Samsung Electronics has unveiled a powerful new weapon that could secure its lead in the image sensor market.

Samsung Electronics released the image sensor 'ISOCELL HP2' equipped with 200 million 0.6㎛ (micrometer) sized pixels on the 17th.

'ISOCELL HP2' is the first in the industry to apply 'Dual Vertical Transfer Gate' technology, increasing the charge storage capacity (Full Well Capacity) by up to 33% compared to previous 200 million pixel products, thereby improving image quality.

'Dual vertical transfer gate' is a technology that maximizes the efficiency of electronic signal transmission by arranging two vertical gates that move electrons from the photodiode to the circuit.

Additionally, the 'Tetra Squared Pixel (Tetra2pixel)' technology was also applied, which expands the light-receiving area by grouping 4 or 16 adjacent pixels depending on the lighting conditions.

This technology enables clear photography by securing a light-receiving area equivalent to a pixel size of 1.2㎛ (50 million pixels) or 2.4㎛ (12.5 million pixels) even in low-light environments such as dark weather or indoors.

Here, the existing 'Smart ISO Pro' technology is used to enhance the HDR (High Dynamic Range) function. In addition, the new 'Dual Slope Gain' technology has also been applied.

'Dual slope gain' is a technology that amplifies the analog information of light entering the pixel into two different signals, converts them into digital signals, and synthesizes them into one data, expanding the range of colors that the sensor can express.

Through this technology, Samsung Electronics has improved image processing speed by implementing 50 million pixel HDR shooting using only an image sensor without mobile AP support for the first time in the industry.

The 'HP2' is also equipped with the 'Super QPD (Quad Phase Detection)' function that performs phase detection auto focus by utilizing all 200 million pixels. This allows for fast and accurate focusing using the phase difference between the left and right as well as the top and bottom even under moonlight (approximately 1 lux), which is approximately 100 times lower than the brightness of a living room (approximately 100 lux).

In addition, the 're-mosaic algorithm' based on Deep Learning has been applied to improve the shooting speed and quality in ultra-high pixel environments. The 200 million pixel shooting speed of the 'HP2' is about twice as fast as the previous product, and it supports 8K resolution at 30 frames per second and 4K resolution at 120 frames per second. In particular, it is characterized by the ability to shoot 8K video, which is an ultra-high resolution, at the same angle as taking photos.

Meanwhile, Samsung Electronics ranks second in the image sensor market, following Japan's Sony.

According to data from Omdia, as of the third quarter of 2022, Sony of Japan had a market share of 51.6%, while Samsung Electronics had a market share of 15.6%, showing a large gap with Sony.

In particular, the market share gap was found to be widening further.

This is analyzed as being because Sony secured more orders from large customers such as Apple and Xiaomi.