Espros, Taiwan Semiconductor Finalize Mass Production Contract

Semiconductor developer Espros Photonics Corp. Ltd. has finalized the manufacturing process for its new generation of time-of-flight and spectral sensing chips through a contract with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd. (TSMC).

Beat de Coi, CEO ESPROS and Weishi Sun, Sales Director TSMC Europe celebrate the release to production of the OHC15TM High Performance CCD/CMOS Imager Technology. Courtesy of ESPROS.

“After an intensive technology research and development, product design and market introduction effort, our next goal for the time-of-fight sensor products was to establish a robust supply chain, which would be able to handle the projected industry growth,” said Beat De Coi, CEO of Espros. “With the completion of the customization project and the accomplishment of the process freeze with the global foundry leader TSMC, we are concluding a many year effort to establish this product portfolio. This is a major milestone in the development of our young company and for our customers success.”

The line was frozen for mass production, completing a complex, 18-month customization project. Espros has developed backside illuminated imager technology to enable mass market imagers which require very high quantum efficiency in the NIR and high-performance CCD on a CMOS process. The result is a sensor design an almost 90 percent quantum efficiency at 850 nm and 75 percent at 905 nm.

“We are proud to support ESPROS with this customization project, and together, we have successfully achieved process release to production,” said Maria MArced, president of TSMC Europe. “TSMC’s strength in analog, mixed signal and sensor manufacturing has enabled us to achieve this milestone in the shortest possible time. We are now ready for mass production and we look forward to a long and successful collaboration with Espros.”

Espros Photonics develops photosensitive semiconductors for industrial and scientific applications. Taiwan Semiconductor is a manufacturer of discrete semiconductor devices.