Tiny low-power Hyperlux LP camera sensors can extend battery life by up to 40%

onsemi has introduced the Hyperlux LP image sensor family for battery-powered industrial and commercial cameras with resolutions from 5MP to 20MP and a low power consumption that can extend battery life by up to 40% based on the company’s internal testing.

Three models of the 1.4 µm pixel sensors will initially be offered: the 5MP AR0544, the 8MP AR0830, and the 20MP AR2020. Those camera sensors should eventually be found in a wide range of products such as smart doorbells, security cameras, AR/VR/XR headsets, devices leveraging machine vision, and video conferencing.

 

The AR2020 is a 1/1.8inch Back-Side Illuminated (BSI) Stacked CMOS digital image sensor with a 5120 x 3840 active pixel array with a rolling shutter readout and capable of capturing images in either linear or enhanced Dynamic Range (eDR) modes. Its smaller siblings support the same features, but the AR0830 is a 1/2.9-inch image sensor with a 3840 x 2160 active pixel array, and the AR0544 is a 1/4.2-inch sensor with a 2592 x 1944 array.

Besides lowering power consumption, onsemi has also implemented features and “proprietary technologies” to deliver clearer images and more accurate object detection even in harsh weather and lighting conditions. Those include:

• Wake on Motion – The image sensors can operate in a low-power mode most of the time and switch to a higher performance state to take a photo or shoot a video once the sensor detects movement.
• Smart Region of Interest (ROI) with more than one region of interest (ROI). The background of the image is captured at a lower resolution to reduce bandwidth and the regions of interest in the original resolution of the sensor.
• Near-Infrared (NIR) Performance for superior image quality with minimal supplemental lighting.
• The low power consumption also reduces thermal noise which can negatively impact image quality and decreases the total cost of the device by eliminating the need for heat sinks or other cooling solutions.

There aren’t any reference designs that I can find yet, but I can see several evaluation boards for the AR2020 and AR0830 sensors that need to be used for the “Demo 3 evaluation board” and work with onsemi DevSuite software. The evaluation boards are available with monochrome, RGB, and RGB-IR sensors.

The company says the Hyperlux LP image sensor family will be available in Q4 2023, which should be about right now… Further details may be found on the respective product pages and in the press release.

Thanks to TLS for the tip.

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