OmniVision Technologies Inc. is an American subsidiary of Chinese semiconductor device and mixed-signal integrated circuit design house Will Semiconductor. The company designs and develops digital imaging products for use in mobile phones, laptops, netbooks and webcams, security and surveillance cameras, entertainment, automotive and medical imaging systems. Headquartered in Santa Clara, California, OmniVision Technologies has offices in the US, Western Europe and Asia. In 2016, OmniVision was acquired by a consortium of Chinese investors consisting of Hua Capital Management Co., Ltd., CITIC Capital Holdings Limited and Goldstone Investment Co., Ltd. History OmniVision was founded in 1995 by Aucera Technology (TAIWAN:奧斯來科技). Some company milestones: 1999: First Application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) 2000: IPO 2005: Acquired CDM-Optics, a company founded to commercialize wavefront coding. 2010: Acquires Aurora Systems and adds LCOS to its product line 2011: Acquired Kodak patents 2015: Signed an agreement to be acquired by a group of Chinese investors, including Hua Capital Management, CITIC Capital Holdings and GoldStone Investment, for about $1.9 billion in cash in April 2015. 2016: Becomes a private company due to buyout by Chinese private equity consortium 2018/2019: Will Semiconductor acquired OmniVision Technologies (for $2.178 billion) and SuperPix Micro Technology, merging them to form Omnivision Group 2019: Achieved Guinness World Record for world's smallest commercially available sensor for OV6948 used as the CameraCubeChip. Technologies OmniPixel3-HS OmniVision's front-side illumination (FSI) technology is used to manufacture compact cameras in mobile handsets, notebook computers and other applications that require low-light performance without the need for flash. OmniPixel3-GS expands on its predecessor, and is used for eye-tracking for facial authentication, and other computer vision applications. OmniBSI Backside illuminated image (BSI) technology differs from FSI architectures in how light is delivered to the photosensitive area of the sensor. In FSI architectures, the light must first pass through transistors, dielectric layers, and metal circuitry. In contrast, OmniBSI technology turns the image sensor upside down and applies color filters and micro lenses to the backside of the pixels, resulting in light collection through the backside of the sensor. OmniBSI-2 The second-generation BSI technology, developed in cooperation with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (TSMC), is built using custom 65 nm design rules and 300mm copper processes. These technology changes were made to improve low-light sensitivity, dark current, and full-well capacity and provide a sharper image.. CameraCubeChip In this camera module, sensor and lens manufacturing processes are combined using semiconductor stacking methodology. Wafer-level optical elements are