CIE Components in Electronics
Lattice Semiconductor will be demonstrating Varioptic’s liquid lens technology on its LatticeECP3-based HDR-60 Development Kit at the China Security Expo in Beijing, China, from December 3 through December 6. The Electrowetting liquid lens technology enables extremely fast and noiseless variable focus with absolutely no moving parts, ensuring low power consumption, unlimited cycle lifetime and high shock resistance, and its large dynamic range guarantees focus from 5cm to infinity.
The Caspian optical module, a combination of a Varioptic’s Arctic liquid lens and a high-resolution imaging lens, can be used instantly on any M12 lens-based camera board. In addition, Helion has developed specific intellectual property (IP) blocks to evaluate the performance of Varioptic’s liquid lens technology on the Lattice HDR-60 Development Kit. The demonstration system consists of an HDR-60 main board equipped with a Sony 2.4 MP image sensor and Varioptic’s Caspian module. The Helion IP supports open loop, closed loop, and autofocus in video mode. The IP can be expanded to support optical image stabilization as well.
“Our cooperation with Lattice and Helion will enable our customers to reduce time to market with a complete platform, and benefit from local support for the hardware and software integration,” said Frederic Laune, Director of Sales and Marketing for Varioptic.
“We are excited to see leading edge technologies such as Varioptic’s liquid lens modules and Helion’s IP blocks being offered as part of our HDR-60 Development Kit’s ecosystem,” said Kambiz Khalilian, Lattice Strategic Marketing Manager for Industrial Markets. “The fast focusing, very low power and high shock resistance of Varioptic’s liquid lens technology, combined with our low power, low density FPGA devices, expands the range of applications we are addressing and brings added value to our customers.”
The Lattice HDR-60 Video Camera Development Kit offers camera manufacturers several benefits, including a fully integrated HDR image signal processing pipeline from sensor to HDMI/DVI display. The Kit also offers the industry’s fastest auto-exposure, greater than 120dB system dynamic range, a highly efficient Auto White Balance algorithm and 2D noise reduction – all in streaming mode through the FPGA without the need for an external frame buffer, enabling extremely low latency and further reducing system cost. On-board DDR2 memory also enables applications such as 3D noise reduction, image stitching from multiple sensors, image rotation and de-warping.
