Stunning Details with 108 Million Pixels

The ISOCELL HM3 packs in 108 million 0.8um-sized pixels that are optimized to enhance clarity, allowing it to capture images that are highly detailed. For enhanced light sensitivity and color fidelity, each pixel is improved with ISOCELL 2.0 technology, which is a new generation of Samsung’s pixel isolation technology. ISOCELL technology uses a physical barrier between neighboring pixels to reduce color interference and prevent optical loss. With ISOCELL 2.0, Samsung utilized upgraded materials between color filters to increase light sensitivity and improve color fidelity.

The ISOCELL HM3 also features Nonapixel technology, which elevates performance in low-light conditions. In low-light environments, the image sensor combines nine pixels into one, and together, these nine pixels produce a single, big-pixel-like effect, allowing the newly formed pixel to absorb more light and thus produce bright, clear photos with reduced noise. The sensor also includes an improved re-mosaic algorithm that allows it to rearrange its 108 million pixels to best effect in bright settings, ensuring that it delivers optimized image resolution.

Bring Images to Life with Vibrant Colors

A truly capable image sensor must be able to adjust to take high quality photos in a broad range of lighting environments. With Smart-ISO, the ISOCELL HM3 is equipped with two levels of conversion gain for high and low ISO modes, allowing the camera to intelligently select the optimal settings for the lighting condition.

When shooting in well-lit environments, the ISOCELL HM3 takes pictures in low ISO mode in order to express colors more vividly and reduce oversaturation. When taking photos in low-lit environments, however, the sensor switches to high ISO mode to ensure your photos come out bright and clear. What’s more, to further improve nighttime shooting capabilities, the ISOCELL HM3 employs multi-sampling technology, which reads a scene into multiple frames and produces an average read of the frames to reduce noise in your final image. As a result, you get crisp, clear nighttime shots with less grainy-looking noise.

And Smart-ISO Pro takes things a step further by allowing the user to capture outstanding images with a broad dynamic range in mixed light settings as well. In this situation, the image sensor combines readings from both low and high ISO to allow the sensor to produce a single high-quality image with 12-bit color depth. To widen dynamic range even further, the ISOCELL HM3 also includes a Staggered-HDR feature, a fast, power-efficient method of producing high-dynamic range images. Staggered-HDR uses rolling shutters over the same pixel arrays to capture multiple frames at short, middle, and long exposures and then send each row of pixels respectively to the mobile processor. As a result, you get clear, vivid images even in mixed-lighting scenarios, such as sunsets or when shooting indoors against a window.

Capture All Motion Clearly

Few things are more important than autofocus when it comes to capturing scenes that are in motion. Fortunately, the ISOCELL HM3 includes Super PD Plus, which employs micro-lenses that cover the phase detection focusing agents and produce fast, precise autofocus. With optimized curvature on the autofocus micro-lenses, this advanced phase detection autofocus (PDAF) in the ISOCELL HM3 allows users to keep fast-moving subjects in focus, even in dark environments, so that they can capture them in crystal-clear definition.

What’s more, the ISOCELL HM3 doesn’t miss a beat when it comes to capturing high-quality videos, either. Supporting 8K high-resolution video recording, the sensor allows users to capture stunningly detailed videos in crystal-clear clarity. This function allows users to capture slow-motion videos as well, with the sensor capable of taking 4K videos at 120 frames per second and capturing full HD videos at an incredibly slow 240 frames per second.

Let your image sensor elevate your smartphone photography to new heights. By putting the power to capture next-level photos and videos right there in your pocket, the ISOCELL HM3 is raising the bar for smartphone photography.

Samsung Electronics, a world leader in advanced semiconductor technology, today introduced four new Samsung ISOCELL image sensors for its 0.7 micrometer (μm)-pixel product lineup; 108-megapixel (Mp) ISOCELL HM2, 64Mp ISOCELL GW3, 48Mp ISOCELL GM5 and 32Mp ISOCELL JD1. With the new 0.7μm ISOCELL technology, Samsung plans to expand the ultra-high-resolution offerings to mainstream smartphones.

