Seeking Alpha published Tessera Q3 2010 Earnings Call transcript. Some interesting quotes:
Hank Nothhaft, CEO:
"I want to discuss the Wafer-Level Optics portion of our Imaging and Optics business. We conducted an exhaustive evaluation over the past few months of various strategic options for our Wafer-Level Optics for camera modules technology. Our findings are that though Wafer-Level Optics remains a competitive technology solution, improvements in cost and manufacturability of alternative technologies has diminished the disruptive nature of Wafer-Level Optics to such an extent that pursuing a licensing strategy further would not generate results consistent with our expectations.
We concluded the best alternative was to cease further development of this technology and pursue a long-term vision of generating revenues through more Imaging and Optics product opportunities."
Kevin Vassily - Pacific Crest:
"...on the Wafer-Level Optics wind-down, I guess you can you at all quantify what level of contribution to that Imaging and Optics line on the royalty side was coming from this part of the business?"
Hank Nothhaft
"Yes, we have not reported any royalties in our Imaging and Optics business from Wafer-Level Optics."
Kevin Vassily - Pacific Crest:
"...what does that do to the opportunity for some of your other imaging technologies, is the market opportunity diminished at all, maybe you could just frame the lack of uptake of the Wafer-Level Optics side to the adoption of other technologies that you guys have in your portfolio?"
Hank Nothhaft:
"Pricing for lens technology in general, as it relates to the wireless market, has been very intense, and prices have come down very sharply. And so it diminished the value of a licensing model in that market. Also, glass and injected molded plastics have become much more competitive. And glass, traditional glass lenses in particular have become much more manufacturable and are able to be used in reflow environments. So I just want to make the point that we’re not saying that Wafer-Level Optics is not a competitive technology, because we believe that it is, but only in the sense if you were manufacturing those lenses and competing against the alternatives that I just mentioned.
...our skill set is really more in lens design, algorithm development and that sort of efforts, and so finally, we decided it did not make sense and did not play to our core competencies.
...our major growth opportunities for ...the next couple of years being in three major areas:
One is our extended depth of field.
...We created a very strong capability in our optical zoom. It's really a very disruptive technology, ...there has been tremendous interest in the market in the product. The pricing on that is several orders of magnitude higher than our accepted depth of field technology. ...it does save on the cost side of the equation to the handset manufacturer. It represents maybe 20% of the cost of ...a mechanical zoom system.
we’re very pleased with our acquisition of Siimpel. ...We are very far along in completing development of the second-generation product, which is smaller, works quicker, faster. There is tremendous interest in the market in that product and we believe we'll have revenue coming from MEMS starting in the second half of next year."
Unidentified Analyst:
"...on the Wafer-Level Optics, are you able to sell that business to anybody?"
Hank Nothhaft:
"There's always the possibility something can happen in the future, but I'm certainly not anticipating that to occur at this point in time."
Hank Nothhaft on EDoF royalties:
"our ...EDOF technology continues to gain market adoption. ...our ...EDOF royalties nearly tripled in the third quarter of 2010 as compared to the third quarter of 2009."
EETimes also has an article on Tessera dropping Wafer Level Optics.
Saturday, October 30, 2010
Microsoft is Buying Canesta
Canesta announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to have its products, technology, intellectual property, customer contracts, and other resources acquired by the Microsoft.
No details of the agreement have been disclosed. The acquisition is expected to be completed before the end of this year.
Canesta has about 70 employees and has raised approximately $70 million. It has 44 patents granted to date and dozens more on file. There is a nice company fact sheet here.
Canesta team complements 3DV team acquired by Microsoft in June 2009. This shows that Microsoft internal R&D efforts continue to be concentrated on ToF technology. So, it looks like it's going to be a nice competition between the internally designed ToF sensor and Primesense's structured light - active stereo approach.
Primesense won over 3DV in the first generation Kinect. Do the combined 3DV and Canesta efforts give them a win in the next turn? - only time can tell.
Updates: The Street says it got an email confirmation of the deal from Microsoft saying "Microsoft has long pursued a vision of natural user interface. Canesta has developed some interesting technology for sensing gestures that complements advances already underway at Microsoft."
NYT quotes Steve Ballmer, Microsoft CEO, discussing the company’s plans to advance the gesture technology "well beyond video games".
