According to a recent interview with CNET-News, Micron is preparing for the imminent production of smaller pixel cameras and for the introduction of breakthrough wafer level assembly technologies.

Memory chipmaker Micron Technology has launched its image-sensor business as a more independent division called Aptina Imaging, a move the company believes will improve its flexibility and business potential. The new subsidiary is based in San Jose, Calif., a Silicon Valley location that's a long way from Micron's Boise, Idaho, headquarters. "We need the additional flexibility and identity to be able to grow the way the markets we see are growing," said Shane Thomas, director of product marketing for the imaging business. For example, Aptina will have a dedicated sales force and get new options for finding manufacturing capacity to build its products, Thomas said. "We're able to respond more quickly to our customers' needs." Thomas wouldn't comment on two interesting business possibilities, however: whether Micron might be packaging Aptina for sale or spin-off and whether Aptina might use other fabrication facilities besides Micron's. "We're always open to exploring other options for our business, but we're not commenting beyond that," spokeswoman Kirstin Bordner said about the possibility of a spin-off.

Using other fabrication facilities could mean Aptina wouldn't have to compete with other Micron manufacturing priorities, and other companies have expertise. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, for example, builds sensors for Kodak and made a cutting-edge sensor prototype developed by Stanford researcher Keith Fife.

Teensy cell phone cameras now prepackaged!
On the mobile-phone side of the business, Aptina announced a significant development, a much greater degree of integration that means the manufacturing fab will produce not just image sensors but full-fledged camera modules. Lenses and other components are attached directly to the silicon wafer, and mobile-phone manufacturers can buy the whole module instead of just the sensor from one company and other components from another.

The approach is reminiscent of buying processed food rather than raw ingredients in grocery stories, a practice that can be convenient for buyers but that also boosts profit margins for suppliers. The basic idea is to "add more value to the complete value chain." The camera package measures just 4x4x2.5mm--a significant notch smaller than conventional phone packages. Aptina hopes this means it will be adopted in the hundreds of millions of low-end phones sold today that still don't have cameras. The sensor itself has VGA resolution--640x480 pixels and its dimensions are the teensy 1/11 format, Thomas said. The camera modules is expected to be in production before 2009.

Taiwanese players being agressive toward WLC:
According to a recent post from Digitimes, five to six Taiwan-based makers are currently negotiating for the acquisition of patented WLC technology with the aim of starting production in the first half of 2009. The makers include players in the optical lens, optical image sensor and CCM (compact camera module) segments. A WLC phone camera module may cost less than US$1, much lower than costs of VGA camera modules using a conventional processes, and the former's thickness of 2.5mm is much smaller than that of 4.4-5.9mm for the latter. These makers plan to use WLC technology to produce VGA and 2.0-megapixel phone camera modules.