ON Semiconductor - Experts & Thought Leaders

Arrow Electronics, Inc. is utilising the onsemi™ Imager Access System (IAS) module standard for developing intelligent vision solutions for use in robotics, machine vision, commercial cameras and other uses. The solution reduces the design complexities that are common with designing a product that utilises image sensors. Part of that complexity is there is no standardisation of the hardware interfaces of the different technology blocks. This is where the onsemi™ IAS module standard comes in and is adopted throughout the ecosystem. Arrow’s new IAS module, AP-VISION-AR0830-83 Working with Appletec, Arrow developed the newest IAS module, AP-VISION-AR0830-83 Working with Appletec, Arrow developed the newest IAS module, AP-VISION-AR0830-83 that utilises the latest generation of onsemi image sensors. “The onsemi Hyperlux™ LP family of sensors set a new industry benchmark for ultra-low power sensor design. Combined with a small form factor, purpose-oriented features and best-in-class imaging, Hyperlux LP will be a fixture for smart home, office, and robotics for years to come,” said Stephen Harris, Senior Director of Marketing for onsemi’s Industrial and Commercial Sensing Division. New 4K sensor in onsemi Hyperlux™ LP family Stephen Harris adds, “onsemi is now able to bring the newest high-performance, feature-rich 4K sensor in the Hyperlux family, AR0830, to market with Arrow’s IAS module, allowing our customers to reduce camera development efforts significantly with best-in-class module design.” This new module joins the existing portfolio of IAS modules offered by Arrow and Appletec. Arrow worked with its company, eInfochips, and onsemi to develop drivers that enable the Appletec IAS modules to work with leading embedded processors. Companies rely on eInfochips for innovative vision solutions “eInfochips has extensive experience in developing end-to-end vision solutions. This includes hardware design, image sensor integration and tuning, image processing, image driver development, low latency streaming and AI Inferencing on edge/cloud,” said Gaurav Patel, Vice President and General Manager of Product Engineering Services for eInfochips. He adds, “Companies rely on eInfochips to deliver innovative vision solutions and accelerate and de-risk design cycles.”

SK Inc. C&C, a part of SK Group in South Korea, and BriteLab in Silicon Valley have announced the signing of a partnership agreement, to collaborate in joint development for the global manufacturing business in the U.S. market. BriteLab, Inc., located in San Jose, CA, is the renowned semiconductor AMHS company in the United States of America. Highlights of the joint effort include: Collaboration between BriteLab's AMHS (Automated Material Handling System) and SK Inc. C&C's Smart Manufacturing platform and solutions. Development of new digital business, such as AI-based component quality inspection, with high demand from BriteLab's current customers. Cooperation to apply manufacturing specialised Vertical Solutions of SK Inc. C&C, such as ‘iFactory Smart Vision’. Co-development of manufacturing high-tech business for the U.S. based CM/CE customers. SK Inc. C&C – BriteLab partnership Seong Ha Park, CEO of SK Inc. C&C announced that the company has signed a partnership agreement with BriteLab Seong Ha Park, CEO of SK Inc. C&C announced that the company has signed a partnership agreement with BriteLab, which has specialty in the Automated Material Handling Systems in the U.S. for global manufacturing hi-tech joint development. Current customers for BriteLab's AMHS install bases include Texas Instruments (TI), NXP Semiconductors, ON Semiconductor, Global Foundry, STMicroelectronics, TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company), SSMC, and UMC. BriteLab currently has 24 global 200mm and 300mm foundry customers. Smart manufacturing platforms and solutions The agreement between SK Inc. C&C and BriteLab is to promote the expansion of manufacturing high-tech business, based on Britelab's AMHS platform. By combining SK Inc. C&C's multiple manufacturing software solutions, the joint partnership is set to offer best-of-breed smart manufacturing platforms and solutions, which will be successfully implemented in the manufacturing industry. BriteLab's AMHS offers Overhead Hoist Transport (OHT) system, utilising the robotic systems in the high-tech factory that use sophisticated robots from the ceiling and the floor of production lines. The robots are autonomous vehicles managed and controlled by software, to support fast and accurate automation in the production of high-tech materials, in the factories. Joint Working Group (JWG) Under this agreement, the two companies have established a Joint Working Group (JWG) that utilises BriteLab's AMHS commercialisation of manufacturing high-tech solutions that meet the customer demands. SK Inc. C&C's ‘iFactory Smart’, which has proven excellence in the South Korean precision manufacturing industry, will now be offered to customers in the U.S. through Britelab. “We are excited to be working with SK Inc. C&C especially its AI-based quality management solution using 'vision' systems,” said Steven Kwak, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of BriteLab. SmartVision, AI package solution SmartVision is an artificial Intelligence package solution, developed by SK Inc. C&C SmartVision is an artificial Intelligence package solution, developed by SK Inc. C&C and has the ability to read the smallest unit pixel of the screen and quickly train the A.I. modules to read the information in real time. It is highly utilised in the ESG (Environment·Social·Governance) field, such as quality control (QA) work