Sony Semiconductor Solutions has announced its new LYT-610 CMOS image sensor for smartphones. The new sensor is mainly designed for telephoto cameras and aims to improve image quality, autofocus performance, and video recording capabilities in future smartphones.
The Sony LYT-610 is a 1/2-inch CMOS image sensor with approximately 64 effective megapixels. It is designed to reduce the image quality gap between primary and telephoto cameras, allowing smartphone makers to deliver better zoom photography.
Like the recently announced Sony LYT-910, the LYT-610 uses a Quad Bayer colour filter arrangement. This technology groups four adjacent pixels with the same colour filter, helping the sensor achieve both high sensitivity and high resolution.
The new sensor features Sony’s new RB2×2 On-Chip Lens (OCL) pixel structure. According to Sony, the LYT-610 is the first mass-produced smartphone image sensor in the industry to use this design.
The new structure combines two different lens designs on a single sensor. Green pixels use a 1×1 OCL structure to maximise image detail and resolution. Meanwhile, red and blue pixels use a 2×2 OCL design, allowing four pixels to share one lens. These pixels also work as phase-detection autofocus points, helping the camera achieve faster and more accurate focusing.
Sony claims that this new design delivers more than 20 percent higher spatial resolution compared to conventional sensors with the same 0.7-micron pixel size.
The company has also improved the sensor’s readout speed through an upgraded analogue-to-digital conversion system. In addition, the logic circuits are built using a finer manufacturing process, which helps reduce power consumption.
The LYT-610 also brings significant improvements in video recording. Sony says it is the company’s first 1/2-inch smartphone image sensor capable of recording 4K video at up to 120fps. It also supports 4K HDR video recording at 60fps.
The sensor can capture full-resolution 64MP images at up to 24fps. Users can also shoot 16MP images at 60fps and use 30fps DAG-HDR shooting modes.
The sensor supports both MIPI C-PHY and D-PHY interfaces. It can deliver output speeds of up to 4.5Gsps per trio on C-PHY and up to 2.5Gbps per lane on D-PHY.
The new sensor could soon appear in flagship and premium mid-range smartphones, bringing better telephoto photography, faster autofocus, and high-frame-rate 4K video recording to users.
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