CMOS (complementary metal-oxide semiconductor) sensors are used widely in digital cameras and camera phones. With the market growing rapidly, price competition with foreign rivals is heating up.
Sony ranks sixth in the world in terms of CMOS sensor shipments, with its current output capacity standing at the equivalent of 16,000 silicon wafers a month.
- CMOS sensors are used in cell phones and digital cameras, including Sony's NEX-5 camera.
The subcontracting will begin as early as this fiscal year at a pace of several thousand silicon wafer equivalents a month. Sony will monitor the savings generated and consider boosting the scale of the deal depending on the results.
Fujitsu will handle orders from Sony at Fujitsu Semiconductor Ltd.'s flagship plant for system chips in Mie Prefecture. Because CMOS sensors and system chips share many manufacturing processes, the factory should be able to lower production costs through economies of scale.
Sony will farm out the highly generic portion of the production process, which accounts for 80-90% of the work. The remaining steps will be handled internally at Sony, which will turn semi-finished CMOS sensors into finished products while guarding its proprietary technologies.
The electronics giant spent about 60 billion yen over the three years since fiscal 2007 to beef up CMOS sensor production at Sony Semiconductor Kyushu Corp.'s Kumamoto Technology Center.
It plans to invest an additional 40 billion yen to lift its CMOS sensor output capacity 40% by the end of fiscal 2011.
By leveraging the capacity hike resulting from the subcontracting deal, Sony aims to maintain its price competitiveness against chip foundries in Taiwan, China and the U.S. Teaming up with a domestic nonrival will also enable the firm to prevent its cutting-edge technologies from falling into the hands of foreign competitors.
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