With plans to achieve volume production of global shutter and single photon avalanche diodes (SPADs) before the end of 2023, South Korea-based DB HiTek is accelerating its growth within the areas of autonomous vehicles and augmented reality (AR) to improve profitability.
A global shutter is a sensor that captures images of fast-moving subjects without distortion. This is actively applied to machine vision, a technology that enables a computing device to inspect, evaluate and identify still and moving images.
DB HiTek’s global shutter benefits from an advanced technology that enables 99.997% (less than 1/10,000 for noise occurrence) of global shutter efficiency (GSE) by applying light shield and light guide technologies to prevent optical signal distortion. This enables the company’s solution to realize a minimum pixel size of 2.8 micrometers.
SPADs are supersensitive 3D image sensors capable of detecting weak light signals at a photon level. They are a crucial component of AV lidar technology due to their high level of precision and long-distance measurement capability.
DB HiTek’s SPAD process can detect photons in probabilities of 3.2% from front-side illumination (FSI) and 7% from back-side illumination (BSI) based on a wavelength of 940nm. The company aims to raise the photon detection probability to 15% in the future by using a process called backside deep trench isolation (BDTI). This will minimize light loss and improve optical performance.
“We are focusing on the product development with the leading global companies of the industry based on the global shutter and SPAD process, and targeting to have volume production within the year,” explained Cheonman Shim, vice president of marketing at DB HiTek. “Our plan is to strengthen support for customers to enter the market at the right time by providing an optimum sophisticated process and process design kit (PDK).”
