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About

History / Legacy

History / Legacy

Leadership /
Bios

History / Legacy

At Aptina, we’re the synthesis of foundational CMOS image sensor technology,
stunning innovation, and second-to-none manufacturing quality. We’re the
aggregate of three of the industry’s most innovative companies. We trace our
history to the beginning of the development of CMOS image sensors. We take pride
in where we’ve been, and we look forward to our future.

The Birth of Digital Imaging: 1969

In 1969, Drs. Willard Boyle and George Smith developed the charge-coupled
device (CCD) while they were both researchers in the Semiconductor Components
Division at Bell Laboratories.

Boyle and Smith’s invention sparked the digital imaging revolution. But like
many first generation technologies, the CCD had several shortcomings, including
a complicated, unique, and therefore expensive manufacturing process, dependency
on powerful and separate processors, and relatively slow readout.

A Step Toward Imaging Efficiency: Up to 1995

While at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Dr. Eric Fossum conducted the
research that made CMOS image sensors practical “for space applications in which
it has several advantages over CCDs, including a requirement for less power and
less susceptibility to radiation damage in space”, a NASA report said.

Dr. Fossum’s research led to the development of CMOS active-pixel sensors
that included many on-chip functions, allowing for more portability, lower power
consumption, and complete miniature imaging systems. Dr. Fossum and several of
his JPL coworkers took this technology public and formed the Photobit
Corporation.

Photobit, a Leader in Imaging Solutions: 1995 to 2001

Photobit was effectively the first company to commercialize CMOS image
sensors. The company had design wins with leading manufacturers like, Logitech
for its popular QuickCam™ Express, Basler AG for high-speed machine vision
solutions, Schick Technologies for dental radiography, and was the world's
leading supplier of CMOS imagers to the automotive industry thanks to Gentex's
successful solutions, like their automatic-dimming mirrors.

Micron Brings Manufacturing Processing Prowess: 2001

In 2001 Micron Technology, a leading manufacturer of semiconductor memory
acquired Photobit, integrated the company’s cadre of imaging engineers, and
brought new scale to the CMOS imaging business.

The combination of Photobit’s foundational technology and Micron’s
semiconductor processes was nothing short of magical. In general, DRAM processes
and CMOS image sensor processes are very similar. Plus, the new Micron Imaging
Group found that there was another advantage to DRAM. DRAM memory cells, which
are strikingly similar to pixels had long been designed to hold a charge.
Because of this memory processes produce very low noise cells and therefore
high-quality imagers. Most imagers at the time were produced using logic
semiconductor processes, which are generally designed to move charges about
quickly with little regard for the system noise they produce. Thus, in a few
generations CMOS image quality rose to parity and even superiority to CCD
quality. Put another way, thanks to Micron’s manufacturing, if you compared a
modern Aptina CMOS imager to a CCD with similar sized pixels, you’d find that in
most cases the Aptina CMOS sensor offers better image quality.

Avago: 2006

In December 2006, the then Micron Imaging Group took another step toward
imaging dominance, acquiring Avago Technologies' image sensor business, which
included nearly 90 top-notch imaging engineers. These engineers had been rapidly
advancing CMOS technology and Micron saw the deal as an opportunity to leap
ahead of the competition.

The World’s Leading Supplier: 2006 and 2007

In 2006, Micron's Imaging Group also became the world's leading supplier of
CMOS image sensors. Micron CMOS sensors were designed into one of every three
camera phones on Earth in 2006 and 2007.

The Aptina Era Begins

In 2008, Micron saw yet another strategic opportunity. Its imaging business
while similar to DRAM at the fab level, demanded a new focus on sales and
marketing. So Micron created Aptina, a division that is the world's foremost
imaging solutions provider and the imaging company with perhaps the industry's
brightest future.

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