Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation, China’s largest and most advanced semiconductor foundry, today announced that the first 12″ color filter and micro lens array production line in mainland China has been completed and put into production by Toppan SMIC Electronics of Shanghai. Combined with SMIC’s 12″ CMOS Image Sensor (CIS) wafer production line, a new 12″ CIS supply chain will be established in China.
The color filter and micro lens array are important middle-end processes for manufacturing CIS which are widely used in electronic products with image processing functions such as camera phones, digital cameras, and car cameras. To meet the demand of fast-growing consumer electronics market for digital image products with high definition and miniaturization, and provide customers highly integrated and more powerful CIS products, SMIC and TSES planned the 12″ color filter & micro lens array production line together to connect the front-end and middle-end of CIS manufacturing supply chain. It will help IC design customers reduce transportation and other intermediate costs, and shorten the production cycle and time to market. With equipment installation completed, TSES 12″ production line has started production for customer engagement.
“Building a 12″ color filter and micro lens array production line is an pivotal step for SMIC to create IC manufacturing supply chain and implement differentiated strategy,” said Dong Cui, executive vice president of SMIC Investment and Strategic Business Development. “With SMIC’s front-end 12″ CIS wafer manufacturing line in volume production and existing domestic back-end package capacity, SMIC will build the first complete 12″ CIS supply chain in China covering all the processes of front-end, middle-end and back-end to support customers with differentiated offerings and a convenient one-stop service.”
“TSES, invested jointly by SMIC and Toppan, is the first company in China to manufacture and sell color filter and micro lens array used for CIS. Its 8″ production line has been put into volume production for many years,” said Mike Rekuc, executive vice president of SMIC Worldwide Sales and Marketing. “In combination with TSES’s color filter and micro lens array technologies transferred from Toppan, and SMIC’s matured front-end CIS process technologies and services, we are committed to build the most suitable supply chain in meeting customers’ and markets’ demands.”