TowerJazz announces availability of CMOS image sensor platform in multiple fabs

NEWPORT BEACH, USA: TowerJazz, the global specialty foundry leader, announced the completion of the successful transfer of its CMOS image sensor (CIS) technology from its Migdal Haemek, Israel facility to its US fab in Newport Beach, California providing multi-sourcing to better address its customers' growing needs.

TowerJazz's CIS process has already been running in high volume in its Israeli plants, and is now available in its Newport Beach, CA facility for customers that require on-shore manufacturing.

The CIS process enables the customization of pixels according to project needs and its superior performance (dark current, low noise and dynamic range) enables a rich offering for various digital imaging applications. For example, TowerJazz's presence in the industrial sensor market is growing significantly with new applications such as fingerprint detection for homeland security, traffic monitoring cameras and others.

Integration of TowerJazz's NMOS pixel with its 0.18 analog CMOS provides a US-based solution for specialty image sensors for aerospace and defense applications as well.

In addition, TowerJazz's patented stitching technology overcomes photolithography tool limitations to seamlessly tile 5.5-micron pixel sections into a large pixel array, resulting in ultra-high resolution, high-quality color image sensors. This technology enables manufacturing of die sizes up to a single die per 200-mm wafer.

"We are providing a high level of support to customize pixels in order to optimize performance for specialty applications, including non-ITAR aerospace and military applications. We are pleased with the transfer of our CIS process to our US fab to address customers' needs for on-shore manufacturing of ITAR applications and to provide a global sourcing solution with our advanced and proven CIS technology offering," said Dr. Avi Strum, VP and GM of Specialty Business Unit.

"Our aerospace and defense business is experiencing solid growth and the further expansion of our technology offerings will provide an even broader range of advanced technology to our customer base here in the US," said Corey Fukushima, TowerJazz Aerospace and Defense Sales.