IHS iSuppli research has estimated that the demand for the complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) based image sensors will witness rapid growth in demand for digital still cameras (DSC) in the next three years.
It is projected that the shipment of the CMOS image sensors will reach 71.1 million units, surpassing the charge-coupled devices (CCD) by 2013.
The IHS iSuppli anticipates that the shipment of CCD will decline from 94.1 million units in 2010 to about 66.9 million units in 2013. However, DSC CMOS units are expected to steadily rise to an estimated 85 million units by 2014 as compared to only 51 million units for CCD.
The consumer electronics analyst at IHS iSuppli, Pamela Tufegdzic stated that original equipment manufacturers such as Canon, Sony, Kodak, Samsung and Casio are shifting to CMOS after using CCD technology for several years because of the advantages offered. In comparison to CCD technology, the CMOS image sensors are cheaper to produce, are more durable, consume less power and have a longer battery life.
The CMOS sensors also offer multiple channels of sensor data, thereby improving the performance of the image capture device. The on-chip peripheral circuits in CMOS sensors allow manufacturers to reduce the size of the DSCs and enable easy integration of electronics. Since backside illumination is supported by CMOS sensors, it enables users to capture images with better quality in normal and low lighting conditions.
However, the drawbacks of the CMOS image sensors are that they produce more electrical noise and create random noise caused by flickering light, which results in inferior image quality.
Source: http://www.isuppli.com