Backend house Tong Hsing Electronic Industries plans to expand production capacity in three phases for automotive CMOS image sensors (CIS), while Chinese peers are also enforcing capacity expansions for lower-end CIS solutions, according to industry sources.
Apart from handset applications, CIS devices are increasingly demanded for car uses, particularly ADAS (advanced driver assistance systems), along with the ever-rising penetration of automotive electronics, prompting Tong Hsing to step up capacity expansion for automotive CIS, the sources said.
Tong Hsing has completed its first-stage capacity expansion, and is pending clients' validations for the second-stage expansion before entering the last stage by the end of 2021 or early 2022, with a 10% capacity increase set for each stage, the sources noted.
The company has landed big orders from first-tier international automotive CIS vendors including On-Semi and Sony, and its BGA packaging lines are running at full capacity to fulfill the orders, the sources said.
Tong Hsing now also processes car pressure sensors and offers ceramic substrates for automotive LED chips for Foxconn based on a strategic alliance between its parent firm Yageo and the leading EMS, the sources indicated, adding it will see its revenue contribution ratio for automotive applications surge to 40% this year.
The company continues to offer wafer reconstruction services for high-end handset CIS devices from OmniVision Technologies (OVT), although the China-based vendor's plant in Songjiang, Shanghai has started to handle similar services on its own for lower-end handset CIS devices.
China's OSATs Tianshui Huatian and China Wafer Level CSP are also deepening deployments in lower-end CIS for handsets. The former has obtained TSV (through silicon via) packaging technology from an Israel partner and is enforcing capacity expansion for CIS packaging, with its revenues estimated to double after the new capacity is ready for volume production by the end of third-quarter 2021, the sources said.
