Tessera Technologies (San Jose, CA, USA) is refocusing the business strategy of its wholly-owned subsidiary Digital Optics Corporation (DOC) to reduce costs.
DOC will no longer be a vertically integrated camera module supplier. Instead, the company will use partners for the production of camera modules and will focus its own manufacturing on the lens barrel assembly, which is a higher-margin component for which DOC has unique proprietary technology.
As such, DOC will continue to refine its mems|cam system -- a microelectromechanical autofocus camera module for smartphones. The company claims that that mems|cam system offers significantly faster autofocus than traditional voice coil motors and uses just 1 percent of the power.
Initial mems|cam sample requests from smartphone customers are being evaluated now. The list price for 10,000 units is $25.00 per module.
The restructuring approach will cut DOC's expected capital spending in 2013 by roughly half -- to a range of between $5m and $7 million, as compared to the company's previous estimate of $10m to $15m.
DOC is also consolidating its manufacturing capabilities into its Taiwan facility and expects to cease all operations at its leased facility in Zhuhai, China. DOC will transfer a portion of the manufacturing equipment located there to Taiwan.
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-- Dave Wilson, Senior Editor, Vision Systems Design
