Australian researchers have helped develop a low cost 'camera-on-a-chip' that could lower the price of high-resolution digital cameras.
The chip-based image sensor, which was partly developed at Motorola's Australia Research Centre in Sydney, has been launched internationally by Motorola.
The low cost SXGA chip will be sold to digital still and video camera manufacturers for just US$22 each (AU$39) in lots of 10,000. It is also suitable for other imaging devices.
It is capable of providing images at up to 1.3-megapixel resolution (1280 x 1024) at about the same price as current low resolution (640 x 480) cameras.
A team of six Australian researchers, under the direction of Dr Xing Zhang, the Centre's Deputy Director and Leader of the Motorola Visual Information Processing Lab, have spent recent months working on the color correction, noise reduction, and image stabilisation of the sensor.
The idea of a camera on a chip was first developed at the University of South Australia before the original technology was taken to the United States to be further developed by Lucent's Bell Laboratories.
The technology was returned to Australia for further development at the newly opened Bell Laboratories R&D centre in Sydney in the late 1990s.
Motorola has been working on its own variation of the technology for some time and the launch of the new chip, known the MCM20027 SXGA image sensor, is expected to lead to price reductions in megapixel digital cameras.
Motorola describes the MCM20027 as 'a smart, DigitalDNA imaging solution containing both analogue and digital signal processing making it a cost-effective camera-on-a-chip.'
It uses Motorola's ImageMOS wafer process that utilises patented pinned photo diode and pixel design technology from Motorola and Kodak.
Motorola says the new image sensor features a unique pixel design, which provides improved fill factor versus die size.
Larry Arbaugh, global manager of Motorola's Image Capture Operations said the chip would enable camera manufacturers to develop higher-quality consumer products at affordable prices.
"The outcome of the work will lead to high quality and more intelligent CMOS imaging sensors," he said.
