The release of Samsung’s ISOCELL Bright HMX in 2019 marked the introduction of the industry’s first 108MP mobile image sensor, but the innovation didn’t stop there. In 2020, Samsung introduced the ISOCELL Bright HM1, which has set a new standard for mobile image sensors. Enabling industry-leading pixel counts, the ISOCELL Bright HM1 produces such fine detail that even zoomed-in-upon sections of pictures remain crisp and clear. The image sensor additionally includes a range of features that allow its outstanding performance to be brought to a wide range of capturing environments.

The video below illustrates how the ISOCELL Bright HM1 captures details of the natural world that would ordinarily be missed by the human eye, delivering stunningly realistic photography, all on your smartphone:

A Whole New Standard of Detail 

When it comes to taking crisp, intricately detailed pictures, pixel-count is of enormous importance. An image sensor is responsible for detecting and converting light into image information, and the ISOCELL Bright HM1 is capable of converting light information into images that are comprised of 108 million effective pixels. This means that smartphone cameras are now capable of taking pictures with a standard of resolution that would usually only be seen in photos taken with a professional-grade camera. The images produced are so intricately detailed that, even when one smaller section of the picture is enlarged due to zooming or cropping, that individual section still appears extremely sharp.

But the ISOCELL Bright HM1 doesn’t just produce a lot of pixels – it incorporates innovative pixel isolation technology to make those pixels act intelligently as well. ISOCELL Plus technology allows for individual pixels to be isolated with physical barriers, thus allowing them to gather in more light. This advanced technology also allows for pixel performance to be maximized despite the pixels’ small size, while significantly reducing crosstalk, optical loss and light reflection.

Innovative Pixel Transformation

Pixel-binning is a process that allows an image sensor to combine adjoining pixels in order to improve light absorption capabilities. This process means that the image sensor can take ultra-high resolution shots during the day, and then, in low-light environments such as at night, it can combine adjacent pixels into a single larger pixel to produce brighter, clearer images with reduced noise.

Following Samsung’s success with Tetrapixel* binning technology – which involves merging four pixels together into a two-by-two array – the ISOCELL Bright HM1 has introduced Nonapixel* technology. Nonapixel involves combining nine neighboring pixels into one to more than double the light absorption capabilities offered by Tetrapixel technology, and ensure that photos taken at night are bright, lack noise, and maintain excellent resolution.

Zoom Like Never Before

The ISOCELL Bright HM1 allows you to see up close without compromising on quality. With the use of Samsung’s innovative new image sensor, users can capture close-up images at up to 3X zoom without upscaling. Images caught at 3X zoom will maintain high-quality 12MP resolution, and zoomed in sections can additionally be previewed on-screen without upscaling.

This kind of ‘lossless zoom’ is made possible, firstly, by the image sensor’s ultra-high resolution, by which the sheer number of pixels in each individual shot allows a zoomed-in-upon section to maintain excellent resolution. The feature is additionally enabled by the image sensor’s ability to remap pixels in three-by-three arrays into RGB patterns itself, instead of having to outsource the task to a mobile processor. This direct pixel remapping is enabled by embedded hardware IP built right into the image sensor.

Intelligent ISO Selection for Each Unique Moment

Native-ISO is responsible for determining the sensitivity of the image sensor. However, simply incorporating one fixed-native-ISO into an image sensor limits the solution’s ability to adapt to a range of lighting situations. Thus, the ISOCELL Bright HM1 incorporates ‘Smart-ISO’ technology, which allows the image sensor to intelligently cater ISO selection to each unique lighting environment it is faced with.

With the use of Smart-ISO technology, optimal dynamic range and reduced noise can be brought to a vast range of shooting environments. While low ISO is effective in well-lit environments, high ISO is better suited to low-light settings. For brightly lit shots, low ISO extends a wider dynamic range towards bright sections in order to capture them in far more detail. If the camera was forced to utilize a higher native-ISO in a bright setting, the signal would be over-amplified, meaning that color information with values close to white could be lost. In low-light conditions, high native-ISO extends a greater dynamic range towards the dark sections of the shot, illuminating more detail in those areas.

Take Professional-Grade Photography into Your Hands

While delivering industry-leading pixel counts and innovative new pixel optimization technology, the ISOCELL Bright HM1 equips your smartphone camera with lossless zoom and intelligently caters its settings to ensure that you capture great photos in a wide range of settings.

Enjoy intelligent, industry-leading photography right in your pocket as the ISOCELL Bright HM1 takes smartphone photography to new heights.

* Technological terms of “Nonapixel” and “Tetrapixel” were updated in July 2022.

Yongin Park, EVP, Head of Sensor Business Team, System LSI Business

Taking pictures or videos throughout the day has become part of our normal lifestyles and no longer done just to capture special events. Whip out your mobile camera to immortalize a delectable-looking meal, to record your latest dance moves, or even just when you’re having a good hair day, and you’re ready to share your images with friends right away. These seamless experiences have become possible thanks to remarkable advancements in recent mobile photography, and at the very heart of this revolution is the mobile chips that transform light into digital data – image sensors.

The image sensors we ourselves perceive the world through – our eyes – are said to match a resolution of around 500 megapixels (Mp). Compared to most DSLR cameras today that offer 40Mp resolution and flagship smartphones with 12Mp, we as an industry still have a long way to go to be able to match human perception capabilities.

Simply putting as many pixels as possible together into a sensor might seem like the easy fix, but this would result in a massive image sensor that takes over the entirety of a device. In order to fit millions of pixels in today’s smartphones that feature other cutting-edge specs like high screen-to-body ratios and slim designs, pixels inevitably have to shrink so that sensors can be as compact as possible.

