Comparison between Ex-view HAD and Super HAD CCD cameras

What is EX-View CCD camera? and What's good or bad about it?

"EX-View" is a sensitivity-enhancement technology developed by SONY to improve light sensitivity of its CCD by a factor of two for visible light and a factor of four for near-infrared wavelengths.

EX-View is a proprietary SONY technology in which the P/N junction of each photo-diode in the CCD matrix is specially fabricated to have much better photon-to-electron conversion efficiency. In addition, each photo-diode (representing one pixel in an image) has a microscopic lens fabricated over it to better capture and focus light onto the active semiconductor junction. This results in an improvement in light sensitivity of 2 times for visible light and 4 times for near-infrared (800 ~ 900 nm) compared to the conventional CCD versions offered by SONY. The lux rating of the EX-View CCD is two times better than the premium SONY “Super HAD” CCD for both visible and near-infrared wavelengths.

What is Super HAD CCD camera?

Super HAD CCD is a trademark of Sony Corporation. The Super HAD CCD is a version of Sony's high performance CCD HAD (Hole-Accumulation Diode) sensor with sharply improved sensitivity by the incorporation of a new semiconductor technology developed by Sony Corporation. Our various KT&C cameras come with SONY SUPER HAD CCD

Efforts for more pixels and smaller size for CCD have resulted in a smaller aperture area of sensor, presenting the problem of lower sensitivity. To improve this, a lens has been provided on the top of the sensor for focusing, which increases the virtual aperture area of the sensor for higher sensitivity. That is what is called the on-chip micro-lens. Sony, the first to adopt it for the CCD image sensor, has thus successfully achieved higher sensitivity.

This "Super HAD CCD" optimizes the shape of on-chip micro-lenses in order to minimize the invalid area between micro-lenses on each pixel, which thereby minimizes the lost incident light. By doing so our product has been improved the sensitivity per unit of area, despite reducing the unit pixels.

Comparison of Conventional CCD and Super HAD CCD Sensor Structure