Onsemi – The Manufacturer Behind ARRI ALEXA 35’s Imaging Sensor

Camera News

by Francesco AndreolaSeptember 26^th, 2022

In a recent press release, leading semiconductor manufacturer onsemi declared to be the magician behind the state-of-the-art sensor featured in ARRI’s latest flagship 4.6K Super 35 cinema camera, the ALEXA 35. The new sensor is the cherry on top of the 22 years of partnership with the German manufacturer.

It’s a well-known fact that most camera manufacturers rely on image sensors supplied by third-party companies. For example, Nikon has been using Sony sensors for years and even the groundbreaking ALEV 4 sensor found on the new dynamic range king, the ALEXA 35, isn’t solely the work of ARRI.

In truth, since their first steps into the world of digital cinematography, the German manufacturer has been working side by side with onsemi (formerly known as ON Semiconductor), an American company that mass produces chips for a broad range of applications, spanning from automotive and industrial to aerospace and medical.

ARRI ALEXA 35’s sensor: co-developed with onsemi

With a measured dynamic range of 15.1 stops at a signal-to-noise ratio of 2, the ARRI ALEXA 35 unsurprisingly broke a new record in our own Lab Test. I’m confident that you didn’t miss our initial coverage, Lab Test talk, and hands-on interview with ARRI about the camera, but if you’re among the few who did, make sure to give them a look before going on.

The camera’s new 4.6K (4608×3164) 3:2 Super 35 ALEV 4 CMOS sensor (pixel pitch: 6.075 µm) benefits from onsemi’s avant-garde technologies for optimizing pixel response and pixel readout for both HDR and high-frame-rate capture up to 120fps.

In order to preserve the sensor’s full capabilities, ARRI had to equip the camera with 18-bit internal processing and also developed the new REVEAL image processing pipeline, which includes a new LogC4 gamma curve to handle the sensor’s gigantic dynamic range.

Over 2 decades of partnership

The cooperation between the two companies sparked in 2005 with the development of the ARRIFLEX D-20’s CMOS sensor. The partnership passed the test of time, leading the ARRI ALEXA to be rewarded with a Scientific and Engineering Award from the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences as well as an Engineering Emmy from the Television Academy in 2017.

onsemi seems to be an invaluable player in engineering the unmatched image quality provided by ARRI’s digital cinema cameras. As Walter Trauninger, Managing Director and Head of Business Unit Camera Systems at ARRI puts it:

“The close collaboration between the two companies is the foundation for ARRI’s ability to provide the best overall image quality to filmmakers. This kind of long-term commitment is an absolute exception in an ever-changing semiconductor market and is invaluable to ARRI.”

Walter Trauninger, Managing Director and Head of Business Unit Camera Systems at ARRI

Link: onsemi

Have you shot on the ARRI ALEXA 35 yet? If so, did you take advantage of the increased dynamic range? Share your experience in the comment section below!