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| Samsung Electronics new CMOS image sensor ISOCELL Slim 3P9 / Courtesy of Samsung Electronics |
By Baek Byung-yeul
While the market size of complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) image sensors has continuously been increasing and is expected to grow further, industry watchers said Samsung Electronics is challenging industry leader Sony.
According to data from market researcher IC Insights, it is estimated that the annual sales of CMOS image sensors will grow 10 percent this year at $13.7 billion in 2018.
The researcher said the continuing growth comes after the spread of digital camera applications in vehicles, machine visions in robots, security video cameras. Also the increase of dual-lens cameras in recent smartphones is making strong growth.
Most cameras these days have used either a charge-coupled device (CCD) sensor or a CMOS sensor. Though CCD sensors are superior regarding light sensitivity and quality, there has been a dramatic shift from CCD to CMOS as CMOS technology is simple and low-cost. IC Insights reported CMOS image sensors grabbed 89 percent of total image sensor sales in 2017 compared to 74 percent in 2012.
In the CMOS image sensor market, Sony is the leading player while Samsung Electronics is trying to narrow the gap, starting its own CMOS image sensor brand and a series of new products.
Industrial data showed Sony took 25.6 percent of market share in 2016 while Samsung Electronics had 22.6 percent. Last year, Sony held 28.3 percent and Samsung 25.4 percent. In the cited period, SK hynix remained as the industry's fifth player with market share of between 8 and 9 percent.
When it comes to sales, however, things are different. Industry watchers presume the Japanese tech giant takes up to 50 percent of the market in terms of sales while Samsung remains at 20 percent.
To become a leading player in this sector, Samsung rebranded its image sensor as "ISOCELL" last June. Sony has been using "Exmor" for its digital imaging products since 2008.
Samsung said its image sensor lineup is named after the company's own ISOCELL technology. First introduced in 2013, the ISOCELL technology isolates each individual pixel on the camera censor, enhancing image quality.
Samsung recently introduced a new 16-megapixel image sensor called ISOCELL Slim 3P9. The company said the new CMOS image sensor offers an ISOCELL Plug and Play system in a rear camera module. Samsung said manufacturers using the camera module can save up to four months of development time as the optimization and reliability tests are done beforehand at the module-level.
