CMOSIS and Tower Semiconductor target machine vision image sensor market
OCTOBER 20, 2009--CMOSIS (Antwerp, Belgium; www.cmosis.com), a fabless developer of CMOS image sensors, and Tower Semiconductor (Migdal Ha'emek, Israel; www.towersemi.com), a specialty foundry, announced that CMOSIS is launching its first off-the-shelf, high-resolution sensor using Tower`s 0.18-micron CMOS image sensor technology.
The CMV2000 image sensor aims at machine-vision applications. CMOSIS estimates the machine vision sensor market at approximately $200M (CCD and CMOS combined). The two companies say they are well-positioned to win a significant share of future industrial and professional CMOS image sensor markets because the sensor could also be used for automotive and security applications.
CMOSIS says it selected Tower`s 0.18-micron process for its aggressive layout rules, allowing a novel pixel structure featuring a pixel size of 5.5 x 5.5 microns, which is needed to stay close to a 2/3-in. optical format with 2.2-Mpixel resolution and form factor. Samples of the CMV2000 are currently released to specified CMOSIS customers. Full production will ramp in early 2010. A 4-Mpixel version of the sensor will be available in the spring.
-- Posted by Conard Holton, Vision Systems Design, www.vision-systems.com