New Generation EXview HAD CCD Ultrahigh-Sensitivity Near Infrared Structure
Diagonal 6 mm (Type 1/3) 380K/440K-Effective Pixel CCD Image Sensors
ICX658AKA(NTSC), ICX658ALA(EIA)
ICX659AKA(PAL), ICX659ALA(CCIR)
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Diagonal 6 mm (Type 1/3)
Higher sensitivity is a never-ending theme, especially in image sen-
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Near infrared sensitivity: +4.5 dB higher
than earlier Sony products at the 950
nm wavelength
sors for surveillance cameras.
Until now, to respond to these needs, Sony has provided a lineup of
EXview HAD CCD image sensors that displayed the industry's top
level of sensor sensitivity.
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Excellent compatibility with earlier
Sony products
*
: EXview HAD CCD is a trademark of Sony Corporation.
Sony has refined this EXview HAD CCD technology even further and
has succeeded in developing technologies that improve sensitivity,
especially sensitivity in the near infrared, significantly.
Now, Sony has developed the ICX658/659 image sensors that adopt
these leading edge Sony technologies as CCD image sensors for sur-
veillance cameras, especially day/night cameras.
propriate for imaging with LED and other
near infrared light sources. See table 2 for
a comparison of imaging characteristics.
ICX658/659 spectral sensitivity character-
istics and figure 2 shows the spectral char-
acteristics of the increases in sensitivity
provided by the ICX658/659 with the
ICX258/259.
The ICX658AKA/659AKA and
ICX658ALA/659ALA (ICX658/659) are
diagonal 6 mm (Type 1/3) 380K/440K-
effective pixel color and B/W CCD
image sensors developed for use in sur-
veillance cameras.
The ICX658/659 image sensors were
developed with the particular goal of
increasing the near infrared sensitivity. It
is in day/night cameras that the ICX658/
659 can exhibit the true value of their high
near infrared sensitivity.
High Near Infrared Sensitivity
In the ICX658/659, Sony improved on the
conventional photodiode and developed
a structure with an even higher photoelec-
tric conversion efficiency. This structure
succeeds in capturing even more of the
near infrared region light that escapes to
the substrate side in normal CCD image
sensors.
The result is that the existing EXview
HAD CCD technology, which had the
industry's top level of high sensitivity for
surveillance CCDs has been evolved even
further, and these devices feature in-
creased sensitivity not only to visible light,
but in the near infrared region as well.
Compared to Sony’s conventional ICX258/
259 products, the ICX658/659 achieve
increased sensitivities of +10% in the vis-
ible range, and +4.5 dB in the near infra-
red (wavelength: 950 nm). (See photo-
graph 1.)
Excellent Compatibility with
Conventional Sony Products
The ICX658/659 were designed to mini-
mize as much as possible any difficulties
in their use as replacements for the
ICX258/259. In particular, the image size,
pixel counts, recommended drive timings,
pin configuration, and package are all
identical. (See table 1.)
We strongly recommend that customers
currently using the ICX258/259 look into
the performance of the new generation
EXview HAD CCD ICX658/659 image
sensors.
Furthermore, these image sensors are ap-
V
O
I
C
E
The performance of the CCD im-
age sensors used in monitoring
applications is directly linked to
the performance of these crime-
prevention cameras. Thus I found
this a rewarding development ef-
fort, since it may lead to a social
contribution in improved crime
prevention. I was just one of the
many people involved in this
project. I strongly urge that you
take advantage of the superb per-
formance of the ICX658/659, which
incorporate the enthusiasm and
spirit of many of us here at Sony.
We hope the ICX658/659, which can
make effective use of the near infrared
light invisible to the human eye, will make
new applications possible in the image
sensing field.
Figure 1 presents a comparison of the