Micron crafts 5-megapixel sensor for cell phones

Iria

Micron Technologies, the company started in a dental office, will come out with a 5-megapixel sensor for cell phones and digital still cameras as well as a 3.1-megapixel sensor for cameras as part of its effort to expand beyond memory.

After several years of false starts, the market for camera sensors appears to be picking up. Camera manufacturers, who used to insist on developing these chips themselves, no longer want to shoulder the costs associated with designing their own chip, especially with camera (and phone) prices plummeting. Micron, Texas Instruments and NuCore and the other third-party chip makers now compete for these contracts. Like others, Micron has come up with ways to make sensors on standard silicon, rather than the more expensive materials used originally by the camera makers.

Mass production of the 3.1 megapixel sensor will begin in the fourth quarter. Samples of the 5-megapixel chip will come out in the fourth quarter with mass production kicking off in the first quarter of 2006.
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Source: Processors and Systems Blog (News.com)

pr0digal jenius

money says the first one available in the US is in a motorola for about $500