Samsung ISOCELL image sensor Unveiled

Announcing the camera sensor called Isocell, Samsung gives clues about the future for its next high-end devices. It comes with improved light sensitivity, while reducing the size of the component.

If there are rumors of a 16-megapixel sensor to come in the Galaxy S5, it is another aspect of the sensor coming in the devices that Samsung brand has just released.

In designing the Isocell, the firm seeks to improve the quality of photos taken with mobile devices, optimizing the sensor's sensitivity to light, and effectively blocking the absorption of electrons, resulting in a higher color fidelity, even if the lighting conditions are not optimal.

To arrive at such a result, Samsung has set up a "physical barrier" between each pixel which has the sensor to enable them to absorb more photons. The noise is thus reduced by 30% according to the firm, which also optimizes sharpness, in addition to providing more accurate color to reality.

The approach also reduces the sensor size by 20%, according to Samsung. A sensor thinner should be found in future mobile devices brand, since mass production of Isocell will begin by the end of the year, in a 8-megapixel model to begin with.

Samsung's aim was to improve the resolution of the sensor and image quality without having to enlarge the case of a smartphone or a tablet, in which it is placed. Samsung has decided to go further than backlight technology of BSI (Back Side Illumination) sensor previously used by placing some sort of physical barrier between each pixel of the sensor.