STMicroelectronics has launched two ultra-low power global shutter image sensors capable of enabling always-on vision capabilities for wearables, AR/VR, and smart devices.

ST announced on May 11 that it has launched the ultra-low power image sensors VD55G4 and VD65G4. The two products, a monochrome sensor and an RGB color sensor respectively, have been added to the ST BrightSense portfolio.

The new product is characterized by reducing power consumption to up to one-tenth of that of existing global shutter sensors under operating conditions of approximately 800×700 resolution and 10fps. It features a structure that activates the main processor only when necessary after detecting a scene change.

The VD55G4 and VD65G4 are designed to work with low-power microcontrollers and cost-effective SoCs. This enables the application of vision capabilities even in small devices with significant power, size, and cost constraints.

Application fields include wearables, AR, VR, and XR headsets, smart home appliances, and medical devices. In wearable devices, it can be used for gaze detection, presence detection, and situational notification functions, and in AR/VR devices, it supports tracking and spatial recognition functions.

It can be utilized to process image-based data within smart home appliances, IoT devices, and medical devices. ST explained that this sensor can also be applied to small battery or energy harvesting-based devices.

Alexandre Valmepresol, Senior Vice President and Head of the Imaging Subgroup at ST, stated that always-on vision capabilities are becoming important in next-generation personal electronic devices such as smart glasses, AR/VR headsets, intelligent home appliances, and medical devices, and that this sensor can contribute to extending battery life in small products and applying edge AI.

The VD55G4 and VD65G4 are based on 3D stacked 65nm and 40nm architectures and are manufactured at ST's Croll plant in France. ST plans to provide development boards, camera modules, evaluation software, platform drivers, software development kits, and more for STM32 and Raspberry Pi.