There is no ASIC for your needs? Minimum order quantity too large?

FPGAs are predestined as companion chips for image sensors. The link from image sensor to the processor is implemented client-specific. As another advantage, the ASIC-independent connection allows to define further functions. The use of FPGAs also makes your product independent of supply bottlenecks for ASICs.

We have implemented the connection of an Omnivision OV3650/OV3640 image sensor to a PXA255 XScale Intel processor. A Lattice FPGA is used instead of an Omnivision OV620 ASIC. According to the client's needs, the preview function and the transfer of the image are realized. The FPGA design covers the decimation of the camera image for the preview adaptively for different camera resolutions. Images and the preview are buffered in a SDRAM module, so that the processor may operate asynchronously with respect to the camera.

Additional features

Further functions like super framing or HDR can be implemented in the FPGA design. HDR (high dynamic range) enhances the luminosity scale of an image. This feature can be realized by the combination of several images with different exposure times. For more information, see Wikipedia HDR.

Please contact us if you are interested. We are looking forward to support you with solutions for your image processing problem.