Report methodology and definitions   7

What we got right, what we got wrong  9

Executive summary 14

Context 32

• Global semiconductor market
• Huawei ban timeline
• Semiconductor shortages
• History of triple disruption in photography
• CMOS image sensor technology shift – CMOS vs. CCD
• CMOS image sensor technology shift – Imaging vs. Sensing

CIS market forecast 48

• 2020 CIS revenue breakdown, by market, by player and by market segment
• 2016 – 2026 CIS volume shipment and revenue forecast
• 2016 – 2026 average selling price forecast
• 2016 – 2026 CIS wafer production forecast

Players and rankings 66

• 2020 CIS revenue rankings, by player
• 2020 CIS mobile market revenue breakdown, by player
• 2020 CIS consumer photography market revenue breakdown, by player
• 2020 CIS consumer home IoT market revenue breakdown, by player
• 2020 CIS computing, automotive, medical, security, industry and defense and aerospace market revenue breakdowns, by player

CMOS image sensor ecosystem 85

• Ecosystem
• M&A historical timeline
• Noteworthy news of the last 2 years
• Supply chain
• Competitive landscape
• CIS and logic foundry capacity

Mobile market trends 91

• Mobile market dynamics and volume forecast by player
• Market drivers
• Phone market trend
• Mobile multiple camera mix – forecast
• Imaging and sensing trend
• Cloud vs edge AI trend

Consumer market trends 120

• Market dynamics
• Photography volume forecast
• Consumer home IoT volume forecast
• Market trend

Computing market trends 129

• Market dynamics, volume forecast and market trends

Automotive market trends  135

• Market dynamics, imaging trends
•  camera mix – forecast

Medical market trends 149

Security market trends 161

Industrial market trends 169

Defense and aerospace market trends 178

Technology trends 185

• Pixel, resolution and optical format
• BSI opened the way to 3D semiconductor
• In-pixel hybrid stack technology
• 3D imaging and sensing
• Other technology trends

Conclusions 222

Foundry profiles 224

About Yole Développement 236

CIS IS NOT JUST ABOUT MOBILE ANYMORE

Until 2019 mobile devices were certainly the main growth contributor to the CMOS Image Sensor (CIS) market. But in 2020 this is no longer the case. Computing, automotive and security markets have now outpaced the growth of mobile devices. The $20.7B CIS industry is still dominated by mobile and consumer applications, representing more than 72% of revenues. Yet, despite all headwinds in 2020, computing, automotive and security have each grown to similar shares, reaching about 8% of CIS revenues, and 23% combined. They had represented 21% in 2019. In computing, higher demand for laptops and tablets in the COVID-19 context combined with the introduction of sensing cameras, such as 3D and fingerprint, has reversed a multi-year downward trend. In automotive and security, the high demand for cameras comes from smart car, smart home, and smart building trends. Some future growth of the CIS market will therefore come from those markets, although mobile will still play a major role due to its sheer size. Looking more precisely at the growth forecast for mobile, social media has completely redefined our relationship to phones. Future technology for phone cameras will therefore primarily serve social media applications. We expect the production volume of mobile handsets to resume an upward trend in 2021, growing by 11.5% Year-over-Year (YoY), which is the major contributor to Yole Développement (Yole)’s CIS forecast upgrade. The combined need for real time distant communication and expression is rising. Combined with the growth of the other markets, the CIS industry should at least keep growing at 7.5% Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) for the five years ahead.

THE HUAWEI BAN REORDERS THE CIS PLAYER GROWTH RANKING

2020 saw the combination of continuing high demand for cameras and sanctions on Huawei contributing to additional purchases of CIS in three quarters and then a brutal stop in the last quarter of the year. The COVID-19 pandemic did not play much role other than limiting capacity increases. Therefore CIS industry output stayed close to its structural limit all through the year, and especially in Q3-2020. For the full year, the whole industry grew by 7.3% YoY in revenue, in line with Yole’s expectation. For CIS players, 2020 did not play out similarly to 2019, in fact it was almost the opposite, with the smaller players doing best. Sony losts two points of market share, SK Hynix maintain, Samsung and Galaxycore gain one point and OmniVision gains two points.

The dynamics of the Chinese players must be rationalized in the context of US-China trade tensions. CIS is one of the key strengths of the relatively small Chinese semiconductor sector. The tight links with Taiwanese foundry TSMC and the availability of new capacity at the Chinese foundries HLMC and SMIC have been highly profitable. Similarly, Korean players and foundries have benefited greatly in this context.
And for years to come semiconductor shortages may still dominate the economic landscape. Again, the Huawei ban is probably much to blame for the herd reaction for inventories we are currently seeing. It will take at least a few years before the bubble of the current rush for capacity bursts. Other semiconductor areas like memory or microprocessors have experienced this, but the CIS industry never has, but we now must keep it in mind.

ACCESS TO ADVANCED STACKED CIS FOUNDRY CAPACITY HAS BECOME A PRIORITY

In this new edition of “The Status of the CMOS Image Sensor Industry 2021” report, we took much interest in foundry capacity. For many years the transition from front side illumination to back side stacked image sensors freed much needed CIS capacity. This was transferred to logic wafer demand. The CIS industry has been able to grow at double digit CAGRs without much investment in dedicated foundries. Wafers could be sourced from established logic wafer fabs such as TSMC, Samsung and UMC. We have now reached the limit of stacking benefits. All major players are now able to output the stacked image sensors the market is asking for, therefore lifting competition to new levels. All those players have now to both increase CIS and logic wafer output or sourcing. Access to foundry capacity in the context of semiconductor shortages has become a major challenge. Mobile device makers are either increasing pixel size, pixel resolution and/or number of cameras per handset, which is increasing CIS demand. The search for technological differentiation has reignited the race to shrink pixels. 2020 saw the introduction of 0.7µm pixels and in-pixel stacking technology in the Sony-Apple LiDAR chip. This technology is opening up a new era of image sensor diversity, as neuromorphic and quantum image sensors are now in key innovators’ plans. This new era will increase usage of image sensors, putting more strain on industrial capacity. We are just at the beginning of a new chapter of the CIS industry, and this Yole Développement report will keep you up-to-date.

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, onsemi, 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 Technology, Socionext, Soitec, Sony, STMicroelectronics, SuperPix, Teledyne, Teradyne, Trixell, TSMC, TowerJazz, TPSCo, UMC, Valeo, Videantis, Viimagic, WLCSP, Xiaomi, X-Fab, Xintec, Xperi, ZTE, and more…