Glossary 2

Report methodology and definitions 6

Companies cited in this report 5

What we got right, what we got wrong 8

Executive Summary 13

Context 28

• Historical perspective and global market
• CIS market segmentation
• Huawei ban timeline
• Global CO2 emission intensity
• CMOS image sensor landscape, by player (2019)
• CMOS image sensor landscape, by
  application (2019-2025)
• CMOS image sensor technology shift –
  CMOS vs. CCD
• CMOS image sensor technology shift – BSI vs. FSI
• CMOS image sensor technology shift –
  300mm vs. 200m

CIS market forecast 50

• 2019 CIS revenue breakdown, by market, by player
• CIS volume shipment forecast 2015 – 2025
• CIS revenue forecast 2015 – 2025
• CIS average selling price forecast 2015 – 2025
• CIS wafer production forecast 2015 – 2025

Players and rankings 67

• 2019 CIS revenue rankings, by player
• 2019 CIS production rankings top 10, by
  foundry
• 2019 CIS player activity breakdown
• 2019 CIS mobile market revenue
  breakdown, by player
• 2019 CIS consumer photography market
  revenue breakdown, by player
• 2019 CIS consumer home market revenue breakdown, by player
• 2019 CIS consumer computing market
  revenue breakdown, by player
• 2019 CIS automotive market revenue
  breakdown, by player
• 2019 CIS medical market revenue
  breakdown, by player
• 2019 CIS security and surveillance market revenue breakdown, by player
• 2019 CIS industry market revenue
  breakdown, by player
• 2019 CIS defense and aerospace market
  revenue breakdown, by player

Ecosystem 81

• 2019 M&A activity in CIS
• CMOS image sensor – M&A historical
  timeline
• CMOS image sensor – noteworthy news of the last two years
• CMOS image sensor – ecosystem
• CMOS image sensor – supplychain
• CMOS image sensor – competitive landscape
• CIS foundries – geographic mapping

Mobile market trend 90

• Mobile market dynamics
• Mobile market volume forecast, by player
• Market drivers
• Mobile phone market trend
• Mobile resolution mix – forecast
• 3D camera applications
• Mobile 3D sensing camera trend
• Mobile optical fingerprint market trend

Consumer market trend 117

• Consumer market dynamics
• Consumer photography volume forecast
• Consumer home IOT volume forecast
• Consumer market trend

Consumer market trend 126

• Computing market dynamics
• Computing volume forecast
• Computing market trends

Automotive market trend 126

Medical market trend 146

Industry market trend 162

Security and surveillance market trend 171

Defense and aerospace market trend 179

Technology trends 184

• Pixel/resolution/optical format
• BSI opened the way to 3D semiconductor
• In-pixel hybrid stack technology
• In-pixel hybrid stack technology
• 3D imaging and sensing
• Other technology trends
• High dynamic range (HDR) with LED flicker mitigation (LFM)
• NIR imaging and sensing

Conclusion 216

Company profiles 220

Yole Group of companies 235

THE CIS INDUSTRY IS OVERHEATING

2019 and 2020 saw the combination of high demand for cameras and sanctions on Huawei contributing to additional inventories. This raised the industry output to its structural limit, which in turn increased prices by about 10%. Overall, the industry increased at a 25% year-over-year (YoY) rate in 2019, when Yole Développement (Yole) had expected growth in the range of 10% to 11%. This situation mostly benefited the large established players, Sony, Samsung and Omnivision. They were able to increase output quickly, having the right product portfolio ready to market. The Covid-19 situation was a mere back-story in 2020. Most key consumer electronic products were only temporally affected by disrupted logistics. Even automotive imaging and industrial imaging have been temporarily halted amid a multi-year double-digit annual growth trend. The years to come will see the market hopefully go back to its original track, with a soft landing in 2021 and 2022. The uncertainties of the geopolitical landscape, compounded by the worldwide health-related lockdowns can wreck forecasters’ nerves. If we add to this picture the mandate for all industries, and in particular semiconductor companies to curb their CO2 emissions in the next decade, the outlook based on “business as usual” gets interesting. Nevertheless, imaging and sensing applications are thriving in most markets and there is no reason for this to disappear overnight. The CIS industry size is approaching $21B in 2020. The growth should therefore slow down to 5.7% Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) until 2025. CIS technology will represent 5.1% of global semiconductor sales in 2021, which is already an exceptional achievement.

