74: Skylight sensor

During his days in Wuzhen for the Internet Conference, Chen Chen was quite pleased with the beautiful scenery of Jiangnan.

“Writing this, I hope readers will remember our domain: a vast selection of Taiwanese novels awaits your discovery.”

It would have been even more perfect if he hadn't had to attend the Internet Conference.

As soon as he returned to the company in the Beijing, the receptionist informed him that a person named Xiao had been waiting for Chen Chen in the Beijing for several days.

Looking at Shen Rou, who basically arranged all his itineraries, Shen Rou opened the schedule and said to Chen Chen:

“This is the owner of a sensor company. We received his visit request the day we left for Wuzhen. After Xiao Wang gave me the information, I didn't think this small sensor company was particularly important, so I planned to report to you after we returned.”

“This year, our Shine 2 had plans to purchase their sensors, but CEO Lu, after reviewing their company's situation, worried that their production capacity couldn't keep up, so he declined to cooperate with them.”

“Hmm, from now on, if you encounter anyone named Xiao, Ye, or Lin, report to me immediately.”

“If you encounter anyone named Tang, directly kick them out.”

“Understood, CEO Chen. How about 3 PM this afternoon?”

“Alright, let's meet at 3 PM this afternoon. See what this Boss Xiao wants. You can give me their company's information later.”

Currently, there are still many small companies in China researching and producing sensors, but these companies have a very large gap compared to mainstream sensor manufacturers.

Currently, the mainstream camera sensor companies include Sony, Samsung, OV, and Hynix, among others.

Among them, Sony's lenses and sensors are the most widely used. Later, OV, an authentic American-funded enterprise, after a series of operations, successfully transformed into a Chinese-funded enterprise and received support from major mobile phone manufacturers. Before Chen Chen's transmigration, flagship phones from these domestic manufacturers had already started using OV's sensors.

Chen Chen looked at the information Shen Rou brought him in the office. Optical sensors on mobile phones are an important component of mobile phone camera parts.

The CMOS currently used in Red Star's Kunpeng mobile phone is Sony's IM179, coupled with a seven-piece stacked lens module, offering very high lens resolution and imaging effects.

Xiao Yuan's Tianguang Optical Instruments Factory was established in 2001, making it 12 years old now, and it possesses a decent production line and certain technical capabilities.

However, with the changing times, Tianguang Optical Instruments, like OV, has seen its gap with top sensor companies widen.

Coupled with the low-end market competition triggered by the Shine 2, Tianguang Company's business has become increasingly difficult.

Because Tianguang Instruments specializes in the business of counterfeit phones, most counterfeit phone manufacturers prioritize these relatively cheap domestic sensors when purchasing sensors.

As long as it can capture a human figure, that's enough.

Even the later saying, “can only scan QR codes,” was a compliment to these lenses.

Now, the fierce competition in the low-end phone market has further compressed the living space of counterfeit phones, naturally making it harder for Tianguang.

Xiao Yuan wasn't without thoughts of change, nor was he content to be just a supplier for counterfeit phones, but investing in R&D required money.

To get money, large-scale shipments were needed.

Now, without shipments, there's no money for R&D, and with inferior technology, even fewer companies are willing to purchase.

Last year, when the Shine 2 was finalized, Tianguang briefly entered Red Star's supplier list for one reason: it was cheap, and on top of being cheap, this Tianguang sensor was not bad.

However, after Lu Weiqi comprehensively considered their supply capacity, he removed Tianguang from the supplier list.

You know, the sales of Shine 2 are in the tens of millions. If your small company had an order of a few million, expanding production capacity might be manageable, but it's a tens of millions order, and Tianguang's production capacity simply couldn't handle it.

Having no other choice, Xiao Yuan began to promote it himself, and the negotiations went smoothly.

The result, of course, was nothing.

It wasn't that these manufacturers couldn't see the value of Tianguang's latest sensor, but it was indeed a bit expensive.

If there's a cheaper option, why choose your expensive one?

After arriving at Red Star, the receptionist told him that CEO Chen had gone to attend the Wuzhen Internet Conference, and she had already sent his visit message to CEO Chen's assistant, who would contact him after CEO Chen returned.

Waiting in the Beijing for four days, Xiao Yuan was extremely anxious.

This year, Red Star will definitely be number one in shipments in China, and it is his, Xiao Yuan's, lifeline.

When he received the call from Red Star, he was so excited he almost jumped.

As long as Red Star is willing to purchase his latest sensor, his company will definitely be saved!

Once his Liquid Lens research and development is complete, he will no longer have to pander to those counterfeit phone manufacturers!

“CEO Chen, this is our latest TG23 sensor. This sensor has a 1/4-inch sensor size, an aperture of f2.3, and a single pixel area of 1.03um.”

In Chen Chen's office, Xiao Yuan was excitedly introducing the company's latest sensor to Chen Chen.

Clearly, he had already regarded Red Star as his company's lifeline. Securing an order from a powerful manufacturer like Red Star would naturally provide more funds for the research and development of Liquid Lens.

However, he was completely unaware that after Chen Chen finished reading the information on Tianguang Optical Instruments, he had already conceived the idea of acquiring the company.

Seeing Chen Chen very interested, he continued to introduce the latest sensor with great enthusiasm.

Although Chen Chen didn't know much about mobile phone sensors, he had quickly brushed up on the knowledge before Xiao Yuan arrived.

To gauge the performance of a sensor, one must first look at the size of the CMOS sensor.

Generally, this sensor size is 1/? inch, and the smaller the value of 'x', the larger the CMOS sensor, which means it can capture more light.

Besides the sensor, what draws the most attention is the pixel count.

Most phone pixels range from several million to tens of millions. Of course, this is now; those 100 million or 200 million pixels in later generations are excluded for now.

Even those 100 million or 200 million are composite pixels and don't really count.

As the saying goes, a larger sensor size crushes the competition. Manufacturers aren't yet competing on who has the largest sensor; they're more concerned with who has more pixels and higher pixel count.

The images we see on our phones are composed of individual pixels, which can be thought of as tiny squares. A 5-megapixel image is composed of approximately 5 million small pixel squares.

This means that the higher the phone's pixel count, the more details it can retain, and the clearer it will appear visually.

As for other factors, the single pixel area and aperture size are also important factors affecting image quality.

The aperture values like f1.8, f2.0, commonly seen in phone camera interfaces, refer to the amount of light intake. A smaller aperture number allows more light to enter the sensor, resulting in brighter photos.

However, the focal lengths of lenses on the market are currently quite similar, and aperture parameters are also largely the same. It hasn't reached the cutthroat competition of later generations, where every single parameter is compared.

Again, right now, it's just about whose pixel count is higher.

“CEO Chen, this sensor is our company's latest production. Its hardware level is excellent.”

Xiao Yuan continued to meticulously introduce each parameter of the sensor, hoping that Chen Chen would consider placing an order with Tianguang.