Sony today announced a new back-illuminated CMOS image sensor for smartphones, tablets, and other devices. Sony says that this sensor was made by laying the “pixel section containing formations of back-illuminated structure pixels onto chips containing the circuit section for signal processing.” According to Sony, the chief benefit of this design is to reduce the size of the image sensor to be installed in end-user devices. Other benefits include the ability to handle higher-quality images, faster processing speeds, and lower power requirements. The sensor will begin sampling in March, and Sony says that devices using it will offer RGBW Coding for low noise and good low-light performance, as well as Sony’s new HDR Movie processing for better color in bright light.