Mobile Phones to Feature Wafer-Thin Cameras

— -- Tessera Technologies has revealed new wafer-level camera technology that can be implemented into devices such as mobiles and PCs.

The OptiML WLC technology allows thousands of lenses to be produced at once on a wafer and then bonded to create the optical element of a camera. The new OptiML WLC technology will also reduce the size and cost of cameras. The process means could reduce costs by 30 percent for camera's optical component. It will also reduce the size of cameras in phones by half.

With the OptiML WLC technology, manual focus adjustment of cameras' optical elements is not necessary. Advanced auto focus and digital optical zoom can also be integrated into OptiML WLC without the use of moving parts.

Bruce McWilliams, Tessera's chairman, president and chief executive officer said, "We believe utilizing a wafer-level camera manufacturing technology is the most viable path to overcoming the challenges facing the industry today. Our OptiML wafer level camera technology represents a significant leap forward in the development of highly integrated, lower cost optics for consumer and other electronics."

"The challenge the industry faces is to integrate greater levels of functionality in smaller form factors at acceptable levels of cost. This new wafer-level approach to miniaturization provides an innovative solution for meeting these objectives," said Jim Walker, vice president of research at Gartner Dataquest.