Japan’s Sony will be investing $ 1 billion to increase its production capacity for the image sensors used in digital cameras. The expansion of the production of CCD and CMOS sensors will enable Sony to ship products to the increasingly growing market of smartphones and tablets. The expansion of production capacity will be carried out at main factory in Nagasaki. The investment will increase the company’s production capacity to 60,000 wafers per month from the current 45,000.The number of sensors per wafer can vary with the type of sensor being produced. Sony CEO Kazuo Hirai says that considerable part of the investment will be aimed at expanding production capacity of CMOS sensors; however a certain amount will be spent on CCD sensors. At present, Sony sells around 80% of its image sensors outside of the company, while the remaining 20% work in Sony CyberShot, and Sony Alpha cameras. Remind that the optical sensors used in cameras perform the function of converting the light, falling on the lens of camera, to digital signal for camera’s processor.