Expensive imaging solutions experienced a decline in both production rates and public demand which probably led to the introduction of cheaper alternatives that compete with those in the market first.
The introduction of the CMOS or Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor image sensors shook the film and camera industry because of their lower price and relatively better performance than their predecessor, the CCD or the Charge-Coupled Device.
The production process of the CCD wasn’t traditional which led to its high cost but also resulted in a high-quality sensor with superior light sensitivity and fidelity than its successor. The CMOS is cheaper though thanks to its traditional manufacturing process similar to that of microprocessors, but it meant that it had inferior light sensitivity.
Fortunately, onboard micro-lens arrays were introduced which allowed the CMOS to achieve light sensitivity on a par with the CCD and even higher.
Besides being cheaper and having equal to better sensitivity, the CMOS can still capture quality images despite the noise, consumes lesser power than the CCD, and is easier to produce and fabricate.
The reasons why the CMOS is better than the CCD are detailed in OmniVision’s infographic.
