Sony Corp., Japan's largest exporter of consumer electronics, said Monday it plans to start shipping new sensors in October that produce sharper images than current ones as it seeks to win more orders from smartphone makers.
The complementary metal-oxide semiconductors, or CMOS, are also smaller, Sony said in a statement Monday. The company, which currently makes imaging modules at a plant in Kumamoto, will also start making them in Guangzhou, China, this month to boost capacity, it said.
The maker of Cyber-shot cameras is spending ¥80 billion ($1 billion) to boost production capacity for CMOS chips to 60,000 wafers a month from 45,000, it said in June. Tokyo-based Sony aims to win more orders from makers of smartphones with built-in cameras and boost its global market share for the image sensors to 30 percent by March 2014 from 14 percent as of March this year.
Sony will speed up a move into health equipment by using the edge its image sensors have over rivals, Chief Executive Officer Kazuo Hirai said earlier this year.