Jerome Marot
Well-known member
The news is actually almost a year old, but I only learned it today:
http://www.usa.canon.com/cusa/semiconductor/products/semiconductor_equipment/steppers/fpa_5510iv_stepper#Specifications
The essential info is: "Field Size: 52mm x 34mm".
What does that mean?
Manufacturing half-size ("DX", APS-C) sensors is much cheaper because the masks fit in standard stepper machines. Manufacturing larger sensor means making many more passes and realignments, because the waffer cannot be insulated in one go. So one needs to insulate part of the design, change mask, re-align, insulate the second part, etc... Time consuming. Expensive. Very.
Full size sensors cost something like 10 to 20 times the price of half-size sensors.
The machine under the link can expose the size of a full-frame sensor in one go. So the price of full-size sensor will only be much cheaper.
The astute reader will have noticed that the manufacturer of the machine is Canon.
http://www.usa.canon.com/cusa/semiconductor/products/semiconductor_equipment/steppers/fpa_5510iv_stepper#Specifications
The essential info is: "Field Size: 52mm x 34mm".
What does that mean?
Manufacturing half-size ("DX", APS-C) sensors is much cheaper because the masks fit in standard stepper machines. Manufacturing larger sensor means making many more passes and realignments, because the waffer cannot be insulated in one go. So one needs to insulate part of the design, change mask, re-align, insulate the second part, etc... Time consuming. Expensive. Very.
Full size sensors cost something like 10 to 20 times the price of half-size sensors.
The machine under the link can expose the size of a full-frame sensor in one go. So the price of full-size sensor will only be much cheaper.
The astute reader will have noticed that the manufacturer of the machine is Canon.