Currently unable to quickly respond to short lead-time orders from customers, Aptina imaging seems to be interested in transforming Micron's Japanese semiconductor manufacturing plant into a producer of CMOS image sensors. Aptina CEO David Orton stressed the fact that the cause for this current inability was in no way due to insufficient capacity on Aptina's side, instead saying that its clients were the ones placing too many short lead-time orders.
Just like the Italy-based fab owned by the same company, the Japan-based semiconductor manufacturer is capable of producing 40,000 wafers per month. While trying to preserve and, perhaps even improve, yields, the plans are intended to cross from the current 8-inch process manufacturing to putting together 90nm process, according to Orton.
As the president and managing director of Aptina, Greg Helton, reveals, there is another reason why the Japanese fab is the intended setup. Thus, it would be in the company's best interest to build closer relationships with the many Japan-based DSC (digital still camera) makers, namely Canon, Nikon, Sony and Panasonic.
Aptina imaging is an independent CMOS imaging leader, which serves all of the major mobile handset OEMs and module integrators. It is has design wins with virtually every PC camera manufacturer and is the leading supplier of automotive CMOS imagers, continuing to collaborate with OEMs and innovators to guide technology in the industry. Aptina has yielded the NASA scientists who first developed active pixel sensor technology and has a legacy built on Micron’s revolutionary semiconductor process technology.
The company itself focuses on innovation and research in the area of digital visual imaging, which is probably the reason why so many clients use Aptina technology, to the point where the maker itself cannot keep up with the many orders, as is the case now.
This expansion is meant to increase Aptina's ability to quickly respond to urgent orders and to its closer collaboration with all the manufacturers of digital visual imaging solutions.
