Sunny Optical to Partner with Light on Imaging Technology

3 July 2015—Light, an early-stage designer of high-resolution cameras that is based in Palo Alto, Calif. (USA), announced yesterday a manufacturing partnership with Sunny Optical Technology, a China-based supplier of handset camera modules.  Light’s imaging technology for mobile phones aims to put advanced optical systems into phones, for high-quality, high-resolution imaging in a small form factor. Under the partnership, Sunny Optical will build and assemble the camera modules for Light.

Light’s technology incorporates numerous small lenses and image sensors into smartphones and other camera-using systems. The lenses will capture images simultaneously, and software will combine the images in a mobile phone to create photos with the quality one could expect from a bulky, more costly DSLR camera. Active alignment and precision manufacturing will be critical to ensure the optical center of the sensor assembly aligns with the optical center of the lens barrel. Sunny Optical will manufacture and assemble Light’s camera modules at high volumes.

Light also announced a contract electronics-manufacturing deal with Foxconn, the world’s largest manufacturing contractor, in April. Light expects its first cameras with 52-megapixel resolution to appear in smartphones in 2016.