Casio QV-10 Liquid Crystal Digital Camera

Motorola Gold Line Pen Pager

The Casio QV-10 is a digital 'point and shoot' camera, which has invigorated the market due to its ease of use and low price. Digital cameras use Charge Coupled Devices (CCD) to capture an image, and process and store it in digital format.

A Charge Coupled Device (CCD) is a silicon device consisting of an array of horizontal and vertical photodiodes which convert light into electrical signals. CCDs generate a charge through a photoelectric effect as photons interact with the silicon atoms and create electron-hole pairs which can diffuse through the silicon lattice structure. The silicon gates are grouped into pixels (i.e., the charge of a group of silicon electrodes is collected to represent a single pixel). The charge for each pixel is transferred from the top of the silicon device to a horizontal register within the device, where it is converted into a digitally encoded output voltage.

CCD devices have been used in astronomy for over fifteen years, where their high quantum efficiencies (close to 100% of photons are detected at certain wavelengths) have helped scientists discover distant stellar objects.

Consumer Digital Cameras

The Casio QV-10 was the first digital camera targeted at the consumer market with a price tag of less than $1000. (It entered the market at $650.) The low price as well as its 1.8" LCD viewfinder and monitor for instant playback caused an unexpected boom: the camera repeatedly sold out in Japan, and Casio reportedly raised its monthly output from 3,000 to 25,000 units. Digital cameras are also available from a number of other manufacturers, including Kodak.

Compared to traditional 35mm film cameras, the image quality of consumer digital cameras is definitely subpar. A resolution of 410,000 pixels is comparable to Super VHS video. This resolution is available with a number of digital cameras that sell for around $1000. The Casio QV-10, on the other hand, has a resolution of only 250,000 pixels. Furthermore, this camera makes extensive use of compression algorithms to generate file sizes of only 25 kilobytes, which further reduces the resolution of the final image. In order for digital cameras to penetrate the market in the long term, CCD costs have to be reduced sufficiently to make one shot, three chip cameras economical.

The appeal of digital cameras lies in the speed and ease with which pictures can be taken and displayed on a computer. Benefits in the professional sector are reduced film and processing costs and quick upload capability. Rapid conversion from film to digital is currently occurring in the graphic arts industries. There are also good opportunities for digital cameras in specific business categories such as insurance and real estate. As prices drop, and digital cameras target the consumer market, the potential sales volumes rapidly increase into the hundreds of millions of potential customers.

There are a number of barriers that limit the acceptance of digital cameras in the consumer market, however. Apart from the subpar image quality, digital cameras are part of an imaging system that includes computers and printers. Their penetration is thus limited by the available infrastructure, that is, the number of households with a PC.

Second, there are immense storage requirements both for the camera, and the PC at home: An acceptable quality output for the consumer market requires files of 2 MB for each image -- including data compression. The equivalent storage capacity of a 24 or 36 exposure roll of film would thus be between 48 and 72 MB. Cameras would thus need to include memory cards or PCMCIA hard disk drives of that size -- a very expensive proposition. The price point to beat is about $12 -- the cost of a 36 exposure roll of film including film processing. On top of that comes the gigabyte hard disk drives required for saving all the files unless they are immediately printed out.

Finally, the size of the incumbent $10 billion film and film processing market is itself a barrier to the penetration of the consumer market by digital cameras.

Casio Qv-10 Digital Camera

The primary appeal and distinguishing factor of the Casio digital camera is the 1.8 inch active matrix LCD monitor, which acts as a viewfinder and as a monitor for instant replays of pictures. This allows the user to instantly view the quality of the shot, and decide to keep it, or delete it and retake the photograph.

Furthermore, the camera's lens is located in a rotatable swivel, which allows the user to rotate the lens while looking at the display. The Casio camera can be connected to a TV for better viewing, and files can be downloaded to a computer for manipulation and printing.

The Casio camera is limited by its 2 MB of internal memory, which is sufficient for 96 images with very high data compression (which can not be turned off for better resolution but fewer shots). Other cameras have slots for a PC Card (flash memory or hard disk drives) for additional storage capacity. Chinon's portable digital camera, for example, has a PC card slot. A 16 MB memory card can hold up to 689 images with resolution of 320 x 240 pixels, or 86 images with a resolution of 640 x 480 pixels.

