21 March 2007 -- The image sensor market is moving towards consolidation with fabless firms least likely to survive, according to Micron Technology.
“The image sensor market is consolidating,” said Sandor Barna, imaging senior director at Micron Technology. “What makes a great difference is manufacturing. Companies using fabless are really struggling because the technology is all in the processing.”
Barna said there are currently seven to eight players with significant market share and he believes this will consolidate to three to four. “Most will be the current large players but anyone with a fabless model will have a hard time sticking around.”
In December 2006, Micron acquired Avago Technologies’ image sensor business in a deal valued at $53m. It is also looking for semiconductor designers to support the expansion of its image sensor development group in Bracknell.
The firm recently launched image sensors for camera phones developed using a 1.75µm pixel design with resolutions of 5Mpixel, 3Mpixel and 1.3Mpixel.
“What makes this interesting is we’re now offering 3Mpixel to the market that used to take 2Mpixel,” said Barna, “and 5Mpixel to the market that took 3Mpixel.” This means 3Mpixel cameras are now being targeted for mainstream phones.
“The key to making a mobile phone camera as good as a camera is increasing the resolution,” said Barna. “The advantage of the camera on the phone is you have it wherever you go. But to get it to the level where consumers can trust it to take a picture, rather than just because it’s the only camera they’ve got with them, is a big hurdle.”
--Melanie Reynolds--
