Medical image sensor improves image quality for endoscopes

OmniVision Technologies, Inc. has launched the OH0TA OVMed medical image sensor with a package size of 0.55 x 0.55 mm, featuring a 1.0-micron pixel and a 1/31” optical format. This is smaller than the predecessor, which holds the Guinness World Record for “The Smallest Image Sensor Commercially Available” with a size of 0.575 × 0.575 mm.

The OH0TA also quadruples the RGB image resolution to 400 x 400, or 160 Kpixels, at 30 frames per second (fps), while reducing the power consumption by 20% to 20 mW. This allows improved imaging for single-use and reusable endoscopes, as well as catheters and guidewires, with a small outer diameter of 1-2 mm. It also enables medical device OEMs to create a larger-diameter scope with a larger working channel.

“The OH0TA’s increased resolution allows higher quality color images to be captured from within the body’s smallest organs, enabling medical devices to reach deeper into the body for procedures such as neuro, ophthalmic, ENT, cardiac, spinal, urology, gynecology and arthroscopy, as well as dental and veterinary diagnosis and surgery,” said OmniVision. “Additionally, the sensor’s lower power consumption reduces “chip on tip” camera heat for greater patient comfort and longer procedure durations, while also reducing noise for crisper images.”

The improved resolution along with a smaller pixel size and optical format of the OH0TA is thanks to OmniVision’s PureCel Plus-S stacked die technology. This pixel technology also provides higher color fidelity, excellent low light sensitivity of 3600 mV/lux-sec, and a high signal-to-noise ratio of 37.5 dB for crisper images. Other benefits of the PureCel Plus-S include a higher full well capacity (FWC), zero blooming, and lower power consumption.

Other key features include a 15.5 degree chief ray angle, enabling the use of lenses with high fields of view and short focus distances. It also supports a 4-wire interface and raw analog data output, both of which can transmit via cables as long as four meters with minimal signal noise, said OmniVision.

For backward compatibility, this sensor interfaces with OmniVision’s existing OV426 analog-to-digital-conversion bridge chip. It also is autoclavable for reusable endoscope sterilization.

Samples of the OH0TA are available in OmniVision’s hCSP chip-scale package with 100-micron thick cover glass and an anti-reflective coating.