Arizona electronics company OnSemi has introduced an image sensor family for smart homes and offices that can extend battery life by up to 40%.

The Hyperlux LP image sensor family suits industrial and commercial cameras such as smart doorbells, security cameras, AR, VR and XR headsets, machine vision, and video conferencing. These 1.4µm pixel sensors deliver image quality and low power consumption while increasing performance to capture crisp, vibrant images even in difficult lighting conditions.

A stacked architecture design reduces the sensors’ footprints and the smallest approaches the size of a grain of rice, making it suitable for devices where size is critical. Depending on the application, users can choose between the 5Mpixel AR0544, 8Mpixel AR0830 or the 20Mpixel AR2020.

Home and business owners continue to choose cameras to protect themselves more than any other security measure, with the market expected to triple by the end of the decade. As a result, consumers are demanding devices that offer better image quality, reliability and longer battery life to improve the overall user experience.

With the image sensors, cameras can deliver clearer images and more accurate object detection even in harsh weather and lighting conditions. Additionally, these cameras are often placed in locations that can be difficult to access to replace or recharge batteries, making low power consumption critical.

The wake on motion feature enables the sensors to operate in a low-power mode that draws a fraction of the power needed in the full-performance mode. Once the sensor detects movement, it moves to a higher performance state in less time than it takes to snap a photo.

Each delivers more than one region of interest (RoI) to give a context view of the scene at reduced bandwidth and a separate RoI in original detail.

Near-infra-red (NIR) performance delivers better image quality due to the silicon design and pixel architecture, with little supplemental lighting.

They reduce thermal noise that negatively impacts image quality and eliminate the need for heat sinks, reducing the overall cost of the vision system.

“By leveraging our superior analogue design and pixel architecture, our sensors elevate the two most important elements people consider when buying a device, picture quality and battery life,” said Ross Jatou, senior vice president at OnSemi (www.onsemi.com). “Our new image sensor family delivers performance that matters with a significantly increased battery life and exquisite, highly detailed images.”

In addition to smart home devices, another application is improving the office meeting experience with more intuitive, seamless videoconferencing.

“Our video collaboration requires high-quality image sensors that bring together multiple factors for the best user experience,” said Ashish Thanawala, senior director at Owl Labs. “The superior optical performance, innovative features and extremely low power consumption of the Hyperlux LP image sensors enable us to deliver a completely immersive virtual meeting experience in highly intelligent and optimised videoconferencing systems.

The Hyperlux LP image sensor family will be available before the end of the year.