Samsung Is Enhancing The Sharpness & Colour Of Smartphone Photos With New Technology

Samsung's smartphone business is booming and the tech giant is hoping to attract even more fans by improving the photo capture technology built into their devices. 

The new technology is called 'ISOCELL Plus' and it allows the CMOS image sensors built into Samsung smartphones to capture more light. As a result, the images captured with Samsung smartphones will be clearer and offer a more accurate representation of the view/subject smartphone photographers are trying to capture, even in situations where the light is less than ideal. 

In the current ISOCELL technology, the ISOCELL forms a barrier between pixels so each pixel can absorb/hold more light without it escaping to a neighbouring pixel. This is done by metal grids forming over photodiodes but this can lead to some loss in optical quality as metals tend to reflect and/or absorb the incoming light.

With the improved ISOCELL Plus technology, Samsung has replaced the metal barrier with a new material developed by Fujifilm which minimises optical loss and light reflection.

Commenting on the technology breakthrough, Naoto Yanagihara, corporate vice president of Fujifilm said: "This development is a remarkable milestone for us as it marks the first commercialization of our new material. Through continuous cooperation with Samsung, we anticipate to bring more meaningful innovation to mobile cameras."

The new ISOCELL Plus improves light sensitivity by up to 15% and colour quality is also improved significantly. The technology also enables image sensors to equip 0.8-micrometer (µm) and smaller-sized pixels without any loss in performance, something which Samsung says makes it an 'optimal solution for developing super-resolution cameras with over 20 megapixels'.

"Through close collaboration with Fujifilm, an industry leader in imaging and information technology, we have pushed the boundaries of CMOS image sensor technology even further," said Ben K. Hur, vice president of System LSI marketing at Samsung Electronics. "The ISOCELL Plus will not only enable the development of ultra-high-resolution sensors with incredibly small pixel  dimensions but also bring performance advancements for sensors with larger pixel designs."