With the industry’s smallest¹ pixel SWIR image sensor that achieves miniaturization and multi-pixelation, Dishan Technology has significantly elevated the global standard of quality inspection.
As the wave of industrial intelligence sweeps across the world, accurate and efficient quality inspection has become a core proposition for manufacturing upgrading. Short-Wave Infrared (SWIR) imaging technology is widely used in multiple key fields due to its advantages of strong penetration, material composition identification capability, and immunity to visible light interference:
In semiconductor inspection, SWIR technology can effectively identify micro-cracks and impurities on chip surfaces, improving product yield.
In food sorting, it enables rapid detection of internal defects and sugar content in fruits, ensuring food quality.
In pharmaceutical identification, SWIR imaging can accurately analyze drug components, guaranteeing the safety and efficacy of pharmaceuticals.
In recycling and classification, this technology identifies the characteristics of different materials, greatly enhancing the efficiency and accuracy of resource recovery.
However, traditional SWIR image sensors are often limited by large pixel size, low resolution and bulky system volume, making it difficult to meet the stringent requirements of modern production lines for high-precision, high-speed and miniaturized equipment. Against this backdrop, Dishan Technology has leveraged breakthrough technology to successfully develop the industry’s smallest¹ pixel SWIR image sensor, achieving dual breakthroughs in miniaturization and multi-pixelation. This innovation not only redefines the technical boundaries of SWIR imaging, but also elevates the global standard of quality inspection to an entirely new level, leading the industry into a brand-new era of "micro-perception and intelligent upgrading".
Industry's smallest * 1 pixel: ushering in a new era of SWIR sensor miniaturization
Traditional SWIR sensors mostly adopt IIIV or IIVI group semiconductor materials (e.g., InGaAs), which entail high manufacturing costs. With a typical pixel size of over 15μm, these sensors result in large footprint and bulky lens systems, making them difficult to integrate into compact detection devices. By leveraging independently developed advanced material systems and innovative pixel structure designs, Dishan Technology has successfully reduced the SWIR pixel size to an industryleading Xμm (specific value to be supplemented based on actual conditions). While maintaining high quantum efficiency and low dark current, this achievement enables a leapforward improvement in pixel density. This breakthrough marks the official entry of SWIR imaging technology into the "MicroPixel Era", paving the way for sensor miniaturization and integration.
Behind the Technological Breakthrough: Material Innovation and Structural Optimization
Novel Semiconductor Materials
Moving away from conventional InGaAs, the new sensors utilize narrowbandgap semiconductor materials with higher photoelectric conversion efficiency. Nanoscale doping processes are employed to regulate material properties, achieving ultrahigh responsivity in the SWIR band (900–1700nm) while reducing dark current noise.
Innovative Pixel Structure Design
The sensor adopts an innovative "deep trench isolation" and backilluminated pixel structure. Through precision etching, a physical isolation layer is formed between pixels, effectively suppressing optical crosstalk and ensuring high imaging clarity even with miniaturized pixels.
Elevated Quantum Efficiency
By integrating surface micronano structure design and antireflective coating technology, the sensor’s quantum efficiency in the SWIR band exceeds 90%—representing a 20% improvement over traditional technologies. This enhancement further strengthens imaging capabilities in lowlight environments. Practically, this means the sensor can capture more photon information under dim lighting conditions, thereby improving imaging quality and detection accuracy. For instance, in nighttime scenarios or lowlight industrial settings, the new sensor technology enables clearer identification of microdefects or anomalies, boosting the reliability and efficiency of quality inspection processes.
Implications of the Breakthrough
The sensor chip area is significantly reduced, enabling compatibility with more compact packaging and optical systems, and facilitating the development of portable and embedded detection devices.
The overall volume and weight of the system are decreased, allowing seamless integration into spaceconstrained applications such as robotic arms, drones, and mobile inspection vehicles, thus greatly enhancing detection flexibility.
More pixels can be integrated per unit area, enabling higher resolution without increasing sensor size and making the detection of microdefects a practical reality.
Parallel Multi Pixel and Miniaturization: Feasibility Boundary for Reconstructing Quality Detection
Building on the achievement of pixel miniaturization, Dishan Technology is simultaneously advancing its "multi-pixelation" strategy, launching a product line of SWIR sensors with megapixel-level and even higher resolutions. The combination of high pixel density and compact size makes it possible to deploy high-precision imaging systems in limited spaces, completely breaking the paradox of traditional SWIR detection that "higher resolution equals larger volume".
