Semiconductor business at Sony began in 1954 with the commercialization of Japan’s first transistor. Since then, we have continued to contribute in original Sony product development and market creation. In image sensors, Sony commercialized the world’s first CCD color camera in 1980 and many other successful products over the years. From 2004 we began to focus on CMOS image sensors with low power consumption and fast readout. Commercialization of the world’s first back-illuminated CMOS image sensor in 2009 was followed by the world’s first stacked CMOS image sensor in 2012. These developments occurred as the smartphone market was growing, and even today, we continue to lead the industry in image sensors.
