An exact quote from the PR: "By combining custom 65 nm design rules and new manufacturing process modules, the 1.1-micron OmniBSI-2 pixel achieves industry-leading low-light sensitivity as well as significantly reduced dark current and full-well capacity."
[Update: The newer versions of the PR fixed the typo and now talk about "improved", rather than "reduced" full well.]
OmniBSI-2 pixel design features layout, better isolation, and significantly reduced crosstalk over the first generation OmniBSI technology. OmniBSI-2 technology can also be applied to larger pixel designs to achieve performance advantages over current BSI and FSI image sensors.
"By comparison, the new 1.1-micron OmniBSI-2 pixel not only outperforms our current 1.75-micron FSI architecture, but it also equals the performance of our industry-leading 1.4-micron BSI pixel that is currently in mass production," commented Dr. Howard Rhodes, vice president of process engineering at OmniVision. "Migrating to 1.1-micron BSI pixel architecture required moving production to TSMC's state-of-the-art 300-mm copper process, which enabled substantially improved design rules and more advanced process tools, resulting in tighter process control and improved defect density. Key to our success was the joint development by the OmniVision and TSMC R&D teams of multiple new process modules that substantially improved opto-electronic performance. We also leveraged our close partnership with joint venture partner VisEra Technologies to establish a 300-mm color filter fabrication capability."
OmniVision's OmniBSI-2 technology will be demonstrated to customers by appointment at the Mobile World Congress, February 15 through 18, 2010 in Barcelona, Spain. No word is said about products to be demonstrated or their status (prototype, CS, ES, production, etc).
As Omnivision web site shows, the main difference between OminBSI and OmniBSI-2 are increased light sensitivity, better full well and higher QE:
