Could this company challenge Sony's mobile sensor dominance?

Image: SmartSens

Anyone who spends time digging into which sensors power the cameras on flagship mobile phones will know that the industry has largely been dominated by a few main companies; Sony, Samsung and Omnivision. But recently, a company called SmartSens has been working on breaking into the market, and its latest sensor may be destined for some of the highest-end phones on the market.

The SC5A6XS is a 50MP Type 1 – well, technically Type 1/0.98 (128mm²) – stacked sensor, which the company says is capable of capturing 4K video at up to 120p, or up to 60p with HDR (which, in this case, likely means blending frames to capture wider dynamic range before outputting to SDR). SmartSens also says that can provide up to 19EV of dynamic range without the need for multiple exposures. While that's certainly impressive, and more than most smartphone sensors are currently quoted as providing, that figure should be taken with the same sizeable grains of salt reserved for whenever manufacturers talk about DR figures.

According to SmartSens, the SC5A6XS also performs well in low-light, and is efficient with its power use; an important consideration for mobile phone photography.

While there are a few 50MP Type 1 sensors out there, including from SmartSens itself (last year's SC5A5XS made its way into the Huawei Pura 80 Ultra), the company seems to be keeping up with the state-of-the-art when it comes to sensor design. The SC5A6XS uses LOFIC (lateral overflow integrating capacitance), which works similarly to the dual conversion gain designs we've seen in camera sensors, but with the additional capacitance being added in a later part of the readout circuit.

The latest LOFIC approach has the added benefit that you can capture a low-gain signal (for midtones and highlights), high-gain signal (for shadows) and any excess signal (for highlight expansion), which is likely to explain SmartSens's rather ambitious DR claims.

While LOFIC isn't new, it seems to be getting more attention recently from major players. Omnivision now offers several sensors that use it, Sony recently debuted a new generation of its security-focused Starvis sensors that adopts it, and Apple and Samsung both reportedly looking into using it in future products.

Unless you live in a market open to Chinese-made phones, your next smartphone's main camera probably won't use a sensor from SmartSens. But it's exciting to see a new company start to compete in this space, and it'll be interesting to watch whether the SC5A6XS or the company's other products start to show up in more phones from more brands.