Samsung announces ISOCELL image sensor brand at MWC Shanghai

Mobile World Congress Shanghai is kicking off in full force with Samsung announcing their new image sensor brand: ISOCell.

Named after their image sensor technology which was first introduced in 2013. The brand is being launched to gain traction in the expanding image sensor market that’s currently dominated by Sony with their Exmor sensors.

What is ISOCell? Samsung says that ISOCell technology allows for higher colour fidelity and image quality with smaller pixels. How does it do this? By separating each pixel into a physical barrier which then reduces ‘colour crosstalk’ or bleeding among pixels.

Samsung has announced four categories of ISOCell they will be working on:

• ISOCELL Bright sensors deliver bright and sharp images with high color fidelity and reduced noise in low light environments
• ISOCELL Fast sensors provide fast autofocus onto still or moving objects even when dark
• ISOCELL Slim sensors adopt the smallest pixel sizes available in the market at 0.9-1.0um, yet produce high quality images for the slimmest devices
• ISOCELL Dual sensors can be mixed and matched in various combinations on consumer devices to bring about features demanded in the latest dual camera trend

Ben Hur, Vice President of System LSI marketing at Samsung Electronic said of the launch:

Samsung ISOCELL is a brand that represents the essence of our leading pixel technologies. We expect the ISOCELL brand to help consumers easily acknowledge and confide in camera performance as well as overall quality of the device. With our advanced image sensor technologies, Samsung will continue to bring innovation to cameras used in smartphones and other applications.

Of course with a big marketing push like this, Samsung will be using ISOCell sensors in their next flagship phone to promote it. That of course means we’ll see an ISOCell sensor in the Galaxy Note 8 – and for our money, that means a dual sensor setup.

Samsung hasn’t announced any products as yet, but we may be seeing them sooner rather than later.