In the past few years, mobile phones with integrated cameras (“Camera Phones”) have become mass-market devices, penetrating the mid-range and even low-end segments of the mobile phone market. The immediacy and portability of having a camera in the pocket enables the user to take pictures “on the move”, in everyday situations. However, the quality of images taken with mobile phone cameras is currently significantly lower than the image quality enabled by Digital Still Cameras, especially in a low-light environment. The image sensors used by camera phones do not have the low-light sensitivity required to take pictures in many common environments such as museums, restaurants, clubs, and even outdoors at night time. This results in unclear, blurry images which are below the quality expectations of the average user.

The most common technology used for cameras embedded in mobile phones is the CMOS Image Sensor (CIS). One of the main issues with CIS is poor low-light sensitivity. The competing Charge Coupled Device (CCD) technology has somewhat better sensitivity than CIS in a low light environment, but is more expensive to produce and to integrate into the phone. As image resolutions increase, and the actual size of the camera phones shrink, the size of each sensor pixel is reduced, which makes the issue of insufficient sensitivity at low light even more critical.

The Advasense next-generation Multi-MegaPixel CMOS Image Sensors have outstanding image quality for all lighting conditions, and exhibit better performance in low light environments by a factor of at least 10 compared to current CIS and CCD products. Advasense CIS products provide vibrant and sharp images at extremely low-light conditions, enabling the mass-market, day-to-day usage of camera phones in every situation.