1998-11-04 , ESC-9880
Business News From Philips Semiconductors

Philips Semiconductors, a division of Royal Philips Electronics of the Netherlands and the largest European semiconductor company, and SANYO Electric Company Limited announced today that they have jointly agreed to develop, manufacture and market Charge Coupled Devices (CCDs), the optical sensor used in most digital still and video cameras. CCDs are semiconductor devices which sense light and generate a corresponding electrical charge.

CCDs are a major growth area, with world-wide demand for CCDs being conservatively estimated at 21 million units in 1997 and 27 million units in 1998 by the Japanese market research firm Technosystem Research. In addition, the demand for higher image quality is driving up the number of pixels used in such equipment every year, with one million pixel cameras fast gaining popularity in the consumer market.

Both Philips Semiconductors and SANYO have adopted the Frame Transfer (FT) design for CCD production, which separates the detection unit from the storage unit. Compared with other methods, the FT method has been shown to provide superior light utilisation and improved sensitivity. The FT method provides greater output than other methods and realises a wider gradation range, thereby enabling creation of more accurate images. In addition, its simple structure allows the number of pixels to be increased easily. Thus, the FT method is considered most suitable for digital cameras, which require image quality as high as that for conventional cameras.

The agreement covers the exchange of FT CCD-related technologies. The companies will carry out joint development after establishing a technology and product development plan. In the initial phase of this agreement, SANYO will take charge of wafers for one million pixel CCDs, while Philips Semiconductors will manufacture wafers for CCDs for around two million pixels. SANYO will package and test the semiconductor products manufactured by both companies. Each company will market products under its own brand name.

Philips Semiconductors has patented techniques for making CCDs with several millions of pixels, which have established it at the top end of the CCD market, supplying devices for most professional digital cameras, medical equipment and broadcast applications. Philips Semiconductors has developed a six million pixel CCD of exactly the size as a 35mm film, offering superior contrast ratio and single shot colour performance. Cameras using this CCD were introduced by a number of professional use manufacturers during this year's PHOTOKINA exhibition in Cologne, Germany.

Guenther Dengel, Managing Director, Consumer Systems, at Philips Semiconductors, commented, "This is an excellent joining together of two fields of expertise. Philips has over twenty years of experience in making CCDs. Our proven ability to create multi-million pixel CCDs for professional applications, combined with SANYO's experience with the current consumer CCD market, will enable us to expand the CCD business for both companies. We will be able to respond quickly to market needs for products with one to four million pixels, which are expected to represent the mainstream of the emerging consumer CCD market in the near future."

SANYO has been manufacturing CCDs since the early 1980s and the first consumer-use digital still cameras, which were released in 1996, used a SANYO brand CCD. SANYO has retained a strong position in the CCD market ever since.

"SANYO is already a technology leader in the digital camera market and this agreement with Philips Semiconductors will help us keep that advantage well into the future," commented Akira Yoshida, President of SANYO's Semiconductor Business Headquarters. "This agreement will be another step in enriching our CCD product line-up and further enlarging our digital camera related business."

Philips Semiconductors has a leading experience in analogue and digital with recent developments in PC Camera & Digital Still Camera technologies. Philips Semiconductors is already offering a large range of key products such as front-end converters, video signal processors, RISC processors and dedicated camera processing compression engines, to offer a complete system solution for the consumer market. Philips Semiconductors also benefits from large system experience gained through Philips Corporate imaging activities.

SANYO Electric Company Limited, well known around the world for its consumer electronics, is one of the largest digital still camera manufacturers in the world and makes a wide array of semiconductors for these applications, including CCDs, flash memory, RISC processors, LSI (Large Scale Integrated) products for image processing and data compression as well as low temperature polysilicon TFT LCDs used as the view screen on many digital imaging products. SANYO's semiconductor business saw double digit growth in production during the 1997 fiscal year.

Philips Semiconductors, a division of Royal Philips Electronics, headquartered in Eindhoven, The Netherlands, is the ninth largest semiconductor supplier in the world. Philips Semiconductors' innovations in digital audio, video, and mobile technology position the company as a leader in the consumer, multimedia and wireless communications markets. Sales offices are located in all major markets around the world, and are supported by regional customer application labs.