Photobit Corporation Unveils Progressive-Scan Megapixel Image Sensor at International Solid-State Circuits Conference.

PASADENA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 17, 1999--Photobit Corporation, the leading supplier of high-performance CMOS image sensors, today announced that it will unveil the technical details of the PB-720, the first digital image sensor to conform to the 720 P60 high-definition television standard, at the International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC). The details will be presented today, at 11:30 a.m. PST, at the Marriott Hotel, San Francisco, CA, by Dr. Barmak Mansoorian, Manager of Product Development and Senior Research Scientist at Photobit Corporation. The audience will include semiconductor design engineers from the United States, Europe and Japan.

Designed for machine vision and broadcast television applications, the PB-720 (1280H x 720V) provides full-frame 10-bit digital monochrome video at 60 frames per second. It goes beyond the performance of many megapixel machine vision cameras which operate at 15 frames per second. Launched in November 98, the PB-720 uses Photobit's active-pixel sensor technology, a breakthrough solution that combines camera signal processing functions on a single chip. Photobit announced a patent for this technology, known as 'camera-on-a-chip,' in January 1999.

"It is quite an honor to be invited to present at a prestigious gathering such as the ISSCC and we are proud that Dr. Mansoorian will discuss our technology at this conference," said Dr. Sabrina Kemeny, CEO, Photobit Corporation. "We believe that there is no other off-the-shelf image sensor commercially available that matches the PB-720 in speed or performance and we look forward to sharing this information with an audience of our peers."

The PB-720 was developed by a Photobit team led by Dr. Mansoorian. Prior to joining Photobit, Dr. Mansoorian was a member of NASA's JPL where he worked in the advanced image sensor technology group and developed large-format active-pixel sensors and arrays having the lowest reported noise performance to date. Dr. Mansoorian came to JPL from Brooktree Corporation, which designs and manufactures high-performance digital and mixed-signal iimpler computer interface than is possible with interlaced chips or analog CCDs. The sensor's megapixel resowith a 60 frames-per-second output of 16:9 aspect video.

CMOS' Advantages Over CCDs

CCD (charge-coupled device) has been the prevailing technology used in video and still-camera applications for 30 years. CMOS (complementary metal oxide semiconductor) "active-pixel" digital image sensors offer several advantages over CCDs. Drawing much less power, they enable OEM products to run longer on batteries, which is critical for hand-held image capture applications such as personal data assistants (PDAs), video cell phones, and other personal communications systems (PCS). Unlike CCDs, CMOS sensors use the same manufacturing platform as most microprocessors and memory chips, making them more cost-effective and easier to produce.

About Photobit Corporation

Photobit is a fabless semiconductor supplier that leads the CMOS image sensor industry with technology and products that consistently deliver superior quality and price/performance. Formed in 1995 by a distinguished group of scientists from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Photobit has an exclusive license to the JPL CMOS active-pixel digital image sensor technology. The company is focused on bringing this revolutionary technology to a wide range of image capture markets - an arena that Photobit believes will expand exponentially in the next few years. Photobit offers a unique choice of off-the-shelf and custom products and has designed and manufactured more than twenty CMOS image sensors for firms such as Kodak, Lucent, Eaton, and Schick Technologies. The company is based in Pasadena, California. For more information, go to www.photobit.com.