Yahoo: Dongbu announced that it has begun shipping 2MP sensors to SETi. The new chips, processed at the 110nm node, will target primarily 2MP camera phones in developing nations. Dongbu plans for shipping 3- and 5MP versions to SETi by early next year. These future higher resolution versions, also processed at the 110nm node, will deploy a smaller pixel size to compete head on with 90nm-node CIS chips.
According to Joon Hwang, EVP of Dongbu HiTek, “Price competition for CIS chips is getting fiercer, especially in the Chinese market. To sharpen our competitive edge, we are maximizing useful die per wafer by driving the highest quality levels and minimizing the chip size.” He disclosed that the Dongbu technologists are making good progress toward shrinking the size of the pixel to 1.4um, which will enable its 110nm-node CIS chips to compete directly with 90nm-node CIS chips.
Dongbu has drawn up plans to serve a broader range of applications such as image sensors for vehicles and CCTVs. The company expects to continue investing in R&D to improve CIS image quality and eventually license its CIS IP to qualified fabless firms worldwide.
SETi is going to be doing 1.4um pixels on 110nM? Does anybody really believe that they can do this and get the light sensitivity to be worth a darn?
ReplyDeleteIf they really succeed in this project, they would beat everybody on price.
ReplyDeleteTo be honest, it sounds like a desperation play. OV has the camera cube and will probably take back the secondary camera VGA business. Not sure if the cube will work as a primary camera tho. Does anybody know if it will? If it does, then SETi might as well pack its bags.
ReplyDeleteAccording to the market data I've heard SETi controls 50% of Chinese market, while Omnivision is 40%. Omnivision's CameraCube yield is unknown, as the company itself admits:
ReplyDeletehttp://image-sensors-world.blogspot.com/2009/05/omnivision-quarterly-results-better.html
So, let's wait and see how the battle goes. Long term, I agree with you, SETi should be more innovative to keep and enhance its market share.
I hear OV yields were at 70% during the pilot run with the cube and should improve over time. So far, I haven't seen it so don't know about image quality. Hope that helps.
ReplyDelete70% sounds very good for such a new technology. Then it might be a shorter-term threat for SETi than I initially thought.
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