The Casio camera has a fixed focus lens, common with most digital cameras. Automatic and zoom lenses are available however. In fact, the variety of digital cameras is bound to increase as various manufacturers now offer digital camera modules for integration into their customers' systems.

Construction

The Casio camera is approximately the size of a standard 35 mm camera (5.1" x 2.6" x 1.6"), but weighs considerably less at 286 grams. In fact, about a third of the total weight comes from the four AA-size alkaline batteries which supply two hours of continuous operation.

Main Board and CCD Interface Board

The camera contains four printed circuit boards: The main board and the CCD interface board, which process and store the image, are roughly 2 1/4 inch square and are placed in the two halves of the camera's housing.

Components are mounted on both sides of each board, and include surface-mount as well as pin-through-hole mounted devices. Both boards are around 40 mil thick, but the CCD interface board is considerably more complex: It is a six-layer FR4 board, with minimum features of 5 mil linewidth, 15 mil hole diamter, and 20 mil component lead pitch. The main board, on the other hand, is a double-sided FR4 board, with minimum features of 7 mil linewidth, 18 mil hole diamter, and 30 mil component lead pitch.

The main board and the CCD interface board are connected to each other with a ribbon cable that is soldered to the main board and connected to the CCD interface board with a connector. The main board is also connected to the active matrix LCD monitor with a three lead cable and a flexible circuit. This flexible circuit has 20 contacts at the main board end, and 33 contacts at the LCD end. (The 1.8" monitor is mounted onto the main board as a fully integrated subassembly. The LCD driver ICs are flip chip mounted directly onto the glass - chip-on-glass - via conductive adhesives.) Furthermore, the CCD interface board is connected to the CCD board with two flexible circuits, and to the switch board with a 20 pin connector.

Switch Board

The switch board and the CCD interface board stand perpendicular to each other, and the switch board extends into the battery compartment to connect to the battery contacts. On the other side of the switch board are mounted eight button contacts for various user functions. This board is a thin double-sided construction with 7 mil minimum linewidths and 18 mil hole diameter.

CCD Board

The CCD board is mounted into the rotatable swivel that contains the lens. This thin 4 layer board supports the CCD device, the glass lens assembly and the CCD controller. Apart from the CCD itself, all components are surface mount, and are placed on both sides. The board is connected to the CCD interface board through a 28 lead flexible circuit, which is split twice to allow the swivel to be rotated.

CCD Package

The CCD chip is packaged in a 20 pin through hole DIP package made of transparent plastic. The silicon die itself has an area of 200 x 150 mil (1/5" CCD), and is 20 mil thick. Analogous to a standard IC package, the die is mounted onto the leadframe using die attach material. It is then wirebonded to the individual leads of the leadframe, and the mold is filled with the transparent compound. The mold is highly polished to yield a very flat top surface for optimal optical clarity. The CCD device is a Sanyo product. The crossection below shows the CCD in great detail.

Crossection of CCD Package

Summary

The Casio QV-10 is a fine example of a digital camera, and its user friendliness has invigorated the consumer market. However, it is clear that digital cameras are limited by inadequate resolution and storage capacity in a cost conscious market.

The Casio camera is astonishingly lightweight, but it is apparent that it could be shrunk further by eliminating or miniaturizing the many passive components.

Please contact Prismark Partners at (631) 367-9187 to obtain a copy of the full report, and to discuss your company's opportunities in the consumer electronics market in general, and digital cameras and CCD devices in particular.

Warranty Disclaimer -- All information in the preparation of these reports was obtained from sources believed to be reliable at the time the information was collected. Prismark Partners LLC, its employees, its agents, and assigns have exercised their best efforts in preparing these reports. Prismark Partners LLC extends no warranties with respect to this information and shall bear no liability whatsoever to the report recipient or to any other party as a result of the use of these reports or the information contained herein.

Copyright 1996 Integrated Electronics Engineering Center and Prismark Partners LLC.

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Copyright © 2000 [IEEC]. All rights reserved. Revised: February 28, 2002 .