that removes defects in parts and finished products throughout the production process, as well as application in the water quality management. Camera feed and data analysis By collecting images created through cameras or CCTV and analysing the data, SmartVision can quickly perform a highly accurate inspection tasks that previously required operators to use expensive, separate quality equipment, which can lead to poor inspection, product identification, and dimension measurements. The two companies are also exploring manufacturing high-tech businesses for BriteLab's current customer install base, outside of the semiconductor business, as BriteLab provides Contract Manufacturing (CM) and Contract Engineering (CE) service in the U.S. Robotics and production automation platforms BriteLab provides robotics and production automation platforms in autonomous vehicles and robots, factory automation robots, data centre monitoring robots, smart machines, and autonomous drones. With BriteLab's CM and CE business and in conjunction with SK Inc. C&C solutions, the companies plan to offer a digital platform-based manufacturing high-tech digital service, in connection with its customers with the signing of the partnership agreement. Creating manufacturing high-tech business “By combining BritetLab's AMHS-based manufacturing logistics capabilities and SK Inc. C&C's manufacturing automation capabilities, we look forward to creating a manufacturing high-tech business that will lead customers' digital innovation. As a result, we will actively engage in marketing to our global customers as well as here in the U.S.,” said BriteLab’s CEO, Steven Kwak. “With our partnership with BriteLab, we look forward to expanding the global business together for the manufacturing vertical solutions business and will introduce customer-friendly digital services to meet the needs of BriteLab's manufacturing customers in the U.S.,” said Young Dae Kim, Director of Digital New Business Development at SK Inc. C&C.

Ambarella, Inc., an AI vision silicon company, Lumentum, a designer and manufacturer of innovative optical and photonic products, and ON Semiconductor®, a provider of CMOS image sensor solutions announced two new joint reference designs that accelerate AIoT device deployment across verticals, building on the companies’ previous joint solution for contactless access systems. Intelligent 3D solutions By combining the data from Lumentum’s high-performance VCSEL array illuminators and an ON Semiconductor image sensor using Ambarella’s AI SoC, higher levels of accuracy and more intelligent decision-making can be achieved in next-generation AIoT devices for biometric access control, 3D electronic locks, and other intelligent sensing applications. Originally intended for biometric access control and electronic locks, these new reference designs can also address the needs of smart cities, smart buildings, smart homes, and intelligent healthcare. Additionally, the high level of integration provided by these joint solutions significantly lowers system power consumption and thermal design requirements while enabling much smaller product form factors. AI and IoT enabled access systems “Ambarella’s vision is to combine AI processing with 3D and vision sensing to create an ambient intelligent future,” said Fermi Wang, President, and CEO of Ambarella. “This collaboration with Lumentum and ON Semiconductor will further advance the convergence of AI and IoT to enable a new generation of access control systems while inspiring novel categories of ambient sensing products—all powered by the fusion of sensors using AI vision processors that interact intelligently and unobtrusively with people to address their ever-evolving needs.” Enhancing the accuracy of AIoT devices “Our new joint solutions will greatly increase the accuracy of AIoT devices across application verticals—starting with biometric access control and electronic locks—enabling them to recognise people and predict their needs, rather than requiring a direct human interface,” said Téa Williams, Senior Vice President and General Manager, 3D Sensing of Lumentum. The solutions will take advantage of 3D sensing to inject a new dimension of data input for improved decision-making “Many of these applications will take advantage of 3D sensing to inject a new dimension of data input for improved decision-making." "As an example, using higher resolution VCSEL-based spot illumination enables longer sensing ranges and higher accuracy facial recognition. Lumentum’s industry-leading and high-performance VCSEL arrays with zero field failures, used across these joint solutions, are driving new applications and helping realize the dream of AIoT devices with 3D sensing capabilities.” Intelligent sensing devices “Image sensors are the eyes for intelligent sensing devices. Their ability to see farther with more detail provides significantly more information for the AI processor’s decision-making in AIoT devices,” said Gianluca Colli, Vice President and General Manager, Industrial and Consumer Sensor Division (ICSD) group at ON Semiconductor. “Our industry-leading RGB-IR sensor technology, combined with the advanced ISP capabilities of Ambarella’s AI vision SoCs, can bring both visible and IR images into devices simultaneously. For this second generation of our joint solutions, we leveraged customer feedback to quadruple the resolution of our RGB-IR image sensors to 4K (8MP).” Application-specific AIoT solutions The three companies’ new joint AIoT solutions consist of two reference designs and additional 3D sensing development kits, each uniquely configured to address application-specific demands for the combination of AI processing, 3D depth sensing, and