Every year we come back from the International Solid-State Circuits Conference, we will bring back the latest knowledge about recent developments in image sensor technology. This year is no exception, Sony's announcement has really caught our attention. They proposed the adoption of new 3D semiconductors. Technology's 'global shutter' concept, particularly notable is the adoption of copper-copper hybrid bonding technology.
Their new image sensor is equipped with 6.9-micron-long pixels, and has analog-to-digital converters in the underlying digital chips. There are also two connectors between the upper analog image sensor chip and the lower digital chip. This technology allows 660 frames per second for extremely fast video capture, and the current product is usually only around 120 frames per second. This global shutter technology with the latest report of Yole Développement (Yole) ' Machine Vision for Industry and Automation 20182018 industry and The discovery of automated machine vision is very similar. The global shutter is the key technology of machine vision (MV), which brings more advantages for Sony in this market.
Since machine vision MV is actually a niche market for the imaging industry, some people wonder why Sony will start paying attention to investment in this direction when 2017's annual image sensor revenue reaches 6 billion U.S. dollars. In contrast, 2017 The machine vision market is worth $320 million at the sensor level and $220 million at the camera level. But this is only taking into account the automation of this traditional machine vision application. The new market is now broader, especially for Logistics matrix code readers and, more importantly, cars with forward-looking advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) cameras. In these areas, On Semiconductor has been very much in extending machine vision to the factory floor. Succeeded. Data released last week showed that the company’s annual revenue for image sensor business in 2017 was US$768 million, which was mainly related to the industrial and automotive markets. This shows that although ON Semiconductor is dominant in this field, It is now facing more competition from Omnivision, Samsung and Sony. It is important that the machine ON Semiconductor is a visual image of these new markets to conquer the high ground vantage point, this means that with the advent of new technologies, machine vision market will face greater competitive pressure in the future.
At Yole, we now compare the situation with 2010 when Sony commercialized backlighting technology to serve the smart phone industry with performance as the main driver. We believe that similar conditions are brewing in the field of machine vision. However, it The performance driven market may not be ADAS car camera as many people think. Next week, we will publish our report on 'Sensors for Robotic Vehicles 2018 Robotic Vehicle Sensor 2018' which covers the needs of fully automated vehicles. This will be a market for high-performance drives and a huge opportunity for high-end imaging players. With advanced image sensors, if Sony captures the largest automotive market, vehicles equipped with its technology will start pouring into our streets in the coming decades. Not surprising.
Not everything is clear, many people will argue that it is not possible to know the results beforehand. Unfortunately, this is a question that Yole’s clients ask our industry analysts, and we are always happy to provide our insights. In Europe, there is a joke about football that says football is a sport that 'the Germans will always win.' Maybe the image sensor industry is similar, we can say that 'imaging is a simple technology game: Engineers With a silicon chip chasing photons, Sony eventually wins.