Samsung to expand its camera sensor production facilities

Samsung has started investing heavily into its camera sensor division. It has released multiple high-resolution image sensors over the past year, and it has plans to launch more camera sensors. It is now being reported that the South Korean firm is planning to expand its camera sensor production facilities to keep up with the demand.

Samsung is reportedly drawing up a detailed plan to convert one of its DRAM production lines in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province in South Korea into a camera sensor production unit. The company will reduce the DRAM production capacity at its line 13 and convert a part of it to manufacture camera sensors. This is not the first time that Samsung has taken this approach. In 2018, it converted a part of its DRAM line 11 into image sensor production line S4.

A DRAM production facility can easily be converted into an image sensor line as nearly 80 percent of those processes are similar. Processes such as chemical vapor deposition, etching, lithography, and testing equipment required in DRAM production lines can also be used for image sensor production.

Some industry insiders believe that Samsung could start mass production at the converted facility as soon as this year after it completes the installation of new equipment and testing it. The South Korean chip giant could spend as much as KRW 1 trillion for this conversion process, but that’s still much less than setting up a completely new production line.