Apple reportedly advanced in the development of a revolutionary image sensor that could significantly improve the quality of photos in future iPhones. According to a well-known Chinese leakerand on the Weibo platform, appearing as Fixed Focus Digital, already Apple not only developed the new sensor, but is already testing it. The basic idea of the technology Apple outlined in a patent entitled "Image Sensor With Stacked Pixels Having High Dynamic Range And Low Noise", which he filed last month. In the document Apple describes a sensor capable of capturing up to 20 exposure steps of dynamic range. Simultaneous smartphones usually handle between 10 and 13 stepsThe human eye is estimated to have a range of 20 to 30 steps, depending on conditions.
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Such a wide dynamic range would allow the iPhone to capture extremely high-contrast scenes (such as a person standing in front of a bright window) without over-exposing or losing detail in shadows. The patent describes a two-layer sensor architecture, where top layer (so-called sensor die) captures light, while bottom (logic die) processes signals, reduces noise and controls exposure. A key element is LOFIC (Lateral Overflow Integration Capacitor) system, which allows each pixel to process different levels of light simultaneously, eliminating the need for multiple exposures for HDR imagesAnother technological innovation concerns electronic noise suppression in real time, using built-in memory circuits in each pixel. These circuits measure thermal noise and eliminate it on-chip before the image is processed further. Until now Apple used CMOS sensors from Sony, which also already implement a two-layer arrangement, but Apple, as follows from the patent, plans a more compact and original solution.
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