No details of the agreement have been disclosed. The acquisition is expected to be completed before the end of this year.
Canesta has about 70 employees and has raised approximately $70 million. It has 44 patents granted to date and dozens more on file. There is a nice company fact sheet here.
Canesta team complements 3DV team acquired by Microsoft in June 2009. This shows that Microsoft internal R&D efforts continue to be concentrated on ToF technology. So, it looks like it's going to be a nice competition between the internally designed ToF sensor and Primesense's structured light - active stereo approach.
Primesense won over 3DV in the first generation Kinect. Do the combined 3DV and Canesta efforts give them a win in the next turn? - only time can tell.
Updates: The Street says it got an email confirmation of the deal from Microsoft saying "Microsoft has long pursued a vision of natural user interface. Canesta has developed some interesting technology for sensing gestures that complements advances already underway at Microsoft."
NYT quotes Steve Ballmer, Microsoft CEO, discussing the company’s plans to advance the gesture technology "well beyond video games".
Omnivision Sensors in Next-Gen iPad?
Barron's: OmniVision will supply image sensors for a second-generation Apple iPad that will launch in the first quarter of 2011, according to investment firm Detweiler Fenton.
Detweiler Fenton claims that the new iPad will ship with two cameras, a 5 MP camera and a VGA camera, and likely will support Apple’s FaceTime video chat software. Detweiler says that Apple will build 2.5 million units of the next iPad in calendar Q1, providing an incremental 5 million units of demand from Apple for Omnivision. He says that if you assume 23 million iPhones will be built in Q1 2011 - which includes more than 6 million for Verizon Wireless - Apple will account for nearly a third of OVTI’s chip demand, and most of its shipments of 5 MP sensors.
Detweiler Fenton claims that the new iPad will ship with two cameras, a 5 MP camera and a VGA camera, and likely will support Apple’s FaceTime video chat software. Detweiler says that Apple will build 2.5 million units of the next iPad in calendar Q1, providing an incremental 5 million units of demand from Apple for Omnivision. He says that if you assume 23 million iPhones will be built in Q1 2011 - which includes more than 6 million for Verizon Wireless - Apple will account for nearly a third of OVTI’s chip demand, and most of its shipments of 5 MP sensors.
Friday, October 29, 2010
GIA: Latin America is the Fastest Growing Image Sensor Market
PR Web: World image sensors market is predicted to grow at an impressive CAGR of more than 9.0% to reach US$14.16 billion by the year 2015, according to a new report by Global Industry Analysts, Inc.
As stated by the report, Asia-Pacific is the largest regional market for image sensors. Latin America is the fastest growing regional market, surging at a CAGR of more than 11% over the analysis period. Growth in Latin American image sensors market can be particularly attributed to burgeoning economies such as Brazil, Mexico and Argentina, which have been generating significant demand for these sensors in application areas such as process, manufacturing, consumer electronics and biotechnology.
By product, CMOS image sensors market is the most prominent segment. Dislodged by the cannibalizing popularity of CMOS image sensors in consumer electronics and mobile applications, the world CCD image sensors market is projected to sail at a CAGR of more than 3.0% over the analysis period.
As stated by the report, Asia-Pacific is the largest regional market for image sensors. Latin America is the fastest growing regional market, surging at a CAGR of more than 11% over the analysis period. Growth in Latin American image sensors market can be particularly attributed to burgeoning economies such as Brazil, Mexico and Argentina, which have been generating significant demand for these sensors in application areas such as process, manufacturing, consumer electronics and biotechnology.
By product, CMOS image sensors market is the most prominent segment. Dislodged by the cannibalizing popularity of CMOS image sensors in consumer electronics and mobile applications, the world CCD image sensors market is projected to sail at a CAGR of more than 3.0% over the analysis period.
iSupply: CCDs Drop to Less than 10% of Image Sensor Market
According to iSupply press release, of the total 1.7 billion units forecast for the 2010 image sensor market, CCDs will account for a roughly 9.8% share, down from 11.4% in 2009. And while the decrease in unit share is slight, the trend appears to be irreversible, with CCD sensors to make up only 4.7 percent of the market by 2014.
