Image Sensor Market Set to Bounce Back
Staff -- Semiconductor International, 4/14/2008
|
IC Insights Inc. (Scottsdale, Ariz.) predicted that the image sensor market will bounce back this year after shrinking in 2007, the first time that the image sensor market had declined since the 2001 downturn.
In its 2008 report on optoelectronics, sensors/actuators and discretes, the market research firm said image sensors will show a 14% compound average growth rate (CAGR) over the next five years to $13.2B in 2012, with a 10% increase expected this year to $7.6B from $6.9B last year. CMOS image sensor sales are forecast to rise 19% in 2008 to $4.4B after falling 12% in 2007, while charge-coupled devices (CCDs) are expected to decline 1% in 2008 to $3.2B compared with no growth in 2007.
|
| IC Insights Inc. said the image sensor market share leaders in 2007 shifted because of a 'rare' decline in revenues for the sector. |
Image sensors account for ~43% of optoelectronics sales, as defined by the World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS, Geneva) industry organization. In 2007, combined sales of CCD and CMOS image sensors declined 7%. Rob Lineback, senior market research analyst at IC Insights, said the drop was “primarily due to inventory corrections in camera phones during the first half of the year and some weakness in industrial and office equipment applications, such as machine vision for manufacturing systems and optical scanners in copiers and computer peripherals.”
The 2007 drop was the image sensor market’s first annual decline since the 2001 semiconductor downturn. Between 2002 and 2007, overall image sensor sales rose by a CAGR of 35%, driven by CMOS-based camera cell phones and CCD-dominated digital still cameras. For the 2007-2012 forecast period, IC Insights is projecting sales will rise by a CAGR of 14% per year. As camera phones and digital still cameras become saturated, emerging markets for image sensors will include embedded cameras in portable computers, next-generation “hybrid” video/still-picture cameras, automotive imaging safety systems, medical uses, toys and video games, and wireless video security networks. “All of these potentially high-growth applications will require CMOS technology, which can integrate pixels cells with image-processing functions on a single chip while supporting lower power consumption compared to CCDs,” Lineback said.
CMOS image sensors will continue to grab more marketshare from CCDs in the coming years, he said. CMOS will account for 58% of image sensor sales in 2008 compared with 53% in 2007 and 46% in 2004. In 2012, CMOS devices are expected to represent 73% of total image sensor sales and 83% of total imager unit shipments.
