St joins forces with Sphere Studios to create the world's largest image sensor for motion picture cameras

     STMicroelectronics and Sphere Entertainment, Inc. have announced the latest details of the world's largest image sensor developed for Sphere's Big Sky photography system. Big Sky is a breakthrough ultra high resolution professional photography system used to capture images for Sphere, the next generation entertainment media company in Las Vegas.

     Sphere has installed the world's largest high-resolution LED screen inside the theater, which surrounds the top and sides of the auditorium in the form of a ball screen, creating a truly immersive visual environment. Sphere Studios, Sphere's studio responsible for developing original live entertainment experiences, designed a Big Sky photography system for the 160,000-square-foot, 16K x 16K screen. To meet the image size and clarity requirements of the Sphere screen, ST worked with Sphere Studios to create the industry's first 18K image sensor for Big Sky, which is currently the world's largest commercial film camera sensor and works with the world's sharpest film lenses. Capture sharp, large-format images like never before.

     Deanan DaSilva, Sphere Studios' lead architect of the Big Sky project, said: "Big Sky has greatly advanced the technology of cinematography, and each element represents a leap forward in our innovation in design and manufacturing. The image sensor on the camera determines the quality of the picture. Given the size and resolution of Sphere's screen, Big Sky's sensors had to surpass the photographic capabilities of existing sensors. "Working closely with Sphere Studios, ST has leveraged ST's extensive technical experience to deliver this ground-breaking image sensor that will help create richer, immersive visual content for Sphere and the entertainment industry as a whole."

     Alexandre Balmefezol, Executive Vice President and General Manager of ST's Imaging Sub-Product group, said: "For nearly 25 years, ST has been at the forefront of imaging technology, IP and tools to create unique solutions with advanced features and performance. Creating a custom sensor of this size, resolution and speed, while also meeting low noise, high dynamic range and extremely demanding yield requirements, was a new challenge for ST, and we successfully met this challenge with the first wafers off the production line at our 12-inch (300mm) fab in Kroll, France."

     As one of the world's leading image sensor developers and manufacturers, ST's imaging technology and foundry services meet the needs of a wide variety of photography markets, including professional photography and cinematography. Big Sky's 316 megapixel image sensor is nearly seven times the size and 40 times the resolution of a high-end commercial full-frame camera. The chip measures 9.92cm x 8.31cm and has an area of 82.4 square centimetres, almost twice the size of a two-inch photograph. Only four such pieces can be cut on a 12-inch wafer. Big Sky, equipped with this sensor, can capture images at 120 frames per second and transfer data at 60 GB per second.

     Big Sky also allows film crews to capture large format images with just one camera, eliminating the need to splice shots from multiple cameras, eliminating common problems such as close-up limitations and image splicing. Sphere Studios has filed ten patents related to Big Sky technology and the number is growing.