A year or so ago I was preparing for a medical imaging project looking at using OmniVision’s OV6920 CMOS imager chip. Not only is it small (at 2.3 x 2.1mm), it also requires very little external components and is cheap enough to be used as a disposable item. We’ve built a few evaluation boards if you’re interested…

In Vision Systems Design of January 2009 I came across an article mentioning an even smaller chip: 500 x 540 microns - at 140 x 140 pixels not a great image but it does mean it can sit at the tip of an endoscope of less then 1mm diameter! It is manufactured by Awaiba Lda of Madeira, Portugal. They specialise in custom CMOS imager chips, but there’s no mention of the tiny chip on their website.

I’d certainly be interested to do a project with that chip.

Marc