STMicroelectronics announces ST BrightSense image sensor ecosystem

     ST introduces a plug-and-play image sensor application development hardware, evaluation camera modules, and software ecosystem that helps simplify application development based on ST BrightSense Global shutter image sensors. Enable developers to design large-scale industrial and consumer products with ST BrightSense image sensors to ensure excellent shooting performance. Different from the traditional roller shutter image sensor, the global shutter image sensor can simultaneously expose all pixels, shoot fast-moving objects, the image will not be distorted, and when equipped with a fill light system, it can significantly reduce power consumption.

     The ST BrightSense CMOS global shutter sensor uses advanced backlit pixel technology and is manufactured at ST's own facility in France. Excellent image sharpness can capture local image details in applications such as barcode scanning, and high sensitivity can enhance low-light shooting performance and support fast shooting, enhancing the response speed of applications such as obstacle avoidance for mobile robots and face recognition for personal electronic devices. The sensor's advanced 3D stack structure significantly reduces the chip area, making it easy to integrate into any space-limited product design, especially in the terminal lens module, while bringing advanced on-chip image processing capabilities to the product for automatic exposure, image correction and calibration. The MIPI-CSI-2 interface makes it ideal for embedded vision and edge AI devices.

     Whereas ST's cutting-edge sensor technology used to be available only to select customers, the ST BrightSense portfolio now offers a variety of markets access to this advanced image technology, with industrial-grade product quality and a 10-year product supply guarantee. With more than one billion ST BrightSense image sensors shipped, product quality is self-evident, and with the increased market accessibility of these sensors, developers are able to bring high-performance machine vision technology to a variety of applications that face tight size and power constraints and challenging operating conditions. These include factory automation, scanning equipment, home robots, industrial robots, VR/AR devices, traffic monitoring and medical devices.

     In ST's new mass market solution, the evaluation camera module includes an image sensor, a lens holder, a lens and a plug-and-play flexible connector that allows rapid integration of the image sensor. The modules are available in a variety of sizes, with a minimum of 5mm2, as well as a variety of lenses to suit different application needs, and provide a plug-and-play connector for easy sensor replacement. A suite of hardware tools helps developers integrate sensors on a variety of desktop and embedded computing platforms. On the ST website, developers can download free accompanying software tools, such as GUI computer software and Linux drivers that help developers integrate sensors into popular processing platforms such as the STM32MP2 microprocessor.

     The ST BrightSense Global Shutter family of image sensors currently includes the VD55G0, VD55G1 and VD56G3 monochrome sensors with resolutions ranging from 380,000 to 1.5 million pixels, and the VD66GY color image sensor with 1.5 million pixels. These sensors and evaluation camera modules and development boards are currently in production.