Sony Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd. has announced that it has shipped over 20 billion image sensors, a remarkable achievement for the company. According to Yoshihiro Yamaguchi, the company's president, this achievement was made possible in just five years, following the shipment of 10 billion image sensors in 2019. Yamaguchi attributes the growing demand to the rapid expansion of mobile phone production, which now often features multiple cameras. This significant expansion of the market has likely contributed to the rise in popularity of the company's image sensors.
Sony began producing Charge-Coupled Device (CCD) image sensors in the 1980s, later switching to Complementary Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor (CMOS) technology. It appears that these changes have been successful, but the era of exclusivity is coming to an end. According to The Verge, Apple plans to start using Samsung camera sensors by 2026, marking the end of a decade-long partnership with Sony.
The company is actively expanding its production capacity, with a new factory being built in Kumamoto prefecture aimed at producing mobile device image sensors. Sony operates four factories in the Kyushu region, which produce not only image sensors but also devices for the automotive industry.