CHINESE PLAYERS ARE POISED FOR GREATER MARKET SHARE

At the top of the market, player trajectories are a consequence of the smartphone market situation. Sony and Samsung are first and second and Omnivision third. ST Microelectronics is in fourth position, making a comeback thanks to its near infrared (NIR) sensing imagers for Apple handsets and tablets. Sony and Samsung have subsequently updated their product portfolio in line with the 3D sensing trend. Indirect Time of flight (iToF) and direct time of flight (dToF) arrays are the immediate response, showing the great technical innovation driving those top players. On the other side of the market, emerging players to watch are coming from China. Omnivision has been acquired by Will Semiconductor, the Shanghai-based company. Two other Chinese players, Galaxycore and Smartsens, are also experiencing thriving growth. They have mostly benefited from their domestic market ecosystem in mobile and security cameras. Their growth is currently fuelled by massive capital injections at time of greater US sanctions limiting their access to technology. CIS might be among the first semiconductor product categories in which China could become technologically independent since the required wafer foundries are widely available in mainland China. The next era will involve robotics, augmented reality (AR) and smart internet of things (IoT). All of these are markets in which Chinese companies are well positioned. The ranking of CIS players will eventually change along these new lines.

EXPLOSION IN DIVERSITY OF CIS TECHNOLOGY

Sensing has opened Pandora’s box. For many years the key aspect of competition was to electronically capture photographic and/or video images, the benchmark being film invented 150 years ago. Most of the industry has now switched to much broader endeavours. There is one part of the competition that is trying to push the limits of the current paradigm, by converting each available photon into an electron. This is the quantum imaging effort, exemplified by single photon avalanche photodiodes found in 3D sensing lidars from established players such as Sony, STMicroelectronics and On Semiconductor. There are also and innovative pixels from startups such as Gigajot, Actlight and SeeDevice. On the other end of the spectrum there is the neuromorphic imaging effort, which is reinventing the notion of image capture by using biomimicking event-driven data, led by Samsung, Sony, Prophesee and Celepixel. This endeavour is currently seeking to solve the limitations in capturing and processing motion pictures. This could have a major impact for machine vision but also in the art of video capture. The future will not be a straight line and the big bet for all these innovations is how they integrate with the implementation of embedded Artificial Intelligence. Smart image sensors are under way. Sony and Omnivision have already made headway in that direction. New technologies will mean opportunities for new entrants to beat the incumbents. Nevertheless, a new market cycle will be necessary. This will probably involve robotics and augmented reality as well as the smart IoT market… Here at Yole Développement, we will make sure to keep you posted.

Almalence, Ambarella, Apple, Ams, Arm, Axis, Arclight, Basler, Bosch, Brigates, BYD, Caeleste, Canon, Clairpixel, Cmosis, Cognex, Continental, Core Photonics, CSEM, Dahua, DB Hitek, Dxomark, Espros Photonics, Evg, Excelitas Technologies, Fairchild Imaging, Flir, Forza Silicon, Fotonic, Foxconn, Fraunhofer, Fujitsu, Fujifilm, GalaxyCore, GigaJot, Given Imaging, GoPro, Gpixel, Grass Valley, Hamamatsu, Hasselblad, Himax Imaging, HikVision, HLMC, Honeywell, Hoya, HTC, Huawei, Image Lab, IMEC, Infineon, Invisage, Kingpak, Konica Minolta, Lattice, Leap Motion, Leica, Lenovo, LG, Luxima, Magna, Mantis Vision, Medigus, Melexis, Microsoft, Mobileye, Movidius, New Imaging Technologies, Nextchip, Nikon, NXP, Nvidia, Olympus, Omnivision, Omron, ON Semiconductor, Panasonic, PerkinElmer, Philips, Pixart, PixelPlus, Pelco, PMD Technologies, Pyxalis, Raytrix, Rosnes, Red, Samsung, Sanei Hytech, Seedevice, Sharp, Silicon Optronics, Sirona, SK Hynix, SMIC, Siemens, Smartsens, Socionext, Soitec, Sony, STMicroelectronics, SuperPix, Teledyne, Teradyne, Trixell, TSMC, TowerJazz,  TPSCo, UMC, Valeo, Videantis, Viimagic, WLCSP, Xiaomi, X-Fab, Xintec, Xperi, ZTE, and more.