Notes

1/3” CMOS image sensors can offer good low light performance, but 1/3” CMOS sensors utilize a rolling shutter as compared to global shutter available in CCD and larger CMOS image sensors. Currently rolling shutter is not well received in the industrial and military applications as a blurring effect occurs with movement. Global shutter CMOS is more complex and will take further development to shrink for smaller pixels.

For now, 1/2” image sensors provide a sweet spot for many global security applications with acceptable sensitivity and the ability to use small, low cost optics. As I mentioned, for more demanding applications, 2/3” image sensors may be required.

HD image sensor size comparison

Figure 2: Summary of the benefits of different full HD sensor sizes


In the near future 1/3” full-HD image sensors may become more interesting as the optics are improved to allow for additional reductions in SWaP-C. Further testing may show that rolling shutter is acceptable in outdoor, moving applications with higher frame rates, such as 100 fps, so that the blurring effect is not evident