vision sensing: Targeted at next-generation biometric access control readers, the Vision+ reference design is the AIoT industry’s first 4K solution to perform single-camera, 940nm structured-light sensing based on RGB-IR technology. It is also the first to leverage a single-chip solution for depth processing, AI processing, and video processing. Based on the Ambarella CV22 CVflow® AI vision processor, it includes single-camera structured-light sensing powered by Lumentum’s VCSEL technology, featuring a range of 2 meters, and a 4K (8MP) RGB-IR CMOS image sensor from ON Semiconductor. Targeted at next-generation smart electronic door locks, or eLocks, for both commercial and residential applications, the Saturn reference design is the AIoT industry’s first to integrate AI processing for both single-camera structured-light sensing and fast-boot video processing. It is based on the Ambarella CV25 CVflow AI vision processor and includes a structured-light camera powered by Lumentum’s VCSEL technology and the AR0237CS 2MP RGB-IR image sensor from ON Semiconductor. Targeted at intelligent sensing applications and with opportunities across verticals, Ambarella’s CV2 series CVflow AI vision processor-based development kits can now be outfitted with ToF sensor adapters that are powered by Lumentum’s leading-edge VCSEL arrays. An optional 4K RGB-IR image sensor adapter is also available for these kits. Easy integration of third-party applications The open software development kit (SDK) for Ambarella’s CVflow AI vision processors allows the easy integration of third-party applications while enabling OEMs to address differing regional requirements with a single platform (for example, using different AI algorithms in different regions). Additionally, this robust, Linux-based SDK expands the capabilities of edge sensing devices, simplifies product development, and speeds time-to-market through: Custom application development capabilities Support for different 3D modalities, including structured light and ToF. Uniquely, a single Ambarella SoC provides 3D sensing processing without the need for a dedicated depth processor or a separate host processor High AI inference capabilities on the camera device to enable multiple neural networks (NNs) to run simultaneously Robust AI tools to support deep neural network (DNN) development and migration Integrated ISP to handle challenging scenes, including high dynamic range (HDR) and low light scenarios Built-in Arm® processors to run customer applications Integrated security hardware, including secure boot, OTP to store encryption keys, and Arm TrustZone technology for secure encryption key comparisons Rich peripheral interface support to simplify system designs Availability These joint reference designs and development kits are expected to be available in June. Additionally, the three companies will present these new joint solutions on June 2, 2021, in a live webinar hosted by Laser Focus World magazine.

Facial recognition is becoming more popular in newer systems for access control — a shift that began before the pandemic and has intensified with a market shift toward “touchless” systems. A new facial recognition platform is emerging that responds to the access control industry’s increased interest in facial recognition by expanding the concept with a new higher level of technology. At the core of the new system is high-performance, true-3D sensing with facial depth map processing at low power consumption, which enriches the capabilities of small-footprint access control devices. New proficiencies include anti-spoofing (preventing the use of a 2D photo of an authorised user to gain entry) and anti-tailgating (preventing an unauthorised person from gaining entry by following an authorised user) in real time and in challenging lighting conditions. The system uses “true 3D sensing,” which incorporates single-camera structured-light 3D sensing—as opposed to dual-camera depth sensing or IR video imaging-based approaches. AI vision processing and 3D sensing technologies The new “Janus reference design” incorporates AI vision processing, 3D sensing technologies, and RGB-IR CMOS image sensor technologies from Ambarella, Lumentum and ON Semiconductor. Specifically, Lumentum’s high-reliability, high-density VCSEL projector for 3D sensing combines with ON Semiconductor’s RGB-IR CMOS image sensor and Ambarella’s powerful AI vision system on chip (SoC). The Ambarella, Lumentum, and ON Semiconductor engineering teams worked together to incorporate their complementary technologies into the reference design. A reference design offers OEM product and engineering teams a fully functional engineering reference implementation that they can use as the basis for their own product. Teams will often customise a reference design with their choice of various third-party hardware components to fit their product specifications and positioning. They might also integrate their own software, algorithms, and back-end system integrations. The advantage to this approach is that the manufacturer can get to market quickly with a next-generation product that emphasises their core strengths. 3D depth information for facial recognition Generally, it takes between nine months and a year for a manufacturer to get to market using a fully functional reference design, such as the one developed jointly by Ambarella, Lumentum and ON Semiconductor. The Janus platform leverages 3D depth information generated via structured light for facial recognition with a >99% recognition accuracy rate. Traditional 2D-based solutions are prone to false acceptance and presentation attacks, whereas 3D sensing delivers advanced security—just as mobile phones use true-depth cameras for facial recognition. 