Wednesday, July 07, 2010

July Rumors

  1. Dongbu is planning to spin-off its image sensor design group. After few years of trying the group appears to be unable to come up with competitive products. So Dongbu is looking for external investors in hopes that the group would be more successful as an independent entity.
  2. SMIC is running close to the full capacity on CIS process, filled by Galaxycore orders.
  3. Sony has been demoing 1.1um pixel sensor to its potential customers since February 2010. The first response on image quality was quite positive.
  4. OmniBSI-2 1.1um pixel QE is reportedly "higher than 55%"
All the rumors are unconfirmed and unofficial. Please treat them accordingly.

    17 comments:

    1. what is the capacity of SMIC CIS line ??

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    2. What is the definition of 'unconfirmed' in this blog? You'd better remove this kind of list if you cannot open proper references. The first one is especially fishy. You can kill them due to your bad behavior even if 'the rumor' has no ground. Where is verbose but ethical Eric?

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    3. This blog seems no more a cafe with casual chatting. Big inertia should go with cautiousness.

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    4. "All the rumors are unconfirmed and unofficial. Please treat them accordingly"
      The last sentence of this post is clear.

      And I don't think that a rumor posted in a blog could kill an image sensor group, even in image sensors world.

      This kind of article is useful to have discussions topic with colleagues at coffee break, certainly not to speculate about company competitiveness ;-)

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    5. I heard many times from many people that Aptina would be closed soon due to Samsung and OV. But, it still does not happen. Rumors are just rumors.
      Dont's be too serious.

      Anyway, will Aptina be OK in the near future?

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    6. You know, there is a serious rumor that all the sensor makers will disappear two years later due to Quantum Dots.

      No, my mistake. it is due to that the year is 2012.

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    7. The HDR topic seems to be very hot in this blog...Hopefully ISWB will put more topics of this field in the blog ;)

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    8. There is also a rumor that Samsung will give up their CIS business. The ex-chief of the division is now the head of burgeoning LED divison and many key engineers followed him. They seem to lose momentum of innovation after such events.

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    9. There is also a rumor that Cypress is trying to sell their image sensor business..

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    10. @ "You'd better remove this kind of list if you cannot open proper references. The first one is especially fishy. You can kill them due to your bad behavior even if 'the rumor' has no ground."

      The only news in the first rumor is that Dongbu is looking to spin-off its CIS product design activity. Other than that, it states the known things. I do not think this can hurt anybody.

      Normally, I do not post "hurting" rumors. In fact, a couple of rumors that have not passed this criterion were not posted here for this very reason.

      I make a fair effort to check the rumors validity. However, neither of them is officially confirmed, so take them with a grain of salt.

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    11. What does the HDR stand for? Highly Deceptive Rumors?

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    12. Who is 'image sensor world'?
      Underground king of this small community?

      What kind of credibility does it expect while spreading rumors filtered by its own criteria and hiding behind some weird ID smelling like a Big Brother?

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    13. OK, I can understand that somebody does not like to hear rumors of unknown credibility. Let me explain my criteria for publishing a rumor. Actually, it's quite simple: anything that is not announced officially is a rumor, even the source is very credible.

      The rumors I'm publishing are not always correct. One recent example is my claim that IBM is out of CIS foundry business here:

      http://image-sensors-world.blogspot.com/2008/10/2-year-balance-some-gone-some-came.html

      By the time of publishing it I got this information from 3 independent sources, two of them being high-ranked IBM Microelectronics execs. In the end this was wrong.

      Another time a CEO of one known company gave me some information that was incorrect.

      So I came to the conclusion that anything that does not arrive through Business Wire, PR-Newswire or some similar channel, has some chances to be wrong. This would remain true even if I disclose my identity and all my sources. If most people do not like it, let's make a vote and I'll stop publish any more rumors.

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    14. Well, first and foremost this is your blog. You started it and it has become an important resource. Thanks for all your efforts! You really can do whatever you want.

      Second, people can ignore things clearly labelled as rumors. This is not the New York Times. It is one person's blog.

      Third, I think people will believe almost anything they read on the internet, even with the word RUMOR clearly labelling the text. So, continuing to publish rumors is at your own risk of future credibility. But, it does add a certain tabloid essence that is not what most engineers seek.

      Anyway, my vote is for sharing rumors, esp. if they are coming from credible but unofficial sources and labelled clearly (as you did) as rumors.

      Thanks again for all your hard work! As they say, no good deed goes unpunished.

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    15. I agree with Eric.
      You do a good job image sensors.
      My vote is too for sharing rumors as they are mentioned and credible.

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    16. I am so curious to know who is the owner of this blog and shake his hands. Any ideas on who is he??

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    17. i don't need to know the identity of ISW to know that a rose by any name will smell as sweet. this is the best blog for cis i've seen (and i've seen them all).

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