Sony introduces new IMX318 22.5MP sensor with fast auto-focus, 3-axis video stabilization and more

Sony has announced a new Exmor R sensor for smartphones dubbed the IMX318. The new sensor comes in with many features such as a lightning fast auto-focus and a 3-axis video stabilization, which includes a 1/2.6 type sensor with an effective resolution of 22.5MP respectively. Sony stated in a press statement that as smartphones grow ever thinner, so too are image sensors growing increasingly compact. In line with this trend, the company has developed a miniscule 1.0μm pixel sensor that, despite its small size, realizes high image quality. It adds that Sony employed manufacturing technology that improves light utilization efficiency, as well as circuit design technology that eliminates noise, a root cause of deterioration in image quality.

The sensor is said to be a lot smaller than its predecessors and is also touted as the industry’s first image sensor with built-in hybrid AF, which is as fast as 0.03 seconds. Sony also explains that the new fast hybrid auto-focus merges image plane phase detection AF with contrast detection AF and has previously been implemented through the combination of an image sensor and an application processor. The IMX318 will also be the world’s first stacked CMOS image sensor with hybrid AF built into the sensor’s internal signal processor, explains Sony. Sony believes that it will be able to ship these sensors out by May this year. The IMX318 sensor should start making an appearance in high-end smartphones and other devices later this year.