600MP for the masses? Samsung outlines its plans for the image sensors of the future

Samsung's executive vice-president (EVP) of its System LSI division, Yongin Park, has released an editorial outlining this OEM's ambitions and aims for the future of its image-sensor concern. Yongin Park also highlighted his company's role as a trailblazer in this field: for example, it was the first to produce a 64MP camera, followed by a next generation upgraded to 108MP soon after.

This component - the ISOCELL Bright HM1 that is found in certain super-premium phones - has pixels of 0.7 micrometers (μm) in size, and was developed at a time when it was thought 0.8μm was the best that could have been done in this regard. However, in doing so, Samsung effectively threw a huge gauntlet in the path of the HM1's own successors.

In other words, the next generation of such sensors will have even more to do to get even better-quality images out of pixels that are at least as small. This is because they are also ideally required to have a small footprint themselves: otherwise, they would not be able to fit in the relatively small modules found on the backs of phones.

On that note, the Samsung EVP also referenced this OEM's plans to get the same sensors on devices besides smartphones. This might involve breaking into the markets for cameras made for drones, autonomous vehicles and IoT devices. Park believes that, by the time this has been done, the company will be able to offer manufacturers options with resolutions of up to an incredible 600MP.