Applications

Consumer Electronics

More than one billion communications devices such as mobile phones, smartphones, netbooks and laptop computers are produced every year; most modern products are unimaginable without a camera. facetvision's ultra-compact imaging solutions are addressing the most challenging market requirements – high-volume fabrication at low cost based on parallelized wafer processing, high resolution from VGA up to 8 megapixels and ultra-thin design featuring a total track length of only 50% compared to conventional single-aperture cameras enabling even slimmer portable communications devices.

Lifescience

The multi-aperture concepts developed by facetvision allow unconventional imaging and sensing devices especially suited to biomedical and life science applications. The ability to image areas of almost arbitrary size with a spatial resolution of 5µm without the need for time-consuming scanning is most valuable e.g. in nanotiter readers for pharmaceutical research or fluorescence microscopy in parallelized biopsy, accelerating the throughput and therefore the development time of drugs and medications. Furthermore, the ultra-thin system layout enables mobile devices for microscopy at the point of care. In combination with integrated illumination based on LED or OLED, hyperspectral imaging with high spatial resolution is also possible, to name only a few of the new design possibilities enabled by multi-aperture imaging.

Automotive

Cameras are ubiquitous in automotive applications powering driver assistance systems for security and comfort such as lane departure warning, automatic headlamp control, distance control, automatic traffic sign recognition, attention assist as well as rear, side and bird’s-eye view.

facetvision's optics solutions are based on special polymers able to withstand temperatures as high as 260°C as required during reflow soldering, therefore meeting the challenging environmental requirements of automotive applications in addition to low-cost high-volume production, ultra-thin design and high resolution ranging from CIV to 8 megapixels. Furthermore, the appearance of the camera enables easy and almost invisible integration in the interior of the car, omitting the "big brother" feeling.

Sensors / Machine Vision

Applications and with them demands on optical imaging sensors are diversified, covering a wide spectrum dealing with high-resolution large-area document authentication to low-cost & low-profile navigation sensors, to name just a few. facetvision's multi-aperture concepts increase the flexibility in the design of machine vision cameras and optical sensors by overcoming the restrictions of conventional single-aperture cameras in miniaturization, resolution, sensible wavelength spectrum, field of view, environmental stability, cost and simplified integration into complex machines. Examples range from low-resolution ultra-thin imaging sensors for low-cost high-volume production (40k pixel, 300µm thickness) to high-resolution large-area close-up imaging systems (17 megapixels, 5.3mm thickness, 24x36mm² simultaneously examined area, 5µm spatial resolution).