Tuesday, April 17, 2018

LargeSense Unveils 4K Video-Capable Medium Format Camera

PRNewswire: LargeSense LLC launches the LS911, said to be the first medium format 8x10 digital camera for sale. Everything in this announcement looks, well, impressively large:

  • 9x11-inch-large digital sensor. The company tends to refer to it as 8x10 as that is the closest format that people search for.
  • 75 micron pixel size
  • 12MP resolution
  • Live view for easy focusing
  • Video modes (all progressive):
    - Up to 26fps: Full sensor scan 3888 x 3072 and optional crop sizes: 3840 × 2160, 3840 x 1600, 1920 x 1080.
    - Up to 70fps with pixel 2x2 pixel binning: Full frame: 1944 x 1536
  • 14 bit ADC
  • The US price is $106,000, available now

The LS911 sensor uses a rolling shutter. Rolling shutters can produce distortions, but the LS911 is said to handle it well, as shown in the test video:



9 comments:

  1. Is this butted or stitched?
    What litography and pixel design does it use?

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    1. Albert Theuwissen - Harvest ImagingApril 18, 2018 at 10:04 PM

      The text mentions a device of 9 inch x 11 inch. This results in a diagonal of 14.21 inch or almost 360 mm. This does not fit on the largest wafer available in today's industry. So I guess that the device is butted. Even teh 8 inch x 10 inch will not fit on a 300 mm wafer.

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  2. How big are their reticles, full wafer or is it like 25x25mm or something and thus they need a crapload of "sensor" tapeouts?

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    1. Albert Theuwissen - Harvest ImagingApril 19, 2018 at 8:59 PM

      The reticle size depends on the litho tools used in the fab. Which do they use ? I do not know .....

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  3. It is easy to find the background of the founder, Bill Charbonnet, on LinkedIn. The company seems to have been in business for 4 years. Prior to founding the company he was an account manager with various duties including "Helping customers with orders, and custom cable inquiries." It is good to dream big and I wish him good luck. At $106,000 per camera, I guess you only need to sell a few to stay afloat. Can't explain the claim of 9x11 format using 300mm wafers. Even 8x10 has a diagonal of 12.8 inches so maybe it is like image sensor diagonals, where a 1/4" sensor has a diagonal less than 1/4".

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    1. Yes, it does not fit onto 12-inch wafer. Half of the sensor fits, though. Or a quarter fits onto 8-inch wafer.

      This might explain why there is no color version - it's difficult to make a seamless butting of an RGB pixel array.

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  4. What is the market for these cameras?

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    1. Albert Theuwissen - Harvest ImagingApril 20, 2018 at 11:11 AM

      Butted and stitched monolithic CMOS devices are used in medical X-ray applications (ask my former colleagues at Teledyne DALSA in Eindhoven). Based on the large pixel size I do suspect that this is for medical as well. Who else is using 75 um pixel pitch ???

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    2. Thank you for the answer. That was my guess as well but was baffled that the company doesn't mention it front and center.

      Delete

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