Tao Zhi, Greater China Market Manager of Industrial and Consumer Applications of Ansonmei Intelligent Perception Department

Q: Hello, Manager Tao, please introduce the products, technologies and solutions that Ansome has brought to the exhibition in the field of vision, what are their highlights, and what are the manifestations and improvements of Ansome's competitiveness in the field of visual perception?

A: The main business area of onsemi is to provide a variety of image sensors. Our image sensors range from VGA to large resolution 45 million pixels. It can be seen that the products of onsemi cover most applications in the entire industry, and there is always one that meets your machine vision application needs.

specially based on the reference design of XGS 5000 (5.3 million pixels 2592 x 2048), XGS12000 (12 million pixels 4096x3072), XGS 16000 (16 million pixels 4000x4000) and flagship product XGS 45000 (44.7 million pixels 8192x5460), it can run 8K video at a frame rate of 60 frames per second. These image sensors can provide multiple resolutions and 12 bit image quality frame rates. This advanced XGS series device is based on the innovative 3.2 micron global shutter pixel, which can provide excellent image quality and consistency even at high resolution. For example, in the application case of PCB board detection displayed in this exhibition, we can observe that the details in the high reflective area and dark area can be displayed on the same image.

The exhibition also introduced a rolling shutter product with a resolution of 20 million, which is mainly used for high-resolution image sensors of machine vision. After market research and analysis, it is found that among the relevant products with a resolution of 20 million, the roller shutter products still have a competitive advantage, because not all production lines are pursuing speed, and some production lines may have a demand for industrial cameras that stop shooting, or a slow speed like one meter per second. In some logistics industries, for example, there is still a great demand for roller shutter camera sensors. At present, the sensor resolution of the common roll shutter camera in the industry is also concentrated in 12 million and 20 million. In fact, this 20 million resolution image sensor launched by Ansome this time is a new product of this year, and it is expected to be officially mass produced in the first half of 23 years. Customers can see the display effect of this product at our booth, and can also provide samples to customers who need them.

Handheld barcode scanners need to be fast, reliable, and have a long battery life to meet the expectations of workers from retail stores to e-commerce warehouses for increasing productivity. This time, Ansome showed a new barcode scanner scheme, which uses a new 1/8-inch VGA CMOS digital image sensor, which is 4 times higher than the global shutter efficiency of the previous generation of Ansome VGA image sensor. Its compact size and ultra-low power consumption enable it to be deployed in extremely compact vision systems.

The popular AR0234CS image sensor was also displayed by Ansenmey. This 1/2.6 inch 2.3 megapixel image sensor uses global shutter technology, which can output full resolution images of 120 frames per second, and is extremely suitable for creating binocular stereo vision applications required for depth measurement.

The latest generation 4K resolution is 3840x2160 (16:9), and the roller shutter CMOS sensor based on stack BSI will also appear. They support multiple trigger modes, multi camera synchronous scene switching, and automatic/user controlled black level correction (BLC). One of the 4K sensors supports the high dynamic range of triple exposure synthesis on the chip, which can output data up to 120 dB dynamic range on the chip, thus providing better image details in scenes with obvious contrast, and greatly saving the resources of the back-end processing chip. Another 4K sensor has an ultra-low power consumption structure, motion wake-up mode and excellent low light performance, which is very suitable for compact product applications that need to consider low power consumption.

Q: What is the market share of the current image sensor of Ansenmey?

A: In fact, there are two parts of the image sensor product line of Ansonmei, one is the vehicle gauge level, and the other is the non vehicle gauge level. For example, one of our new products this year, AR0821, is a 4K 8 million resolution sensor that can directly output 140DB high dynamic range images on the chip. The car gauge product of this product is called AR0820, and the non car gauge product that passes the work gauge is called AR0821. The two products are consistent in many aspects, such as image effect, and only make corresponding products for different application markets. At present, in the field of new energy vehicles, the demand is basically for vehicle specification products. This year, the new product AR0820 is the fastest growing sensor in the image sensor business division of Ansome. At present, in the field of domestic new energy vehicle ADAS, the AR0820 sensor of Ansomy is still far ahead in the field of 8 million pixels in terms of automatic assistant driving.

Q: At present, most domestic machine vision manufacturers are more inclined to apply in the industrial field. What is the period from R&D to mass production of non vehicle gauge products of Ansome?

A: The cycle from R&D to mass production of a non vehicle gauge product depends on different products. Essene defines a new product, usually with a new pixel level, because pixel technology is the core of the entire image sensor. For example, in the XGS series, the first product will be promoted to the market from pixel definition to mass production in about two years. However, when the pixel of the first product in the series is fixed and the resolution of the product is expanded later, the cycle from R&D to mass production will be greatly shortened, about 3-6 months.

Q: This exhibition also brought some camera products. Are these products also produced by Ansome itself?

