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Sony’s reported plan to use FD-SOI for stacked image sensors was never confirmed in a public product announcement cited here. A January 21, 2016 EE Times report said Sony was considering the process for the image-signal processor (ISP), or logic portion, associated with stacked CMOS image sensors. Sony and GlobalFoundries declined to comment, and the report identified no product, tape-out, contract, or production start.
What the 2016 report actually claimed
EE Times reported that three industry sources independently said stacked CMOS image sensors could become a volume market for FD-SOI. It described Sony, then identified as the world’s largest CMOS image-sensor supplier, as a possible customer for GlobalFoundries. The suggested reason for choosing GlobalFoundries over Samsung was to avoid a potential conflict with Samsung’s own image-sensor business.
The report said the information had surfaced as forum chatter and was also confirmed by sources outside the forum. But it stressed that “neither Globalfoundries nor Sony is talking.” That is evidence of industry reporting about a possible plan—not evidence that Sony adopted the process.
What was not confirmed
- No Sony product or sensor model was named as using FD-SOI.
- No design completion, tape-out, foundry agreement, or start of production was reported.
- The possible GlobalFoundries relationship and the reason for preferring it to Samsung were reported possibilities, not confirmed company decisions.
What FD-SOI means in this context
FD-SOI stands for fully depleted silicon-on-insulator, a semiconductor manufacturing approach. In the 2016 story, the relevant possibility was using an FD-SOI process for the ISP or logic associated with a stacked sensor. The report discussed Samsung’s 28nm FD-SOI as having reached mass-production maturity and GlobalFoundries’ 22nm FDX as projected to reach high-volume production in mid-2017. Those were statements about process status and expectations at the time; they do not establish which process, if any, Sony later used.
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The distinction between the sensor’s image-capturing pixels and its logic matters. Sony’s description of its stacked structure says the circuit chip sits beneath the back-illuminated pixel section. Because these are separate chips, the pixel section can be made with a process suited to image quality while the circuit section can use a process suited to performance and functionality. That separation is why a foundry process choice for the ISP could be relevant without implying that the pixel layer itself was made with FD-SOI.
What Sony later confirmed about stacked sensors
Sony subsequently announced other stacked-sensor developments. Those announcements confirm continued work on stacked architectures, but the cited releases do not say that FD-SOI was used.
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| Announcement | What Sony said | Does it confirm FD-SOI? |
|---|---|---|
| Pregius S, March 18, 2019 | Sony described an industrial image sensor with a 2.74-micrometre pixel size. In Sony’s published comparison, it offered about 1.7 times the resolution of the compared conventional front-illuminated sensor and about 2.4 times the speed. | No. The announcement is a stacked-sensor example, not confirmation of the process used for its logic layer. |
| Two-Layer Transistor Pixel, December 16, 2021 | Sony said it had developed stacked CMOS image-sensor technology that places photodiodes and pixel transistors on different substrate layers. On a one-square-micrometre-equivalent comparison basis, Sony reported approximately double the saturation signal level versus its conventional comparison sensor, with wider dynamic range and lower noise. | No. Sony’s announcement describes the pixel architecture and reported comparison, not FD-SOI use. |
The performance figures above are Sony’s published comparisons for those announcements, not independent test results. More importantly for the original claim, neither announcement identifies FD-SOI as the process used for the ISP or circuit chip.
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How to read the headline today
“Sony to use FD-SOI in stacked image sensors” should be understood as a 2016 report about a possible process choice, not a confirmed adoption or product launch. The public evidence described here establishes that Sony developed and announced later stacked-sensor technologies; it does not establish whether those sensors, or any other Sony sensors, used FD-SOI for their logic.
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