Samsung Electronics, the world’s second-largest image sensor company, has been pursuing the world’s No. 1 Sony with high-performance new products. An image sensor is a semiconductor that converts light (image information) received through a camera lens into a digital signal.
Samsung Electronics announced on the 23rd that it has released “Isocell GN2,” a 50 million pixel image sensor with an upgraded auto focus function. The strength of this product is that it can easily take brighter and clearer images.
Isocell GN2 contains 50 million pixels (pixels) with a width of 1.4 μm (micrometer, 1 millionth of a meter). The pixel size of the previous product’GN1′ is 1.2㎛ horizontally and vertically. As the size increased, the area receiving light also increased by about 36%. It is now possible to shoot brighter and clearer images.
Samsung Electronics applied’Dual Pixel Pro’ technology to Isocell GN2 for the first time in the industry. Unlike the previous product that focuses by dividing the pixels left and right, the new product divides some of the pixels diagonally to grasp the height of the subject. The company explained that the’auto focus’ performance is improved when shooting subjects and backgrounds with many horizontal patterns.
IsoCell GN2’s feature is that it can take 12-megapixel photos in dark places. In order to receive a lot of light, the’Tetra Pixel’ technology was used to tie four pixels together. IsoCell GN2 also reduces power consumption by 24% by quickly transferring and processing image information to an AP (application processor). Deok-Hyun Jang, head of the sensor business team at Samsung Electronics (Vice President), emphasized that “it contains all of the innovative technologies.”
The image sensor market is growing. According to market research firm TSR, the market size is expected to increase by 22.1% from this year (20.4 billion dollars) to 24.9 billion dollars (about 27.700 billion dollars) in 2024. This is because the number of high-pixel cameras in smartphones is increasing.
Samsung Electronics is planning to “catch up with Sony” in earnest with Isocell GN2. The market share gap was 25.3 percentage points last year (Sony 45.1%, Samsung Electronics 19.8%), down 5.1 percentage points from 2019 (30.4 percentage points). Recently, Samsung Electronics is actively expanding its image sensor line, and Chinese customers are also increasing, so it is expected that the gap will narrow to the 10% point this year.
Reporter Hwang Jeong-soo [email protected]
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