This afternoon I paid a visit to the FujiFilm booth and inquired about their new BSI EXR CMOS Image Sensor. I was introduced to Mr. Shizuo (Ben) Habuta san, Director of Product Development for FujiFilm’s Electronic Imaging Products Division. Ben was kind enough to take some time to talk to me about this new BSI sensor.
At Chipworks we have analyzed many Fujifilm sensors and they have traditionally employed CCD sensors. So you can imagine our surprise when Fujifilm announced a BSI CMOS Image Sensor.
To date, Chipworks has only seen BSI sensors from Sony, Omnivision and Samsung. So now fourth out of the gate (seen by us) is FujiFilm.
The new BSI EXR CMOS Image Sensor is a 16Mp, ½ inch format device. This sensor is being used in three new cameras from FujiFilm; The Finepix F500 point and shoot ($329), the Finepix F550 point and shoot with built in GPS ($349) (all the rage here at CES) and the DSLR-like (to quote Ben) HS20 ($499). At these price points they are targeted at those interested in higher end imaging and will be in camera stores throughout North America in March. A point-and-shoot that is not destined for Best Buy? Well, we were told that mass electronics retailers won’t even look at stocking a point and shoot on their shelves unless the price is in the sub – $200 range.
Ben stated that the BSI EXR was designed and manufactured by FujiFilm but unfortunately did not share details on the process node or pixel size. Speculation by commentators on Image Sensors World blog guess it is a 1.4 µm pixel. I guess we will have to wait until March to get one of these sensors into the lab so we can measure pixel pitch and review and understand the transistor layout. Oh well!
Ben tells me that the secret behind this BSI sensor is not just that it is BSI, he tells me its success is a result of a merge of the color filter technology from their great CCD’s and the new BSI design. The graphic below shows a diagonal filter and photodiode layout, something that has been in all the FujiFilm CCD cameras we’ve seen.
I asked Ben if FujiFilm had any intention of selling this sensor on the open market for other camera companies and he told me that FujiFilm developed this sensor for their own cameras and no one else. They have no intention of selling it on the open market and trying to compete with giants like Sony or Omnivision. Given the price of these cameras compared to other point and shoots I guess FujiFilm intends to make back their investment through sales of their own cameras. Sounds to me like they need to sell a lot of cameras given what we know about the development efforts and time to develop a BSI process.
Reflecting back for a moment, I find it odd that it appears that FujiFilm has beaten manufacturers like STMicroelectronics and Toshiba to the street with a BSI sensor. I can loosely equate this to Panasonic and how they got their 65 nm-and 45-nm CMOS processes simultaneously with Intel, and beating all other IDMS to market, and Panasonic did it for their own products as well. Well, I am sure the product development teams at FujiFilm did their return on investment analysis before they spun any photo resist. I wish them great success and I cannot wait to get one of these cameras in March and play with it and then get down to the heart of the matter, the BSI process and layout.
Viva Las Vegas!
