El Segundo, Calif. –
Almost 20 percent of CMOS sensor supplies have been impacted by last month’s
earthquake in Japan.
IHS iSuppli
reported that Toshiba and Sony, which together comprise 11.8 percent and 7.3
percent of the worldwide CMOS revenue had manufacturing facilities in the
earthquake zone.
CMOS censors are
primarily used in cell phones and other devices where the camera is a secondary
use function.
One bit of bright news is
CCD manufacturing as not been hit by the natural disaster as the primary CCD
production facilities are located outside of Japan or areas that were not
affected by the earthquake.
However, IHS said this
situation could change. Particularly, if the basic materials used in CCD
production come from the sections of Japan where power outages and
transportation issues are disrupted.
Pamela Tufegdzic, CE analyst
for IHS iSuppli, said Toshiba’s Iwate Image Sensor fab was expected to be
back online by the end of March with production ramping back up in April, but
as of April 14 she was not sure what level of operation was available.
She added, Sony has said
its CMOS shipments will be delayed, but did not say whether it was due to
damage to the factories or because of transportation delays in Japan.
