A micrometer is between millimeter and nanometer, for those of you not familar with the metric units of measurement. Doing a bit of research, I found that a virus is about 0.25μm (micrometers) in length. Fantastic.

So this is an image sensor with what Matsushita is calling the "smallest pixel area in the world." I think they're right. Note that the entire image sensor itself isn't 2 micrometers -- just the pixels themselves are.

Matsushista Electric Industries Corporation announced o­n the 8th that they have developed a 2μm² MOS image sensor, the world's smallest in the world. There are currently no plans for commercialization.

This is a MOS image sensor with a 2MP resolution. Matsushita has said that the pixel area of 2μm² is the smallest in the world for an image sensor. The photo diode area is also about 1.5x that of previous models, up to 30%, meaning "we were able to miniaturize the pixels without them losing sensitivity." (Matsushita).

Technically speaking, with the use of the world's first 0.15μm micro-design rule for an image sensor, the wiring area has been decreased by 40%. The circuitry areas were miniaturized, and the photo diode areas were increased. In addition, 4 pixels (2 x 2) share a single detection amplifier, so the photo diode area was also able to be increased in this reach.

Also, by changing the power lines to pulse-type, the transistor count of the detection amplifier shared by 4 pixels has been reduced from 3 (output, reset, path select) to 2 (output, reset).

Differing from CCD, MOS image sensors had required 1 amplifier per pixel; this made miniaturization of the pixels difficult. With the development of the 1/4 type (2.25μm) MOS image sensor announced in February of 2004, the company had already enabled a single detection transistor to be shared by 4 pixels.



Inspired by:
http://dc.watch.impress.co.jp/cda/other/2005/02/09/927.html

Press Release:
http://panasonic.co.jp/corp/news/official.data/data.dir/jn050208-5/jn050208-5.html