Deep tech Prophesee announces partnership with Sony for its neuromorphic sensor

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The French start-up Prophesee announced the fourth generation of its Metavision sensor on February 19, 2020. This is a major development developed thanks to a partnership with Sony. "We are very proud to have been chosen by Sony, declares to L'Usine Digitale Luca Verre, co-founder and CEO of Prophesee. This new sensor will combine our neuromorphic technology with the highly advanced manufacturing capabilities of Sony, which is the market leader in CMOS sensors. "

Three years of joint research

This partnership follows joint research undertaken since 2017, the results of which were presented by Prophesee at the International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC), which is currently taking place in San Francisco. The new sensor takes advantage of Sony's stacking technology. Rather than having an image sensor placed next to the logic circuit, it is positioned directly above it and the two are interconnected by copper pads. This technology was announced by the Japanese in December 2016.

10 times more compact

 "By placing the photodiode above the circuit, we were able to reduce the effective area of ​​the sensor by a factor of 10, enthuses Luca Glass. This will allow us to enter markets requiring much larger volumes, such as smart health connected objects, surveillance, robotics and virtual and augmented reality headsets. " A reduction in size which is mechanically accompanied by a drop in the manufacturing cost, even if the partners have not yet communicated on the price of the sensor. "It will be close to the price of conventional sensors on the market"Luca Glass comments.

In addition to the size of the sensor, its performance will also see a leap forward. Its resolution is now 1280 x 720, and its pixels are each 4.86 microns long. Its dynamic range is 124 dB, and the noise reduction technologies developed by Sony allow it to operate even in low light conditions (40 millilux).

Very high speed event detection

The principle of the sensor is otherwise always the same: the pixels are independent of each other and asynchronous, so that each pixel is only activated if it detects a change in the scene under observation. This so-called "event-based" approach allows information to be captured much faster than with a traditional image sensor, without generating large amounts of data and consuming a lot of energy. In this case, this new sensor will be able to capture 100,000 events per second by consuming 32 milliwatts or 300 million events per second by consuming 73 mW.

The date of marketing has not been communicated, but the first samples will arrive on the market in 2020. Questioned by us about the strategic dimension of the partnership for the future of Prophesee, Luca Verre responds cautiously. "We will continue to innovate and disrupt the market. Our path can be with them or with other partners."

Julien Bergounhoux

 @JBergounhoux 

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