IC Media Announces New Family of Single-Chip Cameras for Applications Requiring a Television Interface.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 13, 2002

Company Additionally Announces First Product in New Family,

Designed for Security Applications

IC Media Corporation today announced its new family of color and black-and-white single-chip cameras designed for applications requiring a single-chip camera with a standard television interface. The new ICM-510 family of products is equipped with an on-board television imager, ideal for security devices, toys and environmental monitors. The company additionally announced the first product in the new family, a 300K resolution (574 x 483-sensor array), single-chip, color camera designed specifically for NTSC video (the United States and Canadian video standard) applications.

"The new ICM-510 family is the latest example of IC Media's technological expertise in providing solutions for a wide variety of high-growth, consumer applications," said Dr. Ben Wu, president and chief executive officer of IC Media. "Our team designed our latest single-chip solution to include a sensor array, NTSC encoder and digital signal processing in an extremely small package, enabling better imaging at a lower cost. This achievement is significant and provides long-awaited and enhanced solutions for a variety of visually-intensive home applications."

About the ICM-515NB Single-Chip Camera

The ICM-515NB was created to specifically address the high-growth home surveillance camera market. The product offers enhanced color control with a unique auto-white-balance and an auto-exposure algorithm, enabling superior performance in all lighting environments and providing an ideal solution for security applications. The small die size, small package (11.43 x 11.43 mm) and low power consumption (less than 60 mA) enable cost and space savings, critical for the demanding constraints of consumer products.

The ICM-515NB is a single-chip, digital color video imaging device. It incorporates a 574 x 483 sensor array (584 x 493 in physical layout) operating at 30 frames-per-second (60 fields/sec) in an interlaced manner. Correlated double sampling is performed by the internal ADC and timing circuitry. Depending on the brightness of the scene, the raw data can be adjusted by an automatic (or manual) exposure control (AE). The raw data is further processed by a color interpolation module so that each pixel gets a complete set of RGB values. To correct or enhance color, white balancing and color correction are also performed automatically on-chip. During the next image processing stage, the gamma correction can also be performed. After these digital-processing steps, the signal is fed to an embedded NTSC encoder that generates composite video output to be sent to a TV for display.

IC Media offers a complete line of tools for the ICM-515NB, including demo kits, recommended circuit information and printed circuit board layout guidelines.

More on the ICM-510 Family

IC Media's ICM-510 family leverages the company's single-chip, 0.35 um-process technology to include a sensor array, proprietary digital signal processor (DSP) and television encoder. The DSP ensures power consumption advantages and auto exposure/auto white balance functionality. The DSP additionally provides dual-mode camera functionality (both television mode and digital output mode) by allowing the addition of universal serial bus (USB) and memory interfaces for standard PC environments. Such interface capabilities are not possible from a single chip solution using an analog signal processor. IC Media's proprietary, integrated technology enables images to be captured in a wide variety of environments, including low-light, dim-light and incandescent lighting conditions.

Pricing and Availability

The ICM-515NB is currently available in sample quantities in shrunk plastic LCC (11.43 mm x 11.43 mm) packages. Pricing for the ICM-515NB is $7.00 in 10,000-unit quantities.

OEMs may contact IC Media at 408/451-8838 or [e-mail].

About IC Media IC Media Corporation

IC Media Corporation designs, develops and markets System-On-Chip (SOC) solutions for image communication devices. Target applications include PC cameras, digital still cameras, toys with vision, surveillance systems, video (cellular) phones, set top boxes, PDAs and environmental monitors. IC Media provides complete system solutions, including schematic, Gerber file, bill of material (BOM) and software drivers to shorten customers' time-to-market. IC Media consists of a team of outstanding technologists in digital and mixed-signal IC design and software and system development. Headquartered at 545 E. Brokaw Road, San Jose, California 95112, phone [phone], IC Media has sales channels throughout the world. Visit IC Media at www.ic-media.com.