In contrast, the CMOS image sensor market will expand its unit share of the market to 90.2 percent this year, up from 88.5 percent in 2009. The migration to CMOS from CCD will continue unabated for point-and-shoot cameras. By next year, the proportion of point-and-shoot models using CMOS will climb to 24 percent, up from 14 percent in 2009. The shift to CMOS among DSLR cameras is occurring even much faster: By 2014, fully 99 percent of DSLR models will be based on CMOS sensors.
Digitimes compiled a nice chart based on iSupply data:
In contrast, the CMOS image sensor market will expand its unit share of the market to 90.2 percent this year, up from 88.5 percent in 2009. The migration to CMOS from CCD will continue unabated for point-and-shoot cameras. By next year, the proportion of point-and-shoot models using CMOS will climb to 24 percent, up from 14 percent in 2009. The shift to CMOS among DSLR cameras is occurring even much faster: By 2014, fully 99 percent of DSLR models will be based on CMOS sensors.
Digitimes compiled a nice chart based on iSupply data:
Pixim Strengthens Marketing Team
Pixim added Craig Robinson and Joe Peery to its marketing team. Craig Robinson is Pixim's new director of business development, Latin America. Based in Miami, Robinson is responsible for the development and growth of the Latin American market. Joe Peery is a new global director of financial business development, focused on the banking/financial vertical market.
GBI Market Research
Market Research: GBI Research's market report "Optoelectronics Market to 2020 - Push for Energy Efficiency to Increase Demand for Image Sensors and LED Based Applications" gives few 2010 market predictions:
The sales revenue of image sensor devices is predicted to reach an unprecedented $8.3 billion at a Year on Year (YoY) growth rate of 29% in 2010, with demand for digital cameras, camera phones, and machine-vision systems recovering with the global economy. CMOS based devices held a revenue share of 61% revenue in 2010 while CCDs accounted for the remaining 39%.
The sales revenue of image sensor devices is predicted to reach an unprecedented $8.3 billion at a Year on Year (YoY) growth rate of 29% in 2010, with demand for digital cameras, camera phones, and machine-vision systems recovering with the global economy. CMOS based devices held a revenue share of 61% revenue in 2010 while CCDs accounted for the remaining 39%.
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Advantest Announces 64-DUT CMOS Sensor Tester
Business Wire: Advantest’s new T2000 CMOS image sensor test solution provides customers with 64-DUT parallel test capability, claimed to be the highest in the industry - 8x higher than the previous Advantest product.
The new T2000 CMOS image sensor test solution incorporates a test head configured with a large optical source, and a new CMOS image sensor test module, providing illumination to an area greater than 10x that of Advantest’s previous tester. At 208mm x 252mm, the area of the new test head permits great flexibility in layout creation and device test, enables customers add custom circuitry for their applications.
The tester's differential input supports serial data at 1.2Gbps speed per lane, 4 lanes x 4 channel or parallel data at 200M pixels/s, 16 bits x 4 channel. The image capture memory is 128M pixels x 2 banks, capable of storing continuous image data of up to 255 frames.
The new T2000 CMOS image sensor test solution incorporates a test head configured with a large optical source, and a new CMOS image sensor test module, providing illumination to an area greater than 10x that of Advantest’s previous tester. At 208mm x 252mm, the area of the new test head permits great flexibility in layout creation and device test, enables customers add custom circuitry for their applications.
The tester's differential input supports serial data at 1.2Gbps speed per lane, 4 lanes x 4 channel or parallel data at 200M pixels/s, 16 bits x 4 channel. The image capture memory is 128M pixels x 2 banks, capable of storing continuous image data of up to 255 frames.
14M Kinect Modules to be Shipped in 2010
Digitimes: Taiwan-based optical lens maker Newmax Technology has become the only supplier of camera modules used in Microsoft Kinect. I believe Newmax makes webcam modules for Kinect, rather than the depth-mapping ones.
The company plans to ship as many as 14 million units of these modules in 2010, according to Digitimes' sources.
The company plans to ship as many as 14 million units of these modules in 2010, according to Digitimes' sources.
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Tessera Licenses Video Tools to Fujitsu
Business Wire: Fujitsu has licensed Tessera’s OptiML Video Tools hardware acceleration technology to enhance the video and imaging capabilities in its Milbeaut chipsets. The OptiML Video Tools combine image processing hardware and software in a single solution to maximize camera performance while reducing demands on system resources. The hardware acceleration is used for computationally intensive tasks, with the remainder of the image processing is carried out by the software.
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