Who said, “You Can’t Have the Best of Both Worlds?”

When I was growing up as a kid playing baseball, I remember agonizing over the choice between a new “Brooks Robinson” baseball glove or a new “Mickey Mantle” bat.  I was going to receive one as a birthday present and I wanted to have both, and yet remember being told, “You can’t have the best of both worlds.”  I wondered, “Why not, the store has both of them?”  Today I’m thinking, how does this apply to the world of image sensors?

If you’re reading this, it’s likely that you’re interested in the benefits and trade-offs of CCD and CMOS image sensors.  Those closest to the silicon, the designers and engineers who “live” in the world of holes and electrons come into work every day asking, “Why can’t you have the best of both worlds?” 

While there are a diverse set of imaging solutions, CCDs are often the technology of choice when superb image quality is required and CMOS is often the technology chosen when functionality is required.  CCDs typically offer advantages in image quality (pattern noise, cosmetic defects) whereas CMOS offers advantages in flexible read-out (frame rate and ROI).  At Truesense Imaging, we believe the co-existence of “both worlds” is viable - and necessary.

A week ago, we introduced two new high performance CCD products, the KAI-02170 and KAI-04070 Image Sensors.  And this week, we’ve announced the KAC-12040 Image Sensor, the first in a planned new family of CMOS devices that delivers the functionality that certain applications need – rolling and global shutter, very fast frame rate, NIR sensitivity and flexible read-out. 

Those of us in the industry listen to the voice of the customer and define CCD products and CMOS products along with the evaluation hardware and application notes that support them.  Coupled with our technical support and customer service, we deliver solutions that best solve customer problems. 

Our CMOS strategy at Truesense Imaging is focused – complement our CCD product portfolio by offering CMOS products for a broader product portfolio to meet a wider range of customer requirements. 

We’ve announced the KAC-12040 12 Megaplxel CMOS Image Sensor.  We’ve been testing its rolling shutter with Quad Full HD at 100 fps, capturing with global shutter at very fast frame rates, shooting in low light conditions, and testing its NIR performance.  We’re using its flexible read-out architecture with multiple regions of interest and interspersed video streams. 

We’re confident the KAC-12040 Image Sensor is well suited for Machine Vision, Intelligent Transportation Systems, Surveillance, and other applications that demand high functionality while delivering excellent image quality.  We’re excited to see the new ways customers will use this solution to solve other problems.   We’re excited, because when the customer wins, we all win.

Why can’t we have the best of both worlds?  We’re getting closer to answering that question with both high performance CCD and CMOS products.  And I can tell you one thing for sure, in our company there’s no “us” and “them”, there’s only “all of us” and that includes you.