Disruptive Transformations in Application Scenarios
1. Semiconductor Wafer Inspection
Detection equipment equipped with miniaturized SWIR sensors can be placed close to the wafer surface, capturing micro-cracks, contamination, or interlayer defects on the wafer with submicron-level resolution. The inspection efficiency is over 5 times higher than that of conventional equipment, helping to push the chip manufacturing yield beyond 99.9%.
2. Intelligent Food Sorting
Multi-pixel SWIR cameras can scan every piece of fruit and vegetable on high-speed conveyor belts in real time. By penetrating the outer skin to detect internal rot, sugar content distribution, or foreign matter contamination, they achieve zero-miss inspection quality control. Meanwhile, the inspection speed is increased to 3 times that of traditional solutions, reducing labor costs.
3. New Energy Battery Safety Testing
SWIR sensors can penetrate battery separators to accurately identify potential hazards such as uneven coating thickness of electrode sheets and micro-pores, serving as "see-through eyes" for battery safety and driving quality upgrading in the new energy vehicle industry.
4. Refined Circular Economy
In the field of plastic recycling, high-resolution SWIR sensors can quickly identify the molecular fingerprints of different plastic materials, enabling precise sorting at the millimeter level and supporting efficient resource recovery and carbon neutrality goals.
Evocative Descriptions of Application Scenarios
5. Semiconductor Wafer Inspection
Miniaturized SWIR sensors act like high-tech "microscopes": placed close to the wafer surface, they "see into" micro-cracks, contamination, or interlayer defects with submicron-level resolution. With inspection efficiency over 5 times higher than traditional equipment, they inject a powerful "booster shot" into chip production, helping to push the manufacturing yield beyond 99.9%.
6. Intelligent Food Sorting
Multi-pixel SWIR cameras function as efficient "quality guardians": they scan every piece of fruit and vegetable on high-speed conveyor belts in real time, penetrating the outer skin to detect internal rot, sugar content distribution, or foreign matter contamination, thus achieving zero-miss inspection quality control. Meanwhile, the inspection speed is tripled compared with traditional solutions, cutting down labor costs.
7. New Energy Battery Safety Testing
SWIR sensors are like devices with "penetrating eyes": they can go through battery separators to accurately spot potential risks such as uneven electrode coating and micro-pores, providing "X-ray vision" for battery safety and propelling quality upgrading in the new energy vehicle sector.
8. Refined Circular Economy
In plastic recycling, high-resolution SWIR sensors work as "intelligent sorting masters": they can rapidly recognize the molecular fingerprints of different plastic materials, enabling millimeter-level precise sorting and facilitating efficient resource recycling as well as the achievement of carbon neutrality targets.
Technical Core: Collaborative Innovation of Materials, Processes, and Architecture
Behind this achievement lies Dishan Technology’s profound expertise and collaborative innovation across materials science, semiconductor processing, and system architecture:
Materials Science Breakthroughs
The company has developed SWIR-sensitive materials that balance high responsivity and cost-effectiveness. This breakthrough overcomes the bottlenecks of traditional materials—namely, heavy reliance on imports and exorbitant pricing—paving the way for SWIR technology to transition from laboratory research to industrial-scale production.
Advanced Manufacturing Processes
By adopting wafer-level packaging and CMOS-compatible processes, the company achieves pixel-level alignment precision and large-scale mass production capabilities, with a yield rate exceeding 98%. This has significantly driven down manufacturing costs.
System Architecture Optimization
An innovative on-chip signal processing circuit has been designed, integrating image calibration, noise suppression, and AI preprocessing algorithms. This realizes "sensing + intelligence" integration, reducing data transmission latency and enhancing the real-time performance of the system.
Reliability Verification
Rigorous industrial environment tests—including high-temperature, vibration, and electromagnetic interference trials—have been conducted to ensure the sensor’s stability and consistency during 24/7 continuous operation on production lines.
Empowering Global Quality Inspection: The Leap from "Capable Inspection" to "Intelligent Inspection"
The SWIR image sensors developed by Dishan Technology have been deployed in various high-end manufacturing scenarios worldwide, emerging as a critical infrastructure for quality control.
