Micron published its quarterly report for FY08 Q2 ended Feb. 28. Its imaging business lost $21M on sales $135M in the quarter. Same quarter a year ago it lost $10M on sales $156M, for comparison.
Regarding the possible use of other CIS foundries, the report says:
"To improve its focus on the semiconductor memory market, the Company is exploring business model alternatives for its Imaging business including partnering arrangements. Under any of the alternatives being considered, the Company expects that it will continue to manufacture CMOS image sensors."
Wednesday, April 09, 2008
Tuesday, April 08, 2008
Cypress Goes for Niche CIS Markets
Digitimes: Competition among leading vendors weakened ASPs and gross margins in the major image sensor markets of digital cameras and handsets, motivating Cypress to focus on niche segments.
The two key categories in Cypress' CMOS image sensor lineup are customized image sensors and fast sensors. Cypress indicated that customers pay an average of US$1 million for the first phase of placing custom CMOS image sensor orders and additional payment has to be made when products are available for sale.
Under the two main categories, Cypress has also introduced CMOS image sensors with high resolutions. This type of CMOS image sensor focuses on resolution but not product size. The company currently has a CMOS image sensor that supports 14MP resolution.
The two key categories in Cypress' CMOS image sensor lineup are customized image sensors and fast sensors. Cypress indicated that customers pay an average of US$1 million for the first phase of placing custom CMOS image sensor orders and additional payment has to be made when products are available for sale.
Under the two main categories, Cypress has also introduced CMOS image sensors with high resolutions. This type of CMOS image sensor focuses on resolution but not product size. The company currently has a CMOS image sensor that supports 14MP resolution.
XinTec and Omnivision Ties Remain Strong
Digitimes: OmniVision, which holds a total of 9.4 million shares in XinTec, recently announced that it will transfer 2.5 million shares of XinTec to a holding company in Taiwan, an amount representing a 1.2% stake in XinTec. Both XinTec and OmniVision stressed that the transaction is purely a transfer of shares and their strong ties would not be affected.
XinTec completed its first fab (Fab 3) specializing in wafer-level packaging (WLP) for 12-inch wafers in late 2007 with volume production slated to begin in the second or third quarter of 2008. Pilot run has been already started. After adding the new 8-inch wafer capacity from its Chungli, Taiwan plant, XinTec houses a combined monthly capacity of 40,000 wafers (both 8- and 12-inch).
XinTec completed its first fab (Fab 3) specializing in wafer-level packaging (WLP) for 12-inch wafers in late 2007 with volume production slated to begin in the second or third quarter of 2008. Pilot run has been already started. After adding the new 8-inch wafer capacity from its Chungli, Taiwan plant, XinTec houses a combined monthly capacity of 40,000 wafers (both 8- and 12-inch).
Saturday, April 05, 2008
ADCs for Modern Image Sensors
Chipworks blog has an post on ADC architectures for modern image sensors. They see a trend of adopting comumn-parallel single-slope ADC and complexity increase in staircase generating DACs for these ADCs.
Friday, April 04, 2008
Security Solutions from Mobilygen, TI, Omnivision and Aptina
Yahoo: Omnivision teams up with Mobilygen to offer an H.264-based ready-to-build standard definition (SD) IP camera reference design for light sensitive applications in the security and surveillance markets. It combines OmniVision's OV7720 SOC sensor and Mobilygen's MG2500 H.264 codec SOC.
The Earth Times: Mobiligen also provides a HD IP camera reference design with Aptina's MT9D131 2MP SoC sensor. It captures full 1280x720 resolution video and claimed to provide excellent low light capability.
CNNMoney: Aptina also has a HD IP camera reference design with TI based on TI's DaVinci TMS320DM355 digital media processor and Aptina's 5MP HD security image sensor. DaVinci processor provides HD MPEG-4 encoding.
All the reference designs are exhibited at ISC West, April 2 - 4, 2008. EETasia publishes a review of security camera market trends.
The Earth Times: Mobiligen also provides a HD IP camera reference design with Aptina's MT9D131 2MP SoC sensor. It captures full 1280x720 resolution video and claimed to provide excellent low light capability.
