Sony Semiconductor Manufacturing has proudly announced a remarkable achievement with the shipment of 20 billion image sensors since its inception of transistor production in the 1980s. This milestone represents a significant surge, as the company doubled its shipments from 10 billion to 20 billion in just five years, between 2019 and 2024.
According to President Yoshihiro Yamaguchi, the increase in mobile device shipments played a pivotal role in this growth. The advent of dual-camera smartphones in 2016 and 2017 laid the groundwork, and today it is commonplace to find smartphones with four cameras across various price ranges.
The rise in sensor shipments is also attributed to the growing complexity of smartphone cameras. In addition to mobile applications, the semiconductor division is concentrating on expanding its technology into other sectors, including automotive devices, smart factories, ICT cameras, laser technology, and data centers, operating three manufacturing plants in Kumamoto, Nagasaki, and Oita.
