Samsung has introduced the ISOCELL HP3 camera sensor, which is touted as the industry’s smallest 200MP sensor. It comes with 0.56-micrometer (μm)-pixels, which are 12% smaller than the 0.64 microns of the ISOCELL HP1 sensor, which was introduced last year. Check out the details below.
Samsung ISOCELL HP3 Details
The ISOCELL HP3 packs 200 million pixels in a 1/1.4” optical format and comes with the smallest pixels, allowing OEMs to keep their phones slim. The camera sensor’s diameter of the area enables a 20% smaller camera module surface area. That said, Omnivision has already unveiled a sensor with 0.56-micron pixels recently.
Besides the smallest pixel size, the ISOCELL HP3 comes with a few intriguing camera capabilities. The highlighting one is a Super QPD auto-focusing solution, which provides auto-focus powers to all of the sensor’s pixels. This functionality also uses a single lens instead of four-adjacent pixels for the detection of phase differences in both horizontal and vertical directions. This allows for more accurate and quicker auto-focusing.
For better low-light photography, the HP3 sensor comes with the Tetra pixel technology, which merges four pixels into one to convert the 0.56-micron 200MP sensor into the 1.12-micron 50MP sensor. It can also combine 16 pixels into one and convert it into a 2.24-micron 12.5MP sensor.
There’s also support for an improved Smart-ISO Pro for improved dynamic range. This feature supports triple ISO mode (low, mid, high) to widen the sensor’s dynamic range. It can also produce up to 4 trillion 14-bit colors. Additionally, the ISOCELL HP3 sensor comes with support for 8K at 30fps or 4K at 120fps.
The Samsung ISOCELL HP3 sensor will be mass-produced this year and we can expect it to ship with the Galaxy S23 series next year.
