Toshiba announces image sensor strategy
Toshiba was about the sixth largest CMOS image sensor vendor in 2012 with about 6 percent market share, according to market analyst Yole Developpement.
Toshiba has announced that it plans to focus development and sales expansion on automotive and medical imaging sensor, in addition to sales expansion with Chinese smartphone manufacturers based on the BSI (backside illumination) image sensor technology and technologies that realize high sensitivity and speed.
The annual market for image sensors is worth approximately 800 billion yen (about $7.67 billion), mainly sold into smartphones and digital cameras. Future growth is expected to come in automotive applications and bringing higher performance to existing applications, Toshiba said.
Smartphones
The volume zones for image sensor used in the main cameras mounted on current smartphones are 8- to 13-million pixels. Toshiba supplies products mounting high-sensitivity image processing technology such as HDR and Bright Mode. Toshiba has developed a 20-million pixels sensor for high-end market.
Automotive sensors
Currently Toshiba sells a sensor for a rearview camera. We will use our original HDR to develop automotive image sensors, as demand for such products is expected to expand in the future. Toshiba also plans to develop a system based on the TMPV75 automotive image recognition LSI.
Medical sensors
Toshiba has formed an alliance with, and invested in CapsoVision Inc. (CV), maker of a capsule endoscope, as one aspect of promoting Toshiba’s healthcare business. Toshiba is developing an image sensor to mount in CV capsule endoscopes. Toshiba is also considering entering the market for sensors for catheters or endoscopes.
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