Sony Corporation has launched a new image sensor for smartphones and other devices that require increasingly better cameras and thinner form factors.

 The IMX318 is a type 1/2.6 stacked CMOS image sensor with 22.5 effective megapixels, and it boasts a more compact size, greater image quality, and higher performance.

This new Exmor RS is the industry's first1 to be equipped with built-in high-speed hybrid autofocus (“AF”), as fast as 0.03 seconds, and built-in 3-axis electronic image stabilization technology for video. Sony aims to begin shipments for this new CMOS image sensor in May, 2016.

The IMX318 features a stacked structure and the industry’s smallest unit pixels, which measure 1.0μm (micrometers) in size. With this, the image sensor achieves a compact, type 1/2.6 size suitable for inclusion into smartphones, while still realizing a high resolution of 22.5 effective megapixels, among the top in the industry.

This new image sensor not only boasts enhanced resolution, but it also matches its predecessor in image quality despite the IMX318’s smaller size and unit pixels (IMX230 predecessor model: type 1/2.4 sensor with 1.12μm unit pixel size).

Additionally, Sony has succeeded in equipping the IMX318 with cutting-edge digital imaging features, namely high speed built-in hybrid AF and 3-axis electronic image stabilization for video, a first1 for the industry. With this image sensor, the user can capture image stills of those decisive moments reliably in high quality, as well as high resolution video without fear of blur. – TradeArabia News Service