Sony Invests In Smartphone Image Sensors

Sony will be raising US$1 billion for the productions of its next-generation ‘stacked CMOS’ image sensors at its Nagasaki Technology Center.  Sony will be building a plant that will produce 60,000 wafers per month. The announcement includes ¥45bn already committed in the company’s capital expenditure plans in May 2012.

Sony’s stacked CMOS design makes for better sensors because it puts the sensor circuitry for each pixel behind the photo-sensitive region, rather than on the same level – increasing the area of each pixel that is light-sensitive. The approach will initially be used for cameraphone sensors.

Cameras on smartphones are bound to get better and better.

Here’s the press release:

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June 22, 2012, Tokyo, Japan – Sony Corporation (“Sony”) today announced that it plans to invest in Sony Semiconductor Corporation’s Nagasaki Technology Center (“Nagasaki TEC”) from the first half of the fiscal year ending March 31, 2013 through the first half of the fiscal year ending March 31, 2014, to increase the production capacity for stacked CMOS image sensors.*1

This investment is intended to provide for new wafer processing equipment for stacked CMOS image sensors, and to increase and transform wafer lines capable of manufacturing CMOS image sensors.
With this development, Sony plans to increase total production capacity for CCD and CMOS image sensors to approximately 60,000 wafers per month by the end of September 2013.*2

In light of the rapidly expanding demand for smartphones and tablets, Sony plans to continue to solidify its leading global position in CMOS image sensors by strengthening its production capabilities for stacked CMOS image sensors, which provide greater performance in a more compact form. Furthermore, Sony intends to accelerate its growth strategy by incorporating superior core technologies, including stacked CMOS image sensors, into a wide range of products for its digital imaging and mobile businesses, which are priorities within its electronics business.

The investment amount is approximately 80 billion yen, of which, the amount to be invested in the current fiscal year ending March 31, 2013 (approximately 45 billion yen) was included in the forecast of the capital expenditures for semiconductors in the current fiscal year announced at the annual earnings release on May 10, 2012. In addition, Sony will utilize a governmental subsidy in its investment plan which will be provided by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry in Japan, through the “Subsidy for Domestic Location Promotion Projects” program.