Israeli Firm Starts Production of Cameraphone Components

Tower Semiconductor, an Israel based wafer foundry, and Biomorphic Microsystems, a supplier of innovative imaging solutions for the cell phone and PDA markets, have announced that Tower has begun manufacturing of Biomorphic 2.0 and 1.3-megapixel CMOS image sensors.

Biomorphic has already won one of the five leading global cell phone manufacturers for one of these new products, which responds to the increasing demand for higher image quality on small mobile handsets.

Japanese market research firm Techno Systems Research (TSR) estimates the 2006 total market for 2.0-megapixel CMOS modules to be 65 million units, while the 1.3-megapixel market is estimated at 190 million units.

The Bi8910T 1.3-megapixel and Bi8921T 2.0-megapixel SoC image sensors are produced in 0.18-micron process at Tower's Fab2, utilizing Tower's pixel IP and the company's optically-optimized multilayer metallization (OptiMuM), which achieves dramatically better optical sensitivity by reducing stack height from silicon to micro-lens."

Posted to the site on 2nd November 2005