News and New Products

Dongbu Targets CMOS Image Sensors

Online staff -- Electronic News, 6/10/2002

South Korean foundry Dongbu Electronics today introduced its GeneCIS program targeted at developers of CMOS image sensors for use in high-volume applications such as digital cameras, camcorders, scanners and cell phones.

The GeneCIS program is a complete suite of design and manufacturing services that will be delivered through a single-point customer interface. Services include design toolkits, advanced silicon processing and optical layer post-processing as well as packaging and final testing, Dongbu said.

InStat/MDR forecasts that the worldwide image sensor market is growing nearly 25 percent annually from 2001 to 2005, and that CMOS image sensors will increasingly eclipse CCDs over this period because CMOS is a standard process which means it costs less, CMOS consumes less power and can be integrated with other functions on a single chip.

"CMOS image sensors will continue to make great strides at the expense of CCDs, and CMOS image sensor manufacturers as well as the wafer foundries supplying them can look forward to high-volume demand," said Brian O’Rourke, senior analyst at In-Stat/MDR, which is owned by Reed Business Information, Electronic News’ parent company.

By using the full suite of GeneCIS services, chip developers can eliminate nearly all of the hassles of coordinating manufacturing logistics associated with CMOS image sensors, according to Dongbu. The program complements the fabless model, the company said, because it allows chip developers to concentrate on adding higher value with advanced imaging architectures and system-level integrations.

Dongbu said it is sampling foundry-compatible 0.25-micron CMOS image sensors for its customers with a plan to extend GeneCIS support to foundry-compatible 0.18-micron devices by the end of 2002. A GeneCIS Designers Kit (GDK) containing 0.25-micron process specifications, libraries, design guidelines, packaging options and test capabilities will be available to customers in early Q3. The optical post-processing services include optical black, color-filter array, and micro-lens array, all of which are performed in Dongbu’s Class-1 wafer fab, along with the advanced CMOS silicon processing, thereby ensuring the highest performance and yields while minimizing handling delays.