3D facial recognition also significantly reduces the gender and ethnic biases demonstrated by some 2D facial recognition solutions. The Janus reference design is also aimed at future smart locks for enterprise and residential use: its unique single-camera 3D sensing solution will help OEMs overcome cost and manufacturability barriers, while the ultra-low power edge AI capability can effectively extend the battery life, which in turn reduces maintenance cost. Video security and access control Ambarella sees touchless access control, as well as the convergence of video security and access control, as the mega-trends driving industry innovation and growth—using video, computer vision, and 3D sensing to not only address safety and security, but also to improve the user experience and public health, says William Xu, director of marketing for Ambarella. The convergence of video security cameras and access control readers has been widely discussed by leading access control OEMs. In many cases, they already integrate video security cameras, readers, door controllers, cloud-access, and the like. In most enterprise installations, one would typically find security cameras installed where there are access control readers. Combining the two devices significantly reduces the maintenance cost and system complexity. “In comparison to fingerprint or other contact-based approaches, Janus-based access control is touchless—requiring no physical contact with authentication hardware such as fingerprint sensors or keypads—reducing infection risk while enabling a seamless experience,” says Mr. Xu. “The Janus platform provides true 3D depth information to prevent unauthorised individuals from mimicking legitimate users, and the advanced embedded AI processor enables tracking and anti-tailgating algorithms. Janus-based devices perform well in challenging lighting conditions and they are capable of authenticating multiple users simultaneously, with imperceptible latency.” Access Control and public health What was once purely a security challenge—namely, how to prevent unauthorised entry into a restricted area—has evolved into a public health challenge as well. Many traditional access control methods, from number pads to fingerprint readers, require touch in order to function, and if the current global pandemic has made one thing evident, it’s that minimising physical contact between users and surfaces is vital to community well-being. Janus was originally designed to facilitate the next generation of facial-recognition-based access control readers—enabling 3D sensing and high recognition speed for seamless authentication. COVID-19 has accelerated industry-wide research, development, and timelines for Janus-based solutions, says Mr. Xu. Deep learning and artificial intelligence drive all the new capabilities offered in Janus—capabilities that are only possible due to the platform’s high computational horsepower. The core deep learning and AI capabilities of Janus enable a wide range of advanced features only possible with an embedded vision SoC, says Mr. Xu. All are performed in real time, even when multiple users are being processed simultaneously. These include the extraction and comparison of facial depth maps with those registered in the system; 3D liveness detection, ensuring that the system can distinguish between real users and photo or video playback attacks; anti-tailgating, which relies on computer vision algorithms to detect and track when an unauthorised person follows a legitimate user inside; face mask detection; and people counting. VCSEL technology According to Ken Huang, Director of Product Line Management, 3D Sensing, Lumentum: “Lumentum’s VCSEL technology is one of the Janus design’s core strengths and differentiators. The process begins when Lumentum’s high-resolution dot projector projects thousands of dots onto the scene to create a unique 3D depth pattern of a user’s face. Most traditional biometric facial security systems rely on 2D images of users—simple photographs—which reduces authentication accuracy. In contrast, the 3D depth map generated by Lumentum’s technology provides the foundation of a more accurate, more secure, and more intelligent system overall. In addition, Lumentum’s VCSEL solutions incorporate a Class 1, eye-safe laser with zero field failures to date.” Adds Paige Peng, Product Marketing Manager, Commercial Sensing Division, ON Semiconductor: “If we think of Ambarella’s CV25 as the brain of the Janus design, the AR0237IR from ON Semiconductor is the eye. The AR0237IR image sensor captures the information, and the CV25 processes it. Other face recognition systems use two “eyes” – one to recognise RGB patterns to generate the viewing image stream, and another IR module to detect liveliness in motion. The Janus solution leverages a single “eye”—the AR0237IR—to obtain both visible and infrared images for depth sensing and advanced algorithms such as anti-spoofing and 3D recognition. AR0237IR also provides good sensitivity in various lighting conditions and supports high-dynamic-range (HDR) functions.” The single-camera 3D sensing solution for access control operates in three seamless steps: Step 1: Lumentum’s high-resolution dot projector creates a unique 3D depth map of a user’s face; Step 2: ON Semiconductor’s RGB-IR image sensor captures the high-resolution images from Step 1, even in low-light or high dynamic range conditions; Step 3: Ambarella’s advanced vision SoC takes the high-resolution images captured in Step 2 and uses deep neural networks (DNNs) for depth processing, facial recognition, anti-tailgating, and anti-spoofing while video encoding and network software run simultaneously.