Cypress's Industry-Leading CMOS Image Sensor Portfolio Designed Into State-of-the-Art ARRI ALEXA Digital Movie Camera

The ALEXA, which maintains the look and feel of 35 mm film cameras, is ARRI’s fastest-selling camera. It has been used on various motion pictures, including 3D productions and commercial shoots. The ALEXA with the Cypress image sensor outperforms ARRI’s traditional CCD- and CMOS-based competitors in this fast growing market segment.

Produced at ARRI’s Munich facilities, the ALEXA offers a file-based workflow that eliminates lengthy transfer processes and accelerates post-production by making images immediately available for editing and color correction. In addition, the camera’s dynamic range; rugged frame (which enables it to perform in different climates) and simple menu controls have made it a hit with cinematographers.

A Cypress custom CMOS imager sensor also was designed into ARRI’s ARRIFLEX D20/D21 digital motion picture camera, which preceded the ALEXA. Cypress used this knowledge, along with experience gained from numerous other sensor designs, to improve the performance of the ALEXA sensor.

Cypress’s custom image sensor portfolio addresses a broad range of applications, including industrial and medical x-ray imaging, endoscopy, machine vision, star tracking and remote sensing for space, barcode readers, biometrics, cinematography, high-speed line sensors and high-speed motion analysis sensors.

“Our experience in delivering full-service custom imaging solutions has made us a one-stop shop for product engineering, product characterization and manufacturing support,” said Georges Hiltrop, general manager of Cypress’s image sensor business unit. “With CMOS sensors capturing a greater share of the market, Cypress is committed to strengthening its knowledge base and working closely with customers to deliver solutions that optimize their products.”

”We’re thrilled with the performance of the ALEXA camera and with the market’s reaction to it,” said Franz Kraus, Managing Director of ARRI. “The Cypress team exceeded our high expectations in terms of delivering an outstanding sensor on schedule with the features we demanded.”

Cypress Image Sensors
Cypress offers standard and customized CMOS image sensors for consumer as well as industrial and professional applications. Consumer applications include solutions for fast growing high-speed machine vision, motion monitoring, medical imaging, intelligent traffic systems, security, and barcode applications. Cypress's customized CMOS image sensors are characterized by very high pixel counts, large area, very high frame rates, large dynamic range, and high sensitivity.

CMOS image sensors complement Cypress's technology and market strengths and expand Cypress's existing presence in numerous complementary markets where it sells a broad array of timing and USB solutions, configurable microcontrollers and memories.