use of CMOS process technology achieves excellent colour reproduction through the module's primary colour filter.

The module is designed for cellular phones with camera.

Personal digital equipment, including portable PCs, PDAs and camera phones, are all moving towards built-in video- and still-image capabilities.

CMOS image sensors are widely used in such products, as they enjoy advantages in size and power consumption.

Consequently, demand is growing for CMOS sensors that offer upgraded performance while meeting the increasingly severe space limitations in digital equipment.

Toshiba's new line-up directly addresses this concern.

The new devices raise the benchmark for excellence in CMOS imaging, and are expected to solidify Toshiba's leadership in CMOS image sensors for cellular phones with camera, where the company led the world market with a share of approximately 30% in 2002.

Samples of the new devices will be available from March 2004 and mass production will start in May 2004, at an initial volume of 1,000,000 modules a month.

Samples are priced at Y3000.

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