On the flip side, smaller pixels can result in fuzzy or dull pictures, due to the smaller area that each pixel receives light information from. The impasse between the number of pixels a sensor has and pixels’ sizes has become a balancing act that requires solid technological prowess.

Cutting-Edge Pixel Technologies

Drawing from the technology leadership and experience our memory business possesses, Samsung has been managing to expertly navigate this balance in our image sensors. In May 2019, we were able to announce the industry’s first 64Mp sensor, and just six months later, brought 108Mp sensors to the market.

For our latest 108Mp image sensor, the ISOCELL Bright HM1, we implemented our proprietary ‘Nonapixel* technology,’ which dramatically increases the amount of light absorption pixels are capable of. Compared to previous Tetrapixel* technology which features a 2×2 array, the 3×3 pixel structure of Nonapixel technology allows, for instance, nine 0.8μm pixels to function as one 2.4-μm pixel. This also mitigates the issue raised by low-light settings where light information is often scarce.

In 2019, Samsung was also the first to introduce image sensors based on 0.7μm pixels. The industry had considered 0.8μm as the smallest possible size pixels could be reduced to, but to our engineers, ‘technological limitations’ are just another challenge that motivates their innovation.

Sensors that Go Beyond Our Senses

Most cameras today can only take pictures that are visible to the human eye at wavelengths between 450 and 750 nanometers (nm). Sensors able to detect light wavelengths outside of that range are hard to come by, but their use can benefit a wide range of areas. For example, image sensors equipped for ultraviolet light perception can be used for diagnosing skin cancer by capturing pictures to showcase healthy cells and cancerous cells in different colors. Infrared image sensors can also be harnessed for more efficient quality control in agriculture and other industries. Somewhere in the future, we might even be able to have sensors that can see microbes not visible to the naked eye.

Not only are we developing image sensors, but we are also looking into other types of sensors that can register smells or tastes. Sensors that even go beyond human senses will soon become an integral part of our daily lives, and we are excited by the potential such sensors have to make the invisible visible and help people by going beyond what our own senses are capable of.

Aiming for 600Mp for All

To date, the major applications for image sensors have been in the smartphones field, but this is expected to expand soon into other rapidly-emerging fields such as autonomous vehicles, IoT and drones. Samsung is proud to have been leading the small-pixel, high-resolution sensor trend that will continue through 2020 and beyond, and is prepared to ride the next wave of technological innovation with a comprehensive product portfolio that addresses the diverse needs of device manufacturers. Through relentless innovation, we are determined to open up endless possibilities in pixel technologies that might even deliver image sensors that can capture more detail than the human eye.

* Technological terms of “Nonapixel” and “Tetrapixel” were updated in July 2022.

Samsung Electronics, a world leader in advanced semiconductor technology, today introduced its next-generation 108-megapixel (Mp) image sensor, Samsung ISOCELL Bright HM1. With a spectrum of light-enhancing technologies spanning from Nonapixel** and Smart-ISO to real-time HDR, ISOCELL Bright HM1 allows brighter and more detailed 108Mp photographs and crystal-clear 8K videos at 24 frames per second (fps), even under extreme lighting conditions.

“To capture meaningful moments in our lives, Samsung has been driving innovations in pixel and logic technologies that enable ISOCELL image sensors to take astounding photographs even when lighting conditions aren’t ideal,” said Yongin Park, executive vice president of the sensor business at Samsung Electronics. “By adopting Nonapixel and Smart-ISO technologies, the 108Mp ISOCELL Bright HM1 helps take vivid high-resolution pictures across a wide range of lighting environments.”

At a 1/1.33” scale with 108-million 0.8μm pixels, the ISOCELL Bright HM1 features the industry’s first state-of-the-art Nonapixel technology, which delivers brighter images in low-light settings. In 2017, Samsung introduced Tetrapixel,** a pixel-binning technology with a special two-by-two array that merges four neighboring pixels to work as a single large pixel. Nonapixel is an enhanced version of Tetrapixel with a three-by-three pixel structure. In the HM1, Nonapixel merges nine neighboring 0.8μm pixels to mimic a large 2.4μm pixel, more than doubling Tetrapixel’s light absorption.

As the number of adjoined cells increase, so does color interference, making pixel-binning technologies more challenging, While such difficulties had limited Nonapixel to a theory, the HM1 was able to realize the method by adopting Samsung’s ISOCELL Plus technology, which dramatically reduces crosstalk and minimizes optical loss as well as light reflection.

For ultimate results under any lighting condition, the HM1 supplements Nonapixel with several other advanced pixel technologies. For example, the HM1’s Smart-ISO technology produces vivid and vibrant images by intelligently selecting the optimal ISO. High ISOs are used in darker settings while low ISOs are better for brighter environments to control light saturation.

In challenging mixed-light environments for photo-taking, the HM1’s real-time HDR technology optimizes exposures, producing more natural looking videos and still photographs. By assigning the most appropriate exposure lengths to each pixel, the HM1 is able to capture scenes in multiple exposures simultaneously, generating HDR images in real-time for both preview and capture modes. For sharper results, the HM1 supports a gyro-based electronic image stabilization (EIS) and Super-PD, an advanced phase detection technology for fast and accurate auto-focus.

The HM1 allows users to preview and capture full shots and close-ups of the subject at up to 3x lossless zoom, preserving the quality of the image. This is made possible by the sensor directly converting the pixels using an embedded hardware IP, rather than having the task delegated to the mobile processor. With 108-million pixels, the sensor is also able to produce images up to 3x zoom at a 12Mp resolution without upscaling.

Samsung ISOCELL Bright HM1 is currently in mass production.

* 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 terms of “Nonapixel” and “Tetrapixel” were updated in July 2022.