Sony Corp plans to buy back a Nagasaki semiconductor plant from Toshiba Corp for about 50 billion yen ($597.2 million) to double output capacity for image sensors used in smartphones and other devices, the Nikkei business daily reported.

Sony will buy the facility, which it sold to Toshiba in 2008, to strengthen its complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) sensor business, the daily said.

Acquiring the plant will double Sony's image sensor output capacity to the equivalent of about 40,000 silicon wafers a month, the daily said.

By boosting output and lowering production costs, Sony aims to catch up with such firms as South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co and U.S. players in the CMOS sensor market, Nikkei said.

($1=83.73 Yen)

(Reporting by Amruta Sabnis in Bangalore; Editing by Don Sebastian)

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