Image Sensors World covers news on image sensors, lidar, depth sensing and camera chips, including industry and fab announcements.
Commenters call it a great niche technical blog and cite it for sensor news, such as lidar damaging cameras and cinema camera sensors.
Modern commercial image sensors are made in process nodes down to 28nm [0], and for visible light have pixels measuring 0.7-1.5 μm. At [0] there a diagram which gives a feel for what technology nodes are available and used for different applications. For example, RF ICs and power management ICs also typically use larger process nodes, and not just for reasons of cost. In fact a larger node, doesn't necessarily even mean older. For example, many technologies allowing better power handling capabilities in integrated circuits have come exclusively to larger nodes.
Regarding node sizes for image sensors, TSMC built a 28nm fab recently for Sony exclusively to make their latest sensors. There was actually a HN post about that a couple years ago [1]. Also, it's important to note that in many applications, the image sensor layer is now actually stacked, with a layer of DRAM (in 45 nm, for example) between, and a ISP (image signal processor) chip on the bottom made in a smaller digital process. You can see an image of that stack up here [2].
[0] https://image-sensors-world.blogspot.com/2020/08/tsmc-reports-developing-28nm-cis-process.html
[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24321804
[2] https://fuse.wikichip.org/news/763/iedm-2017-sonys-3-layer-stacked-cmos-image-sensor-technology/
> light on real details
If you want more details, Image Sensors World [1] has coverage with more details and links to two patents.
> It's unclear if this product works in the time-domain
It is a pulsed time of flight direct detection lidar, not a modulated continuous wave lidar.
[1] http://image-sensors-world.blogspot.com/2018/11/ouster-discusses-its-lidar-principles.html
That's not entirely true. BSI always had some metallization on the backside for aperture, power and packaging. For example, see this: https://image-sensors-world.blogspot.com/2018/03/techinsights-publishes-samsung-09um.html
Perhaps what they're proposing is more sophisticated, but definitely not something entirely new.
I think they rely heavily on customized Fairchild sensors for their Ursa line: http://image-sensors-world.blogspot.com/2015/04/blackmagic-super-35-sensor-features-15.html
(great blog BTW!)
I'm not aware of any pro cinema camera using the CMV12000 as-is, but I've been out of the loop for some time.
I'm not surprised at all. This is not new - Jan 2019 https://image-sensors-world.blogspot.com/2019/01/1550nm-lidar-damages-sony-camera-at-ces.html
Just look at the comments of article you posted, with sock puppet accounts being actively hostile towards anyone asking questions.
http://image-sensors-world.blogspot.com/2019/09/red-camera-sensor-conspiracy-theories.html
TLDW, Forza Silicon. ( https://www.forzasilicon.com/) now owned by https://www.ametek.com/
May not be true for all of Red's sensors. Other hardware is made by https://www.sanmina.com/