Canon to Build $451M CIS Fab

Reuters: Canon will invest about 55 billion yen ($451 million) to build a new factory site in Kanagawa Prefecture near Tokyo. The new plant will have roughly the same annual production capacity as another factory in Kanagawa that can churn out 3 million image sensors a year. It is expected it to start operations in July 2008.

The CMOS chips will be used in both SLR models as well as in some compact models. Canon's compact cameras have to date used CCDs. The company has been developing CMOS sensors for compact models as part of its strategy of bringing key component production in-house to lower costs.

Canon is aiming to produce 24 million digital cameras this year, including 3 million SLRs. Assuming just 6 million imagers production capability on both fabs, old and new, only a small fraction of its compact cameras will be equipped by CMOS sensors.