Thursday, June 18, 2009

Samsung, Aptina Sensor Shortages

Digitimes: The supply of image sensors from Samsung is currently falling 30-40% short of demand, pushing the company to ramp up CIS production, according to sources at Taiwan camera module makers. The shortages are unlikely to ease until Q3 2009.

Some camera module makers have also seen the supply of Aptina's sensors tighten and immediately turned to place orders with Samsung, expanding Samsung's supply gap, the sources indicated.

3 comments:

  1. Wow, 3 articles all talking about Samsung sensor shortages from the same reporter in the month of June
    I wonder how much OV is paying him to write these articles

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  2. Actually the sensor shortages in the market are real. OV may not be facing the squeeze since they are dependent on TSMC. That's a favorable thing in these times. However, when the economy is good, OV will find it hard to get the necessary capacity from TSMC.

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  3. I know the sensor shortages are real and fab's have been booked until the end of the year. From what I understand this is everyone's problem, and not just for Samsung and Aptina.

    Lets say the market mainstream shifts to 3MP 1/4" or 5MP 1/3" next year, this will put additional load on Fab capacity since per wafer dies will be smaller. Samsung and Micron will need to retool some of their old uncompetitive DRAM lines to make CMOS sensors instead. Not sure if TSMC can retool old lines, they don't have any DRAM fabs to convert.

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