TowerJazz, a global specialty foundry company, has completed the transferring process of its CMOS image sensor (CIS) technology to its Newport Beach facility in California from its Israeli facility in Migdal Haemek. The CIS technology enables companies desiring to manufacture high performance image sensor designs on-shore in the US.
TowerJazz’s CIS process enables a better performance in terms of the dynamic range, low noise and dark current. It is designed for different types of digital imaging applications and the pixels can be customized based on the requirements of the project. The increase in demand for traffic monitoring cameras, fingerprint detection and other applications for homeland security has helped increase the company’s presence in the market for industrial sensors. TowerJazz has integrated its 0.18 analog CMOS to its NMOS pixel. This integration enables a solution for the defense and aerospace applications that require specialty image sensors.
Photolithography tools have certain limitations and these can be addressed by TowerJazz's stitching technology. On to large pixel arrays, it can tile 5.5 µ pixel sections. This helps develop color image sensors with high-quality and resolution. US manufacturers will be able to produce single dies per 200-mm wafer.
The novel technology will also support non-ITAR applications for the growing military and aerospace industry in the US.
TowerJazz will be exhibiting its technology at the SPIE's Defense, Sensing and Security conference to be held in Baltimore on April 24-26, 2012.