Sharp unveils thinnest CMOS camera module for smartphones

As the smartphones that we all know and love get thinner, the components inside the device must get thinner too. Super thin smartphones like the Droid Razr for instance can benefit from things like even thinner camera sensors. Sharp has a new camera sensor for the smartphone market that it hails as the thinnest CMOS camera sensor launched.

The sensor is only 5.47mm thick and has a 12.1MP resolution. It also has 1/3.2 type optical image stabilization. That means that it's thin and has clear high-resolution images. Sharp will start shipping the new sensor in February 12. I would bet that we will see a lot of smartphones using this new sensor next year.

The camera sensor also has auto focus and it can record 1080p video as well using the reduce camera shake feature. The model of the new sensor is RJ63YC100 and a sample sensor sells for 12,000 yen. Samples will ship tomorrow with production kicking off on January 10. Sharp plans to make 100,000 of the new camera sensors monthly.