A: Generally, the camera products of Ansome refer to the reference designs developed by Ansome itself. Now more and more customers enter the industry and even the terminal. They need the flexibility of the camera. These customers may have bought other people's camera modules, but now more customers will choose to develop their own modules. Personalized editing can be added to them. For customers, they can more flexibly adapt to various application scenarios. For some end customers, their experience in designing camera modules is not as rich as that of customers specializing in camera modules. Therefore, Ansenmey has provided reference designs for camera modules, which can be used for reference by enterprises that are not so good at camera module development. It is similar to making reference designs for cameras on the basis of demo versions. Whether from image sensors or other product lines, power or silicon carbide is willing to do more solutions to help customers accelerate development.

Q: What market segments are the main focus of the application of non vehicle gauge sensors in the industrial field?

A: For cameras, the image sensors of Ansomy are more versatile and can be selected according to different needs of customers' production lines. Ansomy will not produce a separate image sensor for a specific segment, such as the 20 million product to be launched. It can be used in multiple industries, and detection, logistics, education, security monitoring are adaptive. The positioning of the image sensor of Ansomy is universal. Therefore, one of the characteristics of the image sensor of Ansomy is that it is relatively universal. If customers need to use industrial lenses in the industrial field, they can choose industrial lenses. If they need to use fixed focus lenses for video conferencing, they can choose fixed focus lenses suitable for video conferencing. In this VisionChina exhibition seminar, I also listened to an Interpretation of the Report on China's Machine Vision Industry. I also knew that the market of our machine vision industry is actually becoming more and more detailed, but for the time being, Ansome has not developed a product to cater to a certain segment of the market. The foothold of Ansome in the machine vision industry is that "Ansome can provide the market demand". For example, the XGS series of Ansenmey has a total of 11 resolutions, and each resolution has a different rate for customers to choose. Customers can choose the sensors they need for different fields or market segments. Of course, with the gradual growth of new energy and tablet industries, in the future, Ansome may develop specific products for a piece of cake.

Q: With the maturity of the machine vision industry market, more and more enterprises are transforming from product suppliers to service providers. What do you think about this?

A: To be more competitive in the market, service is really a crucial link. Especially in the image field, the knowledge barrier in the image field is relatively high. If customers want to develop new products, they must have no idea what the products are. What functions and tips are all required to be supported by the services provided by Ansome. The enterprise is the main body of the market. Through competition, it improves management and actively innovates. The type and quality of products are determined by market demand. The delivery of products and the tightness of supply also change with the market. To continue to develop in the increasingly fierce market, it is critical to provide good customer service and meet market demand.

Q: In recent years, the competition in the field of image sensors has become increasingly fierce. How can Ansome maintain its leading edge in the Chinese market?

A: This is a challenge faced by Ansomy at present. One of the performance advantages of Ansomy's products is its low power consumption. Low power consumption not only saves electricity, but also directly affects the imaging effect. When a product with high power consumption is used, the temperature of the camera will rise, making the thermal noise larger. The image is reflected by snowflakes, which will affect the judgment. Therefore, our products are generally marked with the noise at zero, 25 and 60 degrees. The 29mm * 29mm camera module is a challenge in the industry. If the power consumption of the product is not good enough, and the sensor is limited to the 29mm * 29mm camera module, the heat generated is all concentrated in one space. After the thermal noise comes up, the imaging effect must be bad.

The second advantage of Ansome's products is differentiation. Take the XGS series as an example, this series starts from the resolution of more than 2 million, because more than 2 million resolutions are high-end applications. From the perspective of cost performance, more attention is paid to performance. So Ansenmey is also very clear about its advantages. We will enlarge our advantages and provide more resolutions to industries that need high-performance cameras.

Q: What's your overall impression of this exhibition? Did your company meet high-quality customers at the exhibition?

A: Yes, we have always been members of the Machine Vision Industry Alliance (CMVU). Every year, we have participated in the VisionChina exhibition held by the Alliance. In the past, we have participated in many exhibitions in Shanghai. This is the first time we have appeared in Shenzhen VisionChina exhibition. But I think the VisionChina exhibition in Shenzhen is still very good. The venue area is larger than before, and the exhibitors are also the most in history.

Due to the tense epidemic situation, half of our company failed to pass the strict white list review policy at the beginning of this exhibition. The Alliance also actively helped us to review the uploaded data again and again. The final result was very good. Our staff basically entered the site smoothly, and most customers entered the site very smoothly. This exhibition also showed new products and new technologies of this year. Because there was no exhibition in the first half of the year, everyone was seizing this opportunity to improve their brand influence. We, Ansonmei, were also very willing to participate.

This exhibition does have a lot of new customer resources, as well as exchanges between peers to jointly explore new opportunities. At the same time, through this exhibition, we also made a certain return visit and communication with some old customers of Ansome, and also got some new orders. Our overall feeling of this exhibition is still very good. Besides, this VisionChina exhibition was held at the same time as the High tech Fair. VisionChina's popularity has also attracted many high-quality customers from the exhibition hall next door, which is a rare opportunity for Ansome.