Performance evaluation of fabless CMOS image sensor design houses by using an multiple objective programming based data envelopment analysis

Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) image sensors have widely been used due to the advantages in terms of low power consumption, on-chip signal processing capability, and a comparatively low cost. The market research institutes predicted that the demand for CMOS image sensors will dramatically increase over the next few years. Although the demand continues to increase, the market is becoming daily competitive. Thus, operating efficiently will be very critical for CMOS image sensor vendors to sustain competitiveness. The fabless CMOS image sensor design is one of the fast emerging and most important sectors of the CMOS image sensor industry. Understanding the efficiency of fabless CMOS image sensor design houses is critical for managers of the fabless CMOS image sensor design houses, semiconductor foundries as well as investors. Albeit critical, very few scholars tried to evaluate the performance of the fabless CMOS image sensor vendors. Thus, this paper aims to evaluate the productivity and efficiency of CMOS image sensor firms. A novel Multiple Objectives Programming based Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) model will be introduced for benchmarking the firms.