Date: 05/02/2009

Single-frame super-resolution technology device for sharper images

NEC Electronics is sampling an application-specific standard product (ASSP) to enhance the image quality of audio-visual (AV) display systems. Based on NEC's single-frame super-resolution technology, this ASSP (µPD9245GJ) reduces the blurring that occurs when low-resolution images are expanded and displayed in high-resolution.
This ASSP can sharpen out-of-focus images, smoothes rough edges and refines contours by analyzing and processing information contained in one frame of data in real time. Using standard video interfaces for data input and output, designers can easily integrate the ASSP into a variety of consumer, industrial, medical and automotive devices that handle images and video.

The technology is also available as an intellectual property (IP) core that can be embedded into ASICs or other ASSP products.

Previous image-resolution technologies used a multiframe technique to process image data, which required large-capacity external memory that made it expensive and difficult to create hardware capable of real-time processing. The new technology enables very high-resolution processing with just one frame of image data. With standard video interfaces such as 24-bit CMOS I/O with RGB or YUV for easy connection, the super-resolution ASSP easily can be added to existing designs.

The technology enhances image data from quarter video graphics array (QVGA) resolution (320 x 240 pixels) to wide VGA (WVGA) resolution (800 x 480 pixels) for clear image display on mobile phones and car navigation systems. The technology also achieves crisp images in 1920 x 1080-pixel high-definition (HD) television broadcasts by boosting image data in the 640 x 480-pixel VGA format ordinarily used for TV broadcasts and DVD storage to 6x the resolution.

Key features of the ASSP include:

1. Resolution of 60 frames per second (fps) for 1280 x 1024-pixel super extended graphic array (SXGA) resolution
2. 60 fps resolution for HDTV (1366 x 768 pixels)
3. Built-in I2C bus for register setting
4. JTAG support
5. 10 to 30 megahertz (MHz) system clock
6. 108 MHz pixel clock (max.)
7. 3.3 volt (V) power supply for I/O and 1.5V supply for the core
8. 0.9 watts typical power consumption at 60 fps for SXGA resolution
9. -40 to +70 operating temperature
10. Applications of new ASSP include shooting photos and video on lower-resolution digital cameras and other devices, and for playing them back as high-resolution images, enabling to capture more images using the same amount of memory.

Package: 144-pin low-profile quad flat package (LQFP)

Price: Each US$10 for more than 1K pieces and US$30 in lower volumes.