Test service opens for camera-phone modules
-- Test & Measurement World, 11/7/2006 11:50:00 AM
UK-based RFI Global Services has launched the first camera-phone module test services to be approved by Nokia and STMicroelectronics, founding members of the Standard Mobile Imaging Architecture (SMIA) forum (www.smia-forum.org).
As an SMIA-standard developer, Nokia will purchase SMIA-compliant camera modules for its mainstream camera-phone range. The planned purchase forms a significant incentive to adopt the new standard for manufacturers such as STMicroelectronics, Micron, Omnivision, Magnachip, and Toshiba.
The demand for camera phones and other mobile imaging devices has created a wide variety of different solutions in the market. The earlier lack of a standard left camera module manufacturers to create their own definitions for electrical interface, protocol, and mechanical form. SMIA is an open standard available to all companies making, specifying, or buying miniature integrated camera modules. The SMIA forum now has approximately 500 members.
Janne Haavisto, director with Nokia's Audio Visual Systems said: "To have the first SMIA Approved Laboratory is a significant step to speeding up the roll-out of SMIA-approved camera phones and we look forward to RFI's cooperation with the members of the SMIA forum. Setting up an independent test laboratory complements the SMIA forum's target of streamlining and accelerating camera module development."
RFI Global Services, www.rfi-global.com.
