Canada Image Sensors Market - Growth, Trends and Forecasts (2020 - 2025)

The Canada Image Sensors Market is expected to register a CAGR of 5.57% over the forecast period from 2020 to 2025. Image sensors are used significantly in a large number of imaging devices and digital cameras to enhance the quality of cauterization and storage of images. These imaging applications have found large adoption in industrial, media, medical, and consumer applications. Due to the rising demand for smartphones, security cameras, high-definition cameras, and camcorders in the country, the image sensors are is expected to significant growth during the forecast period. The manufacturers are striving to improve major parameters, such as resolution, performance, and pixel size.

• Some of the prominent manufacturers across based out of Canada are expanding their business footprint to cater to the growing demand for the market. For instance, Teledyne DALSA Inc. expands its manufacturing capacity, given the increased demand for the company’s proprietary Complementary Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor or CMOS-based digital image sensor. In September 2019, Teledyne Digital Imaging Inc. acquired Micralyne Inc. based in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, where it provides the application for biotech applications and capabilities of CMOS image sensors in non-silicon-based MEMS (gold or polymers) that are often required for human body compatibility.
• Canada is encouraging the adoption of autonomous cars, where Ontario is the first province that allowed on-road testing of automated vehicles. Application of these integrated image sensors across the front-head segment will let the robocars to detect the lane lines and road signs in the autonomous mode. Such development in the autonomous sector is expected to offer significant growth opportunities for the market over the forecast period.
• Canadian startup Airy3D’s DepthIQ depth-sensing platform is eqipped with a versatile 3D sensing solution that is computationally efficient than other approaches coupled with significantly lower in cost. DepthIQ is also “sensor agnostic,” which means it can be customized to any given CMOS sensor specification. Computational processing is fast and efficient, utilizing minimal power. The image and depth information are captured simultaneously without any comparative analysis of multiple images or complex sensor fusion algorithms like traditional 3D sensing solutions.
• In June 2020, Vision Systems Design held its Innovators Awards program, which celebrates the disparate and innovative technologies, products, and systems found in machine vision and imaging. Teledyne DALSA based out of Canada was one of the platinum-level award honorees for its Linea HS 32k TDI camera. The new Linea HS 32k camera uses Teledyne DALSA’s charge-domain CMOS TDI sensor of dual 16k x 64-pixel arrays with a 5x5 μm pixel. The sensor has unique designs using pixel offset by half pixel both horizontally and vertically to achieve super-resolution rather than using an actual physical pixel size of 2.5 x 2.5 μm.
• The significant outbreak of the COVID-19 virus in Canada, affecting more than 104 thousand people as of July 1, 2020, has resulted in the shutting down of the manufacturing facilities. The shutting down of the major consumer electronics firms reduces the demand for electronics modules assembled in them, thereby affecting the market for the image sensors in the region. ​However, according to Sony, the COVID-19 pandemic has very minimal effect on the production of image sensors (particularly CMOS image sensors), including any impact on the procurement of materials. However, owing to the factor mentioned above, the company only expects to take a hit in terms of supply chain issues for smartphone manufacturers. This has been positive news for the end-users in Canada that rely on Sony chips as they need not face any problem in procuring image sensors for their latest products.

Key Market Trends

CMOS is Expected to Hold Major Share

CMOS image sensors offer the camera functions in smartphones and other products, but now they face scaling and related manufacturing issues in the fab. And like all chip products, image sensors are seeing slower growth amid the coronavirus outbreak. Manufactured at mature nodes in 200mm and 300mm fabs, these sensors are increasingly being used in phones, cars, consumer products, industrial/medical systems, and security cameras. For example, smartphones incorporate two or more cameras, each of which is powered by a CMOS image sensor that converts light into signals to create images. According to StatCounter, Pinterest accounted for 24.83% share of visits in May 2020 in Canada, where every idea is shared in the form of an image that signifies the importance of the image captured on a smartphone in the country.

