Widely used in mobile handsets, CMOS sensors continue to out-sell rival charge coupled device (CCD) sensors.
Shipments last year of CMOS sensors accounted for 92% of all area image sensors—an overwhelming share that translated into some 2.1 billion units, up 31% from 1.6 billion in 2010, according to a IHS iSuppli Consumer Platforms topical report from IHS.
With the remaining 8 percent of the market, CCD sensor shipments in 2011 fell to 180.3 million units, down 2 percent from 184.5 million in 2010. In 2010, the CMOS share of the sensor market was 90 percent vs. 10 percent for CCD.
According to the analyst, the pattern of CMOS dominance will continue through the years in the face of CCD’s irreversible decline.
By 2015, CMOS shipments will amount to 3.6 billion units or 97 percent market share, compared to CCD shipments of just 95.2 million, or 3 percent, as shown in the figure attached.
“CMOS sensors long have been associated with cheaper manufacturing costs, greater efficiency and faster data-throughput speeds,” said Pamela Tufegdzic, analyst for consumer electronics at IHS.
“For those reasons, CMOS sensor use has kept expanding in an ever-growing number of devices and applications, while the use of higher-cost CCDs has shrunk steadily.”
Mobile handsets remain the dominant application for CMOS sensors, representing 79% of total CMOS shipments in 2011. Videoconferencing is the second-biggest application market in terms of CMOS shipments, due to the inclusion of cameras in notebook computers.
The IHS iSuppli report entitled: “BSI Success Drives the CMOS Image Sensor Segment.”