Industrial machine vision has always been a powerful assistant in the field of production and manufacturing, like the “eyes” on the production line, providing unparalleled precision and efficiency for tasks such as quality control, automated production, product identification and monitoring. However, with the rapid development of science and technology and the continuous expansion of application fields, the demand for image sensors is becoming more and more urgent. According to Yole’s latest forecast, the industrial CIS market will maintain high growth in the next four years, and the market size will reach $1.302 billion by 2027.

Machine vision technology is becoming a central driving force in modern industry. As one of the pioneers in the field of innovation, Stever has a significant technological influence and market position on a global scale. Its technology-leading global shutter SmartGS® technology is widely used in drones, QRC readers, smart mobile home devices, and more. According to the latest TSR data, in the whole year of 2022, Steway ranked first in the world in the market share of drones and QRC readers. Among them, Steway accounts for about 90% of the global consumer UAV obstacle avoidance market share, which is expected to continue to grow at an annual growth rate of 10% in 2023. Based on these successful applications and technical advantages in the field of machine vision and smart appliances, this paper introduces the product layout and prospects of Steway in the field of industrial cameras and robots.

As a product technology oriented enterprise with application development trend, Steway summarized the actual needs of various industrial application fields/application scenarios for intelligent image processing, and developed the following three categories of product series: area array, intelligent transportation system (ITS), line array, covering the mainstream industrial intelligent scene in a full range.

SmartGS® technology is leading the revolution in industrial vision

Unlike Rolling Shutter exposure methods adopted in other fields, the errors that may be caused by deformation artifacts caused by high-speed moving objects will be amplified infinitely in machine vision scenes. The high frame rate, distortion-free Global Shutter is the first choice for industrial array applications and intelligent transportation systems.

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Array application panoramic analysis

In terms of global shutter technology, Steway has a first-mover advantage. Since 2017, Stevie has been laying out machine vision applications and developing SmartGS® technology. Based on this technology, Steway quickly launched the world’s first image sensor products using BSI pixel architecture and global shutter technology, and successfully applied to the field of industrial array image sensors. At present, this technology has been iterated to the second generation of SmartGS®-2, which greatly improves night vision, sensitivity and high temperature performance compared to the first generation technology. In addition to the second generation, the SmartGS®-2 Plus technology is introduced in 2022 to further enhance performance through High Density MIM(HD MIM) technology. The SmartGS®-2 Plus technology offers significant noise performance improvements over its predecessor. Based on the SmartGS®-2 Plus technology, the array series has achieved breakthrough noise performance improvements that are significant compared to previous technology products and close to the noise performance of rolling shutter (RS) products.

With the support of SmartGS®-2 Plus technology, Steway began to deploy a series of industrial array image sensors in 2021, and continue to introduce industry-leading high-performance products, such as the latest SmartGS®-2 Plus technology product SC535HGS, With low noise, 5MP high resolution, high quantum efficiency (QE), high full well electronics (FWC) four characteristics, can greatly improve the high-end machine vision applications for high-speed moving parts detection capabilities, to achieve high-quality image capture in low light environment, improve production efficiency.

Steway array series products can enable intelligent upgrading of the following four scenarios, ensure distortion-free imaging and high-speed image acquisition performance, bring more accurate and efficient visual inspection, quality control and production optimization capabilities for high-end industrial machine vision applications, and significantly improve the efficiency and quality of industrial production.

1. New energy materials testing

Its high-precision image acquisition capability enables comprehensive and efficient defect detection of lithium batteries and photovoltaic panels. For lithium batteries, for example, the product is able to capture tiny imperfections on the surface of the film or electrode, such as bubbles, stains or foreign bodies, ensuring consistency and high quality during the battery manufacturing process.