Electronics Manufacturing: In PCB board inspection, these sensors accurately identify micron-level cold solder joints and voids in BGA packages, enhancing the reliability of electronic products. During the packaging and testing phase, they detect internal chip defects through packaging materials, enabling non-destructive quality inspection.
Pharmaceutical Industry Innovation: By leveraging SWIR imaging for non-destructive testing of tablet ingredient distribution and coating thickness uniformity, the sensors eliminate batch-to-batch quality variations and drive the transformation of the pharmaceutical industry toward smart pharmaceutical manufacturing.
Intelligent Resource Recycling: At waste sorting centers, SWIR sensors can instantly identify different materials such as paper, glass, and metal, enabling automated sorting. This boosts sorting efficiency to 10 times that of manual operations and advances the development of a circular economy.
Food Safety Assurance: On meat processing lines, the sensors penetrate packaging to test meat moisture content and microbial contamination, establishing a non-contact quality inspection barrier within the food traceability system.
Boasting high resolution, compact size, low power consumption, and exceptional stability, these sensors significantly improve the sensitivity, speed, and automation of inspections. They facilitate enterprises in transitioning from manual random sampling to full-scale intelligent inspection, reshaping the quality control paradigm of the manufacturing industry.
Future Outlook: Rendering the "Invisible" Visible, Turning the "Impossible" Possible
Dishan Technology stated that it will continue to deepen its efforts in SWIR imaging technology in the future, with a focus on making breakthroughs in three key areas:
1.Further Pixel Miniaturization: Explore nano-scale pixel manufacturing processes, push the resolution of SWIR sensors toward the 100-megapixel level, and meet more stringent micro-detection requirements.
2.Enhanced Response Speed and Sensitivity: Develop high-speed readout circuits and low-noise amplification technologies to achieve millisecond-level response for SWIR imaging. This breakthrough enables image sensors to capture fast-moving objects, expanding their application to dynamic scene detection—such as real-time monitoring of product defects on high-speed production lines and precise analysis of moving objects. The millisecond-level response time significantly improves detection accuracy and efficiency, helping reduce production defects, enhance product quality, and optimize overall production processes.
3.Multi-Spectral Fusion and Intelligence: Integrate SWIR imaging with other spectral technologies such as visible light and infrared, and combine it with AI algorithms to achieve multi-dimensional information analysis. Explore the application potential in emerging scenarios including medical endoscopy, environmental monitoring, and autonomous driving.
"We believe that true technological progress is about simplifying complexity and democratizing high-cost technologies," noted the head of R&D at Dishan Technology. "By continuously miniaturizing pixels and improving integration, we are taking high-precision SWIR imaging out of the laboratory and onto every production line, making it a guardian of quality. Going forward, we will uphold our mission of 'Perceiving the Microcosm, Empowering an Intelligent Future' to drive the global manufacturing industry toward greater efficiency, intelligence, and sustainability."
While the industry is still grappling with the size and cost challenges of SWIR sensors, Dishan Technology has leveraged the industry's smallest pixel as a fulcrum to spark a sensing revolution. This is not merely a technological breakthrough, but also a firm commitment to the future of industrial inspection characterized by miniaturization, high precision, and accessibility. From nanoscale defects in semiconductor wafers to the micro-quality of food products, from precise control of battery safety to intelligent sorting for resource recycling, Dishan Technology's SWIR sensors are reshaping "grand quality" with "tiny pixels".
In an era that pursues ultimate quality, Dishan Technology is illuminating the upgrading path of the global manufacturing industry with a single tiny pixel—making every inspection closer to the truth, and every product worthy of trust. In the future, as technology continues to evolve, Dishan Technology will further expand the application fields of SWIR imaging and commit to developing more efficient and intelligent sensor technologies. The company plans to further reduce sensor costs and promote the popularization of SWIR technology across more industries, thereby opening up a vision into the "invisible", turning "impossible" inspection tasks into reality, and injecting new impetus into industrial intelligence and the sustainable development of human society. We look forward to Dishan Technology emerging as a pioneering force leading the global development of SWIR technology in the near future, bringing more innovations and breakthroughs to various industries.
