Toshiba: We’ll be mass producing a 14.6 megapixel CMOS sensor for fones in Q3 2010

Toshiba (OTCPK: TOSBF), using pixels that are only 1.4 microns small, will be mass producing a 14.6 megapixel CMOS sensor that measures 1/2.3 inches starting in Q3 2010. The sensors will be made using Toshiba’s 65 nm process on 300 mm wafers, yielding about half a million sensors a month when production begins. They’ll support back-side illumination, see photo below, which can increase light absorption by 40% compared to the previous generation of Toshiba sensors. Whether or not we’ll see these in handsets shipping during the 2010 holiday season is still up in the air. Nokia (NYSE: NOK) only has one 8 megapixel camera on the market, and Sony Ericsson (NYSE: SNE) is just now starting to ship their 12 megapixel beast, so 14.6 feels like a millennium away. Remember this however, at the end of the day it’s the optics and image processing algorithms that make or break a camera phone. Don’t let the number on the side of the box fool you.

[Press Release, via: Engadget]