Image Sensor Market Stays Afloat

While we've heard all sorts of doom and gloom stories of how bad things are for chip makers , according to a report from Cahners In-Stat Group , the market for image sensors, which are semiconductors that convert photons to electrons for display or storage, is booming in terms of both units shipped and revenue. In-Stat says that in 2000, just under 100 million image sensors shipped worldwide, for total revenue of nearly $1.2 billion. The largest applications for image sensors in that year included camcorders, digital still cameras, PC cameras, and applications such as fax machines and scanners. In the next five years, cameras for cell phones, PDAs and automobiles are expected to be among the fastest growing applications. Maybe they can watch the road for you while you talk on your cell phone. The report , called "The Big Picture: CCDs, CMOS & the Image Sensor Market," gives a review of the 2000 market for image sensors, as well as a forecast through 2005. Breakdowns are provided by application and image sensor type, in terms of units and revenues.