CMOS image sensor market could reach $16 billion by 2020

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Driven by mobile and automotive applications, the CMOS image sensor industry will grow from $10 billion in 2014 to $16 billion by 2020, according to a report from Yole Développement.

Growing at a compound annual growth rate of 10.6% from 2014 to 2020, the industry will see growth in many areas, with strong growth in mobile device and automotive applications, as well as medical and surveillance applications. Areas such as these, where great opportunities have surfaced, are driving the market and technology efforts of existing and new players, according to the report, which was done by Pierre Cambou, Activity Leader, Imaging & Sensors at Yole Développement and Jean-Luc Jaffard, formerly at STMicroelectronics and part of Red Belt Conseil.

The report identifies trends and challenges including manufacturing and device technology, and "game changing" areas like back-side illuminated (BSI) and 3D stacked BSI sensors. It also offers a revenue forecast, volume shipment and wafer production by application, market shares, and application focus on key growth areas, which include mobile, DSLR, automotive, security, and machine vision applications.

As mentioned above, however, the two main drivers of growth will be mobile and automotive applications. For mobile applications, China’s push for higher-resolution secondary front-facing cameras in smart phones will help drive sales.

"This significantly impacts the average selling price (ASP) of micro camera modules, and is causing low-end players to abandon their focus on submega pixel production and move toward 5Mp+ territories," said Cambou in a press release.

This has had an impact on the capital expenditures and technology portfolio roadmaps of developers of CMOS image sensors for mobile devices. Sony, according to Yole, has excelled in developing CMOS sensors for mobile devices, particularly for main rear-facing cameras, where compactness and performance are pushed to the extreme.

Automotive, however, is the big story this year, as car manufacturers like Tesla, Nissan, and Ford are now installing CMOS image sensors in many of their cars, and are eager to show off this technology. Developers of CMOS sensors for this market segment are seeing growth rates of 30 to 50%, and total revenue for this segment should reach $800 million in 2020 for CMOS image sensors alone, according to the report.

The report cites a number of machine vision companies, including Basler, CMOSIS, Cognex, e2v, FLIR, Hamamatsu, odos imaging, OmniVision, ON Semiconductor, Panasonic, Sony, Teledyne DALSA, Toshiba Teli, and more.

View more information/purchase the report.

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