Tower did not indicate any to the technical specifications of the image sensor but the work is part of a long term collaboration between Tower Semiconductor, which trades as TowerJazz, and the Korea Electrotechnology Research Institute (KERI) that has been going on since 2009.
The collaboration has focused on imaging sensors for x-ray detectors for medical imaging, dental imaging and mammography and Tower has provided pixel IP, special R&D assistance and other support. So it seems likely this development is also for industrial, medical and other professional uses of x-ray imaging.
KERI has agreements in place to supply commercial companies with technologies developed with Tower, which could in turn result in increased business for Tower. KERI expects mass production of the CMOS image sensor to begin in 2015 and to achieve sales of $10 million per year.
The CMOS image sensor will be manufactured at the TowerJazz Panasonic Semiconductor 300mm wafer fab in Japan. This is one of three that are in joint venture between Tower Semiconductor and Panasonic created earlier this year.
The global x-ray equipment market for medical, dental and veterinary applications reached $10 billion in 2012 and is expected to increase by 20 percent to $12 billion by 2017, according to IMS Research.
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