Sony Raising Cash To Boost Sensor Business

, mobile and TV sales have been on the decline despite the company's efforts to revive its electronics arm. Now, the company is looking to its image sensors for a way to return the company to profit for the first time in three years.

On Tuesday, the company

plans to raise around 440 billion yen through a share and convertible bond sale. A statement from Sony said the sale will be available to the public in Japan and overseas and is projected to bring in around 321 billion yen from shares and 119 billion yen from convertible bonds.

In early June, the company announced that it was going to shift its focus toward image sensors, a type of technology that converts image files into data that can be sent and received. Tomoyuki Suzuki, the head of the company's device solutions said he sees the sensor sales increasing by about 100 billion yen over the next year. Already, big name clients like

and Samsung use Sony sensors on their smartphones and with renewed investment in the technology, Sony execs are hoping that client list will grow.

However some say the share sale is a bad call on Sony's part as growth in sensor sales isn't expected to be massive in the coming years. Following the announcement, the company's shares lost upwards of 8 percent as investors worried that the amount of cash being raised didn't correspond with the growth potential in the Sony's sensor business.