OmniVision, Xilinx develop automotive reference design for 360-degree surround view apps

SANTA CLARA, USA: OmniVision Technologies Inc., a leading developer of advanced digital imaging solutions, announced that its OV9715 automotive-grade megapixel sensor has been selected by Xilinx Inc. for its four camera, 360-degree surround view automotive reference design.

The Xilinx reference design highlights the advantages of megapixel resolution sensors over VGA-based systems for extreme wide-angle field of view applications, such as greatly improved image distortion correction and stitching. Designed to meet the stringent requirements of the automotive and sensing applications markets, the OV9715 also improves on obstacle and pedestrian detection by capturing more detailed scene information.

"We selected an OmniVision product for this reference design because of the company's strong expertise, product support and track record in the automotive market," said Nick DiFiore, director of automotive systems architecture and platforms at Xilinx. "We are very pleased with the end result of this 360-degree surround view platform, and look forward to a continued partnership with OmniVision to keep innovating in the automotive industry."

"360-degree view systems, obstacle detection and many other advanced driver assistance applications requiring megapixel resolution sensors are gaining widespread acceptance in the automotive market," said Jeff Morin, senior technical product manager for North American automotive products at OmniVision.

"This trend is reflected in projections from market research firm Techno Systems Research Co. Ltd, which indicate that megapixel sensors for the automotive market are expected to jump from 1.3 percent market share in 2010 to nearly 35 percent market share by 2014."

The OV9715 uses a 3-micron OmniPixel3-HS pixel to achieve best-in-class low light sensitivity of 3300 mV/lux-sec. This allows the OV9715 to operate in virtually any lighting condition, making it popular for use in automotive vision and sensing systems.

The OV9715 comes in a lead-free 48-pin QFP package and, with an operating temperature range of -40 degrees C to +85 degrees C, is built to meet the stringent specifications of the Automotive Electronics Council (AEC). The OV9715 is AEC-Q100 qualified and has completed the production parts approval process.

The OV9715 is a 1/4-inch sensor providing full-frame, sub-sampled or windowed 8-bit/10-bit images in RGB RAW format via the digital video port. The sensor offers complete user control over image quality, formatting and output data transfer.

The OV9715 incorporates image processing functions, including exposure control, gain control, white balance, lens correction and defective pixel correction. These functions are also programmable through the serial camera control bus interface.
The Xilinx 360-degree surround view camera will be available for demonstrations at SAE Convergence, October 19 and 20, 2010 in Detroit, Michigan.