OmniVision to acquire wafer-level lens operations

SANTA CLARA, USA: OmniVision Technologies, Inc. a developer of advanced digital imaging solutions, announced on Wednesday that it has entered into an agreement with VisEra Technologies Company Ltd to acquire its wafer-level lens production operations.

VisEra is OmniVision's joint venture with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (TSMC) which was established in 2003.

OmniVision currently outsources the wafer-level lens production and assembly processes associated with its CameraCube technology to VisEra, said a press release.

The cash consideration for the operations is $45 million. OmniVision anticipates that the parties will close the transaction in the second quarter of its fiscal year 2012, it added.

"We believe that our CameraCube technology represents one area where we can extend our market leadership while increasing the content that we sell into each consumer device," said Shaw Hong, CEO of OmniVision Technologies.

Hong added, "Historically, sensor and lens manufacturing have been separate endeavors in which the components come together at the modular assembly stage. Our CameraCube technology enables us to design our sensors and accompanying lens elements as an integrated unit that creates a reflowable, monolithic image sensor device.”

He added that this transaction will enable them to further streamline the production process, consolidate the supply chain, expand production capacity, and reduce the cost to meet customers' growing demand for their CameraCube products.