• Smartphones are incorporating more CMOS image sensors than ever before, enabling high-resolution, feature-rich cameras in systems. For instance, Samsung’s latest 5G smartphone consists of five cameras, including a rear-facing, wide-angle camera based on a 108-megapixel image sensor. This means that it has over 100 million pixels on small die size. A front-facing camera for selfies incorporates a 48MP image sensor based on the world’s lowest pixel pitch 0.7µm. With the increasing number of sensors being deployed in smartphones, the market for CMOS image sensors is anticipated with significant growth.
• Even though CCD sensors had been the technology of choice for imaging devices for years, CMOS-based sensors have emerged as a viable alternative. CMOS sensors offer several intrinsic advantages relative to CCDs, including low power consumption and the ability to integrate system functions, like timing and image processing, for example, directly on the chip. These devices have suffered from the imaging performance that lags in comparison to CCDs. In May 2020, Sony announced the world’s first image sensor with integrated AI smarts. The new IMX500 sensor incorporates processing power and memory, allowing it to perform machine learning-powered computer vision tasks without extra hardware.
• Also, at VGA resolution, CMOS sensors can efficiently run at 30 fps or faster, and at 3 to 5-megapixel resolution, 5 to 15 fps is achievable while keeping power consumption down. This enables algorithms, such as autofocus, autoexposure, and automatic white balance, to achieve faster convergence, thereby, providing a quicker, more responsive camera. Higher frame rates also mean reduced blur and, in some instances, enable designers to eliminate mechanical shutters. With the increased competition in the smartphone industry in Canada, manufacturers view image quality as the way to achieve competitive advantage.

Consumer Electronics is Expected to Hold Major Share

Image sensors are an integral part of consumer electronic products such as smartphones, tablets, and wearables. Image sensors built in today’s consumer electronic devices use either CCD or CMOS technology. With the growing adoption of such machines across the globe, the demand for image sensors is expected to increase over the forecast period. Most CCD image sensors that have been developed for consumer applications possess the built-in anti-blooming capability compared to most of the CCDs that have been specifically designed for industrial and scientific applications.

• Consumer electronics adoption in Canada is also expected to drive the image sensors industry. High living standards and growing economic stability in the country have led to higher disposable incomes in the nation. CTA’s 4th Annual Consumer Technology Ownership and Market Potential Study: Canada examines Canadians’ household ownership and intent to purchase across 59 consumer tech products. The study says ownership of the three screens - televisions (owned by 93% of Canadian households), smartphones (85%), and laptops (74%) - remain Canadians’ most owned tech devices. In 2020, 30% of Canadian households plan to buy a smartphone.
• CMOS image sensors have widespread applications in smartphones, tablets, and digital single-lens reflex (DSLR) cameras. With the increasing focus of smartphone manufacturers on improving the build and quality of cameras they provide, the coming years are expected to witness a rise in the adoption of CMOS technology by all smartphone manufacturers across the world. Advances in the design of CMOS sensors have dramatically improved the technology’s imaging capabilities and have a significant impact on the consumer electronics market.
• CCDs used in cameras focus on high-quality images with lots of pixels and excellent light sensitivity. CMOS sensors are continually improving to the point where they almost reach near parity with CCD devices in specific applications. CMOS cameras are generally less expensive and have great battery life. However, electronic devices are expected to be impacted significantly by the COVID-19 outbreak. China is one of the significant suppliers for raw materials and the finished products in Canada. The industry is facing a reduction in production, disruption in the supply chain, and price fluctuations. The sales of prominent electronic companies are expected to be affected shortly.

Competitive Landscape

The Canada Image Sensors Market appears to be moderately fragmented, and the competitive advantage gained by a company becomes negligible after some time, as the other players in the market catch up with the current technology. The sustainable competitive advantage is difficult to achieve in the market studied, as all the major players are currently focusing on product differentiation.

January 2020 - Teledyne e2v, a Teledyne Technologies company and global innovator of imaging solutions, announced its Emerald 36M, a 37.7 Megapixel image sensor designed for extreme industrial and outdoor applications requiring both high resolution and high speed and was recognized one among the best in the industry by the Vision Systems Design 2020 Innovators Awards program.

• May 2020 - Sony Corporation announced the upcoming release of two new models of short-wavelength infrared (SWIR) image sensors for industrial equipment. The company claims that the new sensors can capture images in the visible and invisible light spectrum in the short-wavelength infrared range and boast a compact size made possible by the industry’s smallest 5μm pixel size.

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