CNNMoney: Aptina also has a HD IP camera reference design with TI based on TI's DaVinci TMS320DM355 digital media processor and Aptina's 5MP HD security image sensor. DaVinci processor provides HD MPEG-4 encoding.
All the reference designs are exhibited at ISC West, April 2 - 4, 2008. EETasia publishes a review of security camera market trends.
Toshiba CSCM Package
I-Micronews published an nice article showing picture of Toshiba CSCM (chip scale camera module) package based on Through-Chip-Vias (TCV).
Tuesday, April 01, 2008
Toshiba Introduces 3 Image Sensors and 2 Camera Modules
VirtualPressOffice: Toshiba introduces 3 new 1.75um pixel-based image sensors and 2 new chip scale camera modules (CSCM) for handset market. To my knowledge this is the first time Toshiba public presents 1.75um pixel products. It's quite late, considering that most of its rivals annouced 1.75um pixels a year or two ago.
The new sensors are a 2MP 1/5" SoC sensor, a 3 MP 1/4" SoC sensor and a 5 MP 1/3" sensor.
The modules are based on Toshiba’s through chip via technology to allow mounting and assembly of camera components in the chip wafer during manufacturing. It reduces the overall module size, resulting in a smaller design footprint. The two CSCMs are a 2MP 1/5" SoC and 3MP 1/4" SoC.
The 2 MP SoC sensor is priced at $10 per unit, the 3 MP SoC sensor at $15 per unit and the 5 MP CIS senso $20 per unit, all 10K quantities. All sensors and CSCMs are sampling now.
The new sensors are a 2MP 1/5" SoC sensor, a 3 MP 1/4" SoC sensor and a 5 MP 1/3" sensor.
The modules are based on Toshiba’s through chip via technology to allow mounting and assembly of camera components in the chip wafer during manufacturing. It reduces the overall module size, resulting in a smaller design footprint. The two CSCMs are a 2MP 1/5" SoC and 3MP 1/4" SoC.
The 2 MP SoC sensor is priced at $10 per unit, the 3 MP SoC sensor at $15 per unit and the 5 MP CIS senso $20 per unit, all 10K quantities. All sensors and CSCMs are sampling now.
Magnachip 1.3MP Sensor for Toys
Yahoo: Magnachip begun shipping its MC511DB, 1.3MP 1/4" SoC sensor for toys. The sensor fits in 8x8x5 mm modules and works out of single 2.8V supply. Its ISP performs on-the-fly bad pixel correction, positional lens vignetting correction, noise cancellation filters, and auto white balance with flash support. Its ADC has 11 bit resolution.
Aptina Announces HDR Sensor
Yahoo: Aptina announces MT9V033 Wide-VGA (720 x 480) sensor for security and surveillance market. The 1/3" sensor features 6um pixel pitch, HDR, 60fps speed, TrueSNAP shutter (global?) and NIR capability. It also has a context switching feature, allowing two applications with separate imaging needs to run effectively from a single source.
Aptina site also mentions that the sensor's DR is 110db and power consumption is less than 160mW with LVDS I/O disabled.
Aptina site also mentions that the sensor's DR is 110db and power consumption is less than 160mW with LVDS I/O disabled.
1000fps 4MP Sensor from Photron
VirtualPressOffice: Photron announced Fastcam SA2 2K x 2K pixel camera operating at 1,000fps speed at full resolution. The camera can also deliver HD video 1080p at 2,000fps, 720p video at 4,000 fps, and 512 x 416 pixel resolution up to 10,000 fps. It is based on CMOS sensor with 12b output. Quite impressive spec! I guess the sensor has been designed by Alexima, as it has long standing relationships with Photron.
The camera is targeted to broadcast applications in sports and entertainment, automotive crash testing, ballistic and missile testing, biomedical imaging and industrial motion analysis.
The camera is targeted to broadcast applications in sports and entertainment, automotive crash testing, ballistic and missile testing, biomedical imaging and industrial motion analysis.
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