Smartphones manufacturers are certainly racing to make their devices replace traditional camera’s, the most sought after feature in the phone is the camera. Since coming a long way from 2 megapixel and grainy imagery, modern smartphones have vastly improved and are near DSLR standards baring the higher megapixel and zoom capability.

But that is about to change, as Sony Corporation has just announced the upcoming release of the IMX586 stacked CMOS image sensor that features 48 effective megapixels, the industry’s highest pixel count. This was possible due to its compact size using just 0.8um in pixel size it possible to pack 48 effective megapixels onto a 1/2-type (8.0 mm diagonal) unit, making it ideal for any smartphone.

The sensor uses the Quad Bayer color filter array, where adjacent 2×2 pixels come in the same color, making high-sensitivity shooting possible. During low light shooting, the signals from the four adjacent pixels are added, raising the sensitivity to a level equivalent to that of 1.6 μm pixels (12 megapixels), resulting in bright, low noise images.

Sony comments that the new sensor is able to provide superior dynamic range four times greater than conventional units delivering scenes with even both bright and dark areas can be captured with minimal highlight blowout or loss of detail in shadows. Generally, miniaturisation of pixels results in poor light collecting efficiency per pixel, accompanied by a drop in sensitivity and volume of saturation signal but Sony engineers managed to overcome these obstacles by improving light collection efficiency and photoelectric conversion efficiency.

The increased pixel count enables high-definition imaging even on smartphones which use digital zoom. When shooting bright scenes such as daytime outdoors, the built-in, original signal processing function performs array conversion, making it possible to obtain high-definition 48 effective megapixel images in real time.