USB camera DSP provides improved solution for mobile phone cameras

CoreLogic has announced the industry’s first USB camera DSP for mobile phones, the CLC342. The device supports a CMOS image sensor, a CCD (charge coupled devices) interface, a JPEG encoder, and a USB 1.1 host/slave. The device is designed with 0.35 mm technology and is packaged in an 81-CABGA.

To link an external camera to a mobile phone, a serial interface is required, as there are not enough connectors available for a parallel interface. While most camera products use a UART, CoreLogic has employed a USB host interface. The company claims that this allows ten times the data transmission speed of a UART, and reduces the data transmission time of large still images.

Image quality and transmission speeds are the most important considerations in connecting a camera to a handset. The CLC342 supports high-speed displays at 10 to 20 fps with a transmission speed of 12 Mbps, compared to the existing UART cameras that support only 1 to 4 fps. Image size can be changed through register programming such as VGA (640×480), SIF (320×240), and QSIF (160×120). The device operates at 2.8- to 3.6-V, and consumes a maximum of 60 mA.

“We have commercialized USB data transmission technology between the USB slave (mobile phone) and the USB host (digital camera) for the first time in the industry. It will greatly contribute to the digital camera market for mobile phones with color monitors,” says Young-tae Kim, CoreLogic’s manager for management and planning.

The CLC342 is best suited for external cameras, though it can support a built-in camera as well. The company plans to launch soon a DSP IC, the CLC344, with parallel interface support for built-in cameras. This device will feature a JPEG encoder/decoder, an LCD display and an OSD function as IP for the display of moving and still images.

The market for USB phone cameras is expected to grow dramatically this and next year. For example, the US company Qualcomm plans to support a USB interface in its future mobile phone models, starting with the GSM baseband chip at the end of this year. So far, mobile phone cameras have attracted little attention in the domestic market due to their low-speed displays and the low market penetration of color mobile phones. But almost 80% of the mobile phones planned for future launch on the domestic market will have color LCDs with a USB interface, which is promising news for CoreLogic.


CoreLogic
Fax (82) 2-501-4637
www.corelogic.co.kr