Winbond Electronics Corp.(WEC) has developed a highly advanced Image Signal Processor ( ISP) LSI for 1.3 to 3 M pixel camera module applied to mobile phones. A series of this ISP that offers the best solution for camera module suppliers has been and will be timely released by WEC keeping a leader's position.
Mobile phone with a camera has become almost standard in the market and quality of pictures has been improved steadily, competing with the low end DSC. This concept of mobile phone was born in Japan and has been transferred to overseas. As for mega pixel application, CCD used to be the major image sensor but CMOS image sensor has been replacing CCD due to the recent outstanding improvement for lower noise, higher sensitivity and better quality of pictures.
WEC has just developed W99712 covering 1.3 to 2.1 M pixels camera module for mobile phones. It keeps high performance providing high quality of picture and lower power consumption and will get available for samples in October of this year and in 1st quarter of next year for mass production. This is an ISP following the 1st product W99711 already released for 1.3M. (As for related products to the ISP, WEC owns JPEG compression LSIs W99684 and W99685 that are in mass production now.)
W99712 enables high level image signal processing avoiding the heavier task given to the application/ base band LSI and easier control of auto focusing, optical zooming and mechanical shutter driving. It also makes possible for users to minimize the software development work for the host LSI. When W99712 is combined with mega-pixel CMOS image sensor, less expensive and higher performance of camera module can be implemented.
WEC keeps 30 engineers dedicated to the development of the ISP, including China and Japan subsidiaries. WEC targets to keep a leading position in this field, increasing engineers to 50 in next year and develop four to five products each year, introducing new functions like Anti- shake and MPEG4.
For your reference, W99712 will be exhibited in CEATEC ( Tokyo Electronics Show) held from Oct.5th to 9th in Tokyo, combined with CMOS image sensor. Data sheet and detailed brochure will be available there.
CHARACTERISTICS
- High-Speed Processing with Hardware
- Features a high-performance image processing engine exclusive for AE, AF, AWB and other image processings.
- High-speed image-processing with pipelines and parallel operations for each color processing block.
- Reduction in internal clock frequency and power consumption achieved by built-in exclusive hardware and no frame memory usage.
- 1.3M pixels for 15 frame processing
- 2M pixels for 9 frame processing
- Superior throughput to process 1 pixel/clock from the CMOS sensor, by accordingly configuring the line memory for each block.
- High-Performance Image Processing Engine for High Quality Pictures
- Supports AF, AE and AWB
- Array of color processing functions: Defect Correction, OB Clamp, Offset/Gain, Bayer Color Interpolation, Gamma Correction, Color Conversion, Y-C Correction, Low Pass Filter, Sharpness, Y-C Skin Tone Correction, Chroma Killer, Histogram and more.
- Diverse Photography Modes
- Fully Automatic, Against-Light Correction, Scenery, Portrait, Night, and others.
- MPU Controller
- Built-in 8-bit microprocessor
- High quality images with firmware optimizing the parameters of the image processing engine
- The firmware processes image data to directly control peripheral hardware over the general purpose IO port, making diverse control functions possible without depending on the host.
- Firmware directly downloaded from EEPROM or host to RAM immediately after the power is turned on.
- General Purpose IO Port
- 16 bi-directional general purpose IO ports in which each port is independently controllable from the firmware. 8 of the ports deliver a powerful 24mA drive power to drive the stepping motor.
- 3 general purpose output-only ports
- External Interface
- 12-bit raw RGB Input
- 8-bit YCbCr422 Output
- 2 Pin and 3 Pin serial interface
- Power Down Mode
- Extremely low power consumption by stopping internal clock
- Power Source
- 1.5V - 1.8V Core Voltage, and 2.8V - 3.3V IO Voltage
- Typical 50mA current, with maximum 135mA in normal mode