Q:What is EX-View CCD camera, What's good or bad about it    

A: "EX-View" is a sensitivity-enhancement technology developed by SONY to improve light sensitivity of its CCD by a factor of two for visible light and a factor of four for near-infrared wavelengths.

EX-View is a proprietary SONY technology in which the P/N junction of each photodiode in the CCD matrix is specially fabricated to have much better photon-to-electron conversion efficiency. In addition, each photodiode (representing one pixel in an image) has a microscopic lens fabricated over it to better capture and focus light onto the active semiconductor junction. This results in an improvement in light sensitivity of 2 times for visible light and 4 times for near-infrared (800 ~ 900 nm) compared to the conventional CCD versions offered by SONY. The lux rating of the EX-View CCD is two times better than the premium SONY "Super HAD" CCD for both visible and near-infrared wavelengths.

Mintron's proprietary DSP can be reprogrammed to work with the EX-View CCD sensor, however only a few select camera models have been chosen to incorporate the Ex-view sensor. They are models 62V1; 63V1; 63V0 from the "Starlight" series cameras and models 32K9; 33K9 from the "WK" series. B&W versions are also available with 10 times more light sensitivity at the same price.

The drawback to EX-View technology is that, due to the difficult nature of the CCD chip manufacturing process and the delicate nature of the chips, there is a limited supply of the sensor elements from SONY.

According to SONY, there are more latent imperfections in the photodiodes of the EX-View CCD chip compared to the Super HAD sensors. These few defective CCD elements may break down, thereby causing "dead pixels", which leave white or black spots on the image which cannot be removed. Dead pixels are known to develop whether the CCD chip is in storage or in active use.

As an example, an EX-View CCD might ship from SONY's factory with only 3 dead spots but the number might increase to 5 during transportation and then perhaps grow to 7 while sitting in the camera manufacturer's warehouse and grow further to, say, 12 when installed in a CCD camera. The number of dead pixels might later grow to 15 to 30 by the time the camera is received by the end user. This process will continue until the latent defects in the photodiodes stabilize. SONY says that the growing number of dead pixel elements is caused by cosmic rays that bombard the more vulnerable junctions of some of the photodiodes in the CCD array.

Due to the sensitive nature of the manufacturing process, the yield rate for EX-View CCD chips is relatively low, limiting delivery quantities of acceptable units. The high cost associated with the manufacturing process makes the EX-View CCD chip good for specific applications (e.g. scientific; industrial) where the high light sensitivity the chip provides is important, but the devices are not cost-effective for use in conventional surveillance cameras.

As Mintron is a highly reputable and responsible manufacturer, we feel obligated to remind our customers of the benefits and limitations of cameras incorporating the SONY Ex-View chip. We sincerely regret that we have to limit availability of cameras incorporating the SONY EX-View chip, declining orders from some of our valued customers who have applications in the traditional surveillance field. Please understand that this is not a limitation of Mintron's technology or our manufacturing processes but a supply-and-demand situation pertaining to the availability of EX-View CCD chips from SONY at this time.