Fairchild Imaging Licenses CMOS Sensor Technology

Fairchild Imaging of Milpitas, Calif., and Agilent Technologies Inc. of Palo Alto, Calif., have signed an agreement under which Fairchild will hold an exclusive license to the technology, designs, manufacturing rights, test equipment and residual inventory related to CMOS sensors and cameras developed by Pixel Devices International Inc. of Sunnyvale, Calif.

In February, Agilent acquired Pixel Devices, which had developed an "active reset" technology that reduces noise by up to two orders of magnitude compared with traditional CMOS sensors, thus enhancing low-light performance for various imaging applications. Fairchild Imaging will support the former customers of Pixel Devices and will continue its product lines. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.