Taiwan Semiconductor Advances to Volume Production of CMOS Image Sensors

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Ltd.sensor technology has been battling with charge-coupled device (CCD) detector technology for market share (see CMOS Imagers Challenge CCDs). The choice of which technology to use varies by application, but in some cases CCDs have held the advantage through sheer commercial availability. That situation may be changing somewhat, however. <%=company%> (TSMC; Hsin-Chu, Taiwan) has moved into volume production of its 0.35-µm Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Ltd.sensors. The company's facility can fabricate 6-in. wafers at a rate of more than 5000 per month.

According to Edward Chen, TSMC's director of special technology product marketing, the company focuses on providing fabless semiconductor companies and integrated device manufacturers with the capability to build a complete camera-on-a-chip. For example, OmniVision Technologies Inc. (Sunnyvale, CA) has used the TSMC foundry to produce a series of programmable digital imaging devices with a 640 x 480 pixel (VGA) resolution. The devices integrate the sensor array with an on-chip A/D converter that delivers 8-bit and 16-bit parallel digital output.

TSMC manufactures image sensors with a red-green-blue color filter; a microlens on top of the color filter enhances optical sensitivity. Image sensors are currently in volume production using 0.35-µm, 0.5-µm, 0.6-µm and 0.8-µm process technologies. The company's technology roadmap calls for migration to a 0.25-µm process at the end of 2000 and then to a 0.18-µm process by the end of 2001.

The 0.35-µm process is suitable for million-pixel products, and is particularly applicable to DSC (digital still cameras). Image processes at TSMC are fully compatible with the company's generic processes and easy to integrate with existing libraries and IP.

Edited by Kristin Lewotsky, Photonics Online