After yesterday’s announcement by Canon that they were to invest heavily in CMOS sensors, Sony have also revealed very similar plans. Except that the Sony release is dated 6th June, which technically means that Canon are following Sony’s lead, but anyway, I digress. Sony are investing 60 billion Yen during the next 3 years “to strengthen its CMOS sensor manufacturing operations to provide growth markets such as mobile phones and digital still cameras with CMOS sensors”. All of this probably means that CMOS sensors will gradually replace CCDs in compact digicams, and hopefully improve the overall image quality (fingers crossed).

Sony Press Release

Sony Semiconductor Kyushu Corporation, Kumamoto Technology Center to Reinforce Image Sensor Production Facility

Tokyo, Japan - Sony Corporation today announced that it would invest approximately 60 billion JPY in Sony Semiconductor Kyushu Corporation’s Kumamoto Technology Center (Kumamoto TEC) Fab 2 facility, to extend clean room facilities by 5,000m² and reinforce image sensor fabrication capacity. This investment will take place from fiscal year 2007 to fiscal 2009.

Sony is positioning image sensors as a key focus area of its semiconductor business. Through the reinforcement of this facility, Sony will strengthen supply and provide the platform for further image sensor business growth.

Kumamoto TEC has continued to expand its operations as Sony’s principle facility for the fabrication of imaging devices, such as the CCDs, CMOS sensors and micro-display devices that are Sony’s strengths. In particular, demand for CMOS sensors has demonstrated rapid growth in recent years. In view of this, Sony is enhancing production operations for this market, with mass production having already commenced at Fab 2’s existing 5,000m² facility in Spring this year.

Over the next three years, Sony will continue to strengthen its CMOS sensor manufacturing operations to provide growth markets such as mobile phones and digital still cameras with CMOS sensors that combine high image quality with advanced processing speeds.

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