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August 31, 2010: Canon has announced the successful development of what it claims is the world's largest CMOS image sensor, with a chip size measuring 202 x 205 mm.
The new sensor is one of the largest chips that can be produced from a 12-inch (300 mm) wafer, and is approximately 40 times the size of the 36 x 24mm sensors in Canon's EOS-1Ds Mark III and EOS 5D Mark II digital SLR cameras. It produces a maximum image size of 13,280 x 9184 pixels.
Because its expanded size enables greater light-gathering capability, the sensor is capable of capturing images in one one-hundredth the amount of light required by a professional-model digital SLR camera. This enables it to support 60 frame-per-second video recording in light levels as low as 0.3 lux - roughly half the brightness of a typical moonlit night.
This announcement follows hard on the heels of last week's announcement of the development by Canon of an APS-H sized (29.2 x 20.2mm) CMOS sensor with 120-megapixel resolution. Another ‘world first' this sensor is a designed for high-speed image capture and readout. It will support burst rates up to 9.5 frames/second and Full HD video recording at 1920 x 1080 pixels.
No details have yet been provided about when either sensor will be released commercially.
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