FillFactory

FillFactory NV was a Belgian company specializing in active pixel CMOS image sensor technology. Founded in December 1999 by Luc De Mey, it originated as a spin-off from IMEC, a prominent European microelectronics research center. The company secured funding from several venture capital firms, including Capricorn Venture Partners, Draper Esprit (formerly Prelude Ventures), and Dow Chemical Company.

FillFactory developed and manufactured custom and standard high-performance CMOS image sensors for a variety of demanding markets. Its client applications included digital photography, high-speed imaging, machine vision, and automotive systems. The company's proprietary pixel architecture featured a high "fill factor," enabling the entire pixel area to be photosensitive, which eliminated the need for microlenses often required by competitors and resulted in smaller, higher-resolution chips without sacrificing sensitivity. Notable products included a 13.85-megapixel sensor used in Kodak's professional digital cameras, large-area sensors for mammography, and radiation-tolerant sensors for aerospace applications.

In August 2004, Cypress Semiconductor Corp. acquired FillFactory for $100 million in cash. At the time of the acquisition, for the quarter ending March 31, 2004, FillFactory had reported sales of $6.0 million and a pre-tax profit of $1.3 million. The acquisition was intended to expand Cypress's footprint in the mobile phone, camera, and automotive markets by integrating FillFactory's sensor technology with its own memory and microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) capabilities. In 2007, a team of former FillFactory founders and senior staff went on to establish a new CMOS image sensor company called cmosis nv.

Keywords: CMOS image sensors, active pixel sensors, semiconductor, machine vision, digital photography, automotive sensors, high-speed imaging, microelectronics, IMEC spin-off, Cypress Semiconductor