In the world of mobile photography, manufacturers’ names CMOS sensors usually remains anonymous. Customers, as a rule, care about the capabilities of the devices, not who the manufacturer of this or that part is. But some brands have started to reveal these details to reveal their pre-competitive breasts. Xiaomi is one of them announcing to four winds that the Xiaomi 12S Ultra will feature a one-inch Sony IMX 989 sensor.

Apple, on the other hand, decided to follow the opposite path. In general, the Apple company keeps all the details of its suppliers, including those of the iPhone camera, under an encrypted halo. But in the connected world we live in, escaping leaks isn’t always an easy task. In this sense, according to the news of the Japanese Nikkei newspaper, we were able to learn that the people of Cupertino will have the latest Sony sensor technology in the iPhone, which will be released in 2023.

Apple will bet on a Sony sensor again

As many of you already know, Apple is responsible for designing the iPhone camera, but its components come from different manufacturers. For example, Largan, Yujingguang and Kantatsu are responsible for the supply of lenses that were later included in the module by LG Innotek. Sony, historical supplier of photo sensors for Cupertino residents, will prepare to present its next-generation sensor.

According to the newspaper in question, we are talking about the first CMOS image sensor stacked with double layer pixel transistors (2-Layer Transistor Pixel). Looking at the technical documentation of the sensor, we can get more detailed information about this technological development that we will see in the iPhone 15. In traditional CMOS sensors, the photodiodes and transistors are on the same substrate, and in this new sensor, on different substrate layers.

So you may be wondering what are the advantages of separating photodiodes and pixel transistors. As Sony explains, this technology expand dynamic range and reduce noise in photos. This will prevent underexposure and overexposure in environments with a mix of bright and dim light. In other words, we were able to capture better images in backlit situations and low-light environments or indoors.

It’s worth noting that while the sensor is an essential part of iPhone photography, it’s not the only thing that’s part of this part. The optical system with a seven-element architecture and computational photography are very important. This year, with the iPhone 14, Apple released the Photonic Engine, an engine that takes information gathered by the sensor before the compression algorithm known as Deep Fusion intervenes.

If what Nikkei tells us finally comes true, we’ll see what photography advantages the next-generation iPhone will offer. And if Apple is to offer other kinds of photo-level improvements as well. For now, we have to wait a long time as the iPhone usually arrives in September of each year.

Images: TheRegisti | sony

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