SAMSUNG ELECTRO-MECHANICS

"Park Sungil is a company employee residing in Suwon, Gyeonggi-do.  This year, he started cycling for hobby and exercise.  He really enjoys nicely shooting his rides and posting them on his club blog and personal SNS.  As it's not easy to obtain satisfactory videos due to shaking and vibration during bike rides, he wants to buy a separate action camera; but his wife does not seem to like it.  However, his worries will melt away shortly after."

Samsung Electro-Mechanics has announced that it will introduce a 200 megapixel-class camera module with more than twice improved image stabilization features, and will target the market with differentiated technologies for shooting high-quality photos and videos.

This product will be the integration of core optical technologies owned by Samsung Electro-Mechanics to realize vivid and clear image quality for photo-shooting or video-recording.

This product has a 3.0-degree image stabilization angle, which is twice superior to the 1.5-degree stabilization angle offered by the existing products.  It offers the world's highest level among the currently available smartphones with OIS features. The correction angle means the range in which a user can take clear pictures when the amount of shaking that occurs upon photo taking is converted into an angle, and the larger the correction angle is, the greater amount of shaking is corrected. With the cameras equipped with OIS features, it is possible to take pictures and videos in a stable manner even when the user is moving and to vividly shoot far-away subjects under low-light environment with longer light exposure time. Optical image stabilization features are expected to be equipped not only on the smartphones, but also on the drone cameras or autonomous-driving cameras.   

To double the OIS correction angle, the driving distance for lens movement must also be approximately doubled, and the number of components required for driving must be increased, thereby resulting in the larger module sizes. Samsung Electro-Mechanics has resolved the ‘camera bump’ issue and achieved quality satisfaction by minimizing the camera module size nearly similar to that of the previous products, simultaneously increasing the driving distance via optimized design of magnetic substances and coils that affect the OIS actuator performances.

Meanwhile, 200 megapixel-class ultra-high pixel image sensors must be supported by designing large-diameter bright lenses to gather large amount of light under low-light conditions, as the number of pixel increases. Samsung Electro-Mechanics has secured durability and accuracy by applying Ball-Guide type OIS actuator equipped with high-sensitivity sensors in order to operate large-diameter lenses precisely in a micro-meter unit (i.e., 1/1,000,000 meter).  Moreover, Samsung Electro-Mechanics succeeded to minimize the battery consumption by reducing power consumption.

Executive Vice President Lee Taegon, Head of Optics & Communication Solution Department of Samsung Electro-Mechanics, remarked that “Samsung Electro-Mechanics will continue to offer differentiated products as needed by customers as the only company holding exclusive technical skills for designing/manufacturing on its own any core components such as lenses, actuators, by launching optical 10x zoom folded camera for the first time in Korea,” saying that "it is recently expected that the demands for camera module specifications such as high-pixel sensors, advanced video features will continue with a focus on the flagship smartphones.”

In the meantime, there has been an expansion in the automotive camera module market following the increased supply of electric vehicles and the advancement of autonomous driving technologies such as ADAS.  Samsung Electro-Mechanics will expand its automotive camera module business by offering differentiated products and diversifying customers based on its accumulated IT technologies.