A VIEW FROM THE UKIVA

摘要

What a difference a year makes. It was only about a year ago that the major talking point in the machine vision world was the announcement from Sony that it would cease production at its 200mm wafer fab for CCDs in 2017. Amid consternation from camera manufacturers, vision systems integrators and end users alike, Sony confirmed that delivery would be guaranteed for some sensors into 2020 and others into 2026. This was intended to give users of CCD cameras enough lead time to ensure the supply for long-term projects or to switch to CMOS technology. However, with the emergence of a whole range of high performance CMOS sensors from the leading sensor manufacturers (including Sony themselves) during 2015, many are wondering what all the fuss was about? Whilst CMOS sensors have traditionally struggled to match the image quality of their CCD counterparts, some of those launched in 2015 have surpassed the equivalent CCDs in terms of noise and dynamic range. With their ability to support higher frame rates and traditionally lower costs, this is leading to higher speed cameras with higher resolution. The overall benefit for users is the ability to image smaller details at higher speed at generally lower price points.