Teledyne e2v has launched Nexora, a new family of backside-illuminated global shutter CMOS image sensors. The first two parts are a 12 MP sensor at 4,096 x 3,072 pixels and a 16 MP square sensor at 4,096 x 4,096, each in monochrome and color.
These are industrial sensors, built for high-resolution machine vision, intelligent traffic systems and outdoor surveillance. Samples and documentation are available on request now, and Teledyne will show the family at VISION in Stuttgart, October 6 to 8.
What’s new
Global shutter sensors capture every pixel at the same instant. That avoids the skew and wobble a rolling shutter produces on fast-moving objects, which is why factory inspection lines, traffic cameras and robots use them. The trade-off has usually been sensitivity. Global shutter pixels need extra circuitry to store the charge, which leaves less room to collect light.
Nexora tackles that with two design choices. Backside illumination moves the wiring behind the light-sensitive layer, so more light reaches the photodiode. A 3D-stacked design puts the processing logic on a separate layer underneath. The result is quantum efficiency of up to 73% at 550 nm, and 15% at 940 nm in the near infrared, which matters for night-time traffic and surveillance work under IR lighting.
Built for camera makers
The sensors use an LVDS interface that connects directly to FPGAs and image signal processors. The 23 x 21.5 mm package fits standard 29 x 29 mm industrial camera bodies and works with C-mount lenses. That’s aimed at camera manufacturers who want to upgrade resolution without redesigning their housings.
Rafael Romay, president of Teledyne Vision Solutions, said the goal was a platform that balances image quality, speed and ease of integration.
The photography angle
Nexora won’t show up in a consumer camera. But the technology is the same one reaching photographers. Sony’s A9 III brought a global shutter to a full-frame mirrorless body in 2023, and stacked BSI designs are how that became possible. Industrial sensors like this one are where those designs get proven at scale.
For machine vision buyers, the short version is more light per pixel, with no rolling shutter skew, in a package that fits the cameras they already use.