“Samsung continues to pioneer innovations, such as ISOCELL Plus and Smart ISO, to deliver more pixels in a smaller package,” said Yongin Park, executive vice president of the sensor business at Samsung Electronics. “Last year, Samsung introduced the industry’s first 0.7μm-pixel image sensor and the first 108Mp sensors. Now we are bringing more of the advanced pixel technologies to mobile cameras in a variety of options that will enable high-resolution images and sleeker designs in a wider selection of tomorrow’s mobile devices.”

For ultra-high-resolution image sensors, even a mere 0.1μm-difference per pixel can have a significant impact on the overall size of the sensor as well as the height of the camera module. With pixels at 0.7μm, Samsung’s newest image sensors are up to 15-percent smaller than the 0.8μm sensors of the same resolution and reduce the height of the camera module by up to 10 percent. Smaller form factors give smartphone manufacturers more flexibility, such as added features or more streamlined designs, when developing their next-generation devices.

To collect an ample amount of light and increase the full well capacity despite the minute pixel sizes, Samsung has incorporated its advanced ISOCELL Plus and Smart-ISO technologies, especially optimized for 0.7μm. ISOCELL Plus retains the received light with a wall-like structure around the pixel while Smart-ISO makes full use of the incoming light by intelligently adjusting the ISO accordingly for optimal exposure.

In the latest 0.7μm products to be introduced later this year, Samsung will start rolling out an enhanced pixel technology, ISOCELL 2.0, which allows excellent performance despite the challenges with decreasing pixel sizes. The new technology further enhanced the wall structure between cells, resulting in added light sensitivity of up to 12 percent compared to the current ISOCELL Plus technology.

The New 0.7μm Lineup;

• ISOCELL HM2 is Samsung’s third 108Mp image sensor following the HMX and HM1. The new 108Mp-sensor is around 15-percent smaller than the 0.8μm-based predecessors, and reduces the height of the camera module by 10 percent. The HM2 features Super PD, a faster and more effective phase detecting auto focus solution, and like the HM1, comes with a nine-pixel binning technology as well as 3x lossless zoom.

• ISOCELL GW3 is a 64Mp-image sensor optimized for mainstream devices. Thanks to the smaller pixel size, the GW3’s optical size is nearly identical to that of Samsung’s 0.8μm 48Mp image sensor. In addition to Tetrapixel** and Smart-ISO technologies that help the sensor take bright images with high color fidelity, the GW3 is ideal for active lifestyles, featuring gyro-based electronic image stabilization (EIS) for sharper still photos and steadier videos. The image sensor supports video recording at up to 4K resolution at 60 frames-per-second (fps).

• ISOCELL GM5 is a versatile 48Mp-image sensor designed for use in telescoping or ultra-wide angle cameras. When used as a 5x optical telescoping sensor for folded-zoom, the GM5 takes full advantage of the compact 0.7μm pixel size that minimizes the camera bulge. For ultra-wide shots, the GM5 supports high-speed full-HD recording at 480fps. The sensor also offers a staggered-HDR feature, a faster and more power-efficient HDR technology that expedites image processing by sending a readout of long, medium, and short exposures of each row of pixels respectively to the mobile processor. As the readout is performed based on Tetrapixel’s 1.4μm two-by-two pixels, rather than at the individual 0.7μm-pixel level, staggered-HDR can provide brighter and clearer images with less noise.

• ISOCELL JD1 is the industry’s smallest 32Mp-image sensor at 1/3.14-inches, making it an ideal solution for smartphones with bezel-less displays that incorporate a hole-in-active-area or motorized pop-up mechanism for the front-facing camera. Even with 32-million pixels to capture a highly detailed selfie, the camera sits comfortably under the display as the height of the sensor’s camera module is comparable to those of 0.9μm 20Mp or 1.0μm 16Mp sensors. Like the GM5, the JD1 is also the one the first ISOCELL image sensors to offer staggered-HDR.

Samsung ISOCELL HM2, GW3 and JD1 are currently in mass production, and the company is sampling GM5.

* Samsung first announced its ISOCELL technology in 2013, which reduces color crosstalk between pixels by placing a physical barrier, allowing small-sized pixels to achieve higher color fidelity. Based on this technology, Samsung introduced the industry’s first 1.0um-pixel image sensor in 2015 and a 0.9-pixel sensor in 2017. In June 2018, Samsung introduced an upgraded pixel isolation technology, the ISOCELL Plus.

** Technological term of “Tetrapixel” was updated in July 2022.