X-ray inspection for batteries and semiconductors has historically forced a choice: photon-counting sensors for spectral energy resolution, or charge-integrating sensors for high-flux throughput at 26,100 fps. The IMX711 removes the fork. Sony's new direct-conversion charge-integrating CMOS sensor does both on the same die, with 34 e-rms noise performance at photon-level energy discrimination and the highest frame rate in its class. Mass production shipments started in Q1 FY2026.
The mechanism matters for anyone running inline X-ray inspection on HBM stacks, chiplets, or advanced battery cells. Previously, getting energy-discrimination data (which element, which material, what thickness) and high-speed throughput data required two separate sensor heads, two data pipelines, and a manual correlation step that slows the inspection loop and introduces registration error. One sensor, one pipeline, one coordinate frame. One sensor, one pipeline, one coordinate frame: a structural simplification, not a minor convenience gain.
The constraint being removed is the hardware bifurcation that forced inspection tool designers to pick a mode and live with the tradeoff. As chiplet stacks and multi-material battery cells get more heterogeneous, being able to interrogate energy content at 26,100 fps on the same pass that captures structural images stops being a nice-to-have. Inspection systems that cannot do both simultaneously will lag the throughput targets that sub-1nm packaging and solid-state battery production lines are setting. Sony's co-development with RIKEN means this is not a prototype. It ships.