This Tiny Chip Just Set the Guinness World Record for the Smallest Image Sensor

octubre 22, 2019

This Tiny Chip Just Set the Guinness World Record for the Smallest Image Sensor

Behold the smallest commercially available image sensor in the world, as confirmed by Guinness World Record. Created by OmniVision for medical imaging, the 40-kilopixel (200 x 200 pixels) image sensor inside the tiny camera seen above measures just 0.575mm x 0.575mm, and will allow doctors to see inside the narrowest blood vessels in the human body.

The OmniVision OV6948 is the model number of the world’s smallest image sensor, and it fits inside the OVM6948 CameraCubeChip: a “wafer-level camera module” that measures just 0.65mm x 0.65mm x 1.158mm.

The 1/36-inch backside-illuminated CMOS sensor offers an effective resolution of 200 x 200 pixels… which might not sound like much, but is plenty for the suggested applications. In the CameraCubeChip module, it offers a 120-degree field of view, an “extended focus range” of 3mm – 30 mm, and is capable of capturing 40-kilopixel resolution images and video at up to 30fps.

“Previously, procedures in the body’s smallest anatomy were performed either blind or using low-quality images from fiberscopes, as existing cameras were too big and reusable endoscopes were not cost effective,” says Aaron Chiang, marketing director at OmniVision, in the company’s press release. “The OVM6948 wafer-level camera module offers a compact, high-quality solution for disposable guidewires, catheters and endoscopes.”

Sure, you won’t be using this tiny image sensor and camera to capture sweeping landscapes or professional headshots, but it’s an incredible technological feat all the same. To learn more about this crazy little image sensor, head over to the OmniVision website.

(via Engadget)

Image credits: Photographs courtesy of OmniVision.