ToF and CIS Market Update

The imaging system is a high-value component of smartphones, accounting for nearly 50% of the value of key components of smartphones. The smartphone imaging system is mainly composed of chips, display, algorithms, and lens. The lens groups specifically include lenses, voice coil motors, sensors, modules, and infrared filters. The screen and lens group, which are more intuitive for consumers, account for approximately 34% and 26% of the value of the imaging system. In the future, AI capabilities with large screens, multiple cameras, and collaborative upgrades of software and hardware will help the optical perception system to become an incremental factor in breaking the deadlock in the smartphone market. (iResearch report)

Android-camp handset vendors including Samsung Electronics are expected to follow in the footsteps of Apple in incorporating direct time-of-flight (dToF) CMOS image sensors (CIS) into their new models in 2021–2022, and Taiwan’s III-V semiconductor players including GaAs foundries Win Semiconductors and Advanced Wireless Semiconductor and epi wafer supplier Visual Photonics Epitaxy are poised to enjoy shipment pull-ins for VCSEL chips as light source for the dToF CIS devices in 2H21 at the earliest, according to Digitimes. (Digitimes, press)