About Entertain

Today’s image sensor technology developments and their related supply chains are quickly becoming bottlenecks for successful (global) business development by European SME’s and LE’s competing in high-end camera/vision markets such as live television Broadcast and Machine Vision, and in particular semiconductor metrology and electronics manufacturing.

To address these challenges, partners in project ENTERTAIN will combine forces to build up and maintain in-house CMOS image sensor technologies, image sensor design, -test and -application expertise. The goal is to (a) create together production volumes that make and keep in-house development economically feasible, (b) remain interesting enough for foundries to get access to the latest CMOS image sensor technologies, and (c) develop European based cutting edge imaging based solutions for Machine Vision with a focus on metrology, Broadcast with a focus on live television productions, and consumer applications (AR/VR, computing, IoT).

To connect both market needs and technology gaps, the team will collaborate on the following innovations:

1. New image sensor business model allowing for the leverage of partner IPs while designing new CMOS image sensors.
2. Control of supply chain for low-volume CMOS image sensors by jointly working with foundries.
3. Next technologies for CMOS image sensor designs addressing four new sensor technology innovations: (a) 2D stitching, (b) embedded (sensor) compression, (b) broadening the captured spectrum from 1100nm to 1500+nm for Machine Vision, Broadcast and Consumer (AR/VR), and (d) improved small global shutter pixels.
4. New CMOS image sensor designs such as large pixel array sensors with high frame speeds, low noise and high dynamic range for high-end metrology/broadcast applications, and lower power consumption sensors for AR/VR (consumer).
5. Next steps in wafer probing and final testing of large format image sensors through creation of commonality in testing of different partner CMOS image sensor devices for a resilient supply chain.

The proposed collaboration on CMOS image sensor development will have multiple impacts. (a) It will allow European SME/LE’s to becomes less dependent on the limited number of CMOS image sensor suppliers and allow them stay in control of the right set of image sensor specifications for high-end camera applications, thus enabling them to offer unique products in the Broadcast and Machine Vision markets. (b) It may enable next generation metrology solutions for semiconductor lithography to keep up with Moore’s Law. (c) Through collaboration, all partners will adopt new technologies faster and mature new designs earlier. (d) Investments can be spread over partners and combining volumes will make the partners more interesting for the foundry, hence secure access to the new(er) technologies with lowered business risk. Lastly, (e) the proposed collaboration lays the foundation for future collaboration on for instance wafer level stacking and smaller technology nodes. All these together will help the partners compete on the cutting-edge of CMOS image sensor and image capture technologies and products in their respective markets.