The merits of CMOS sensors are not limited to their low voltage and electrical power consumption. They have the same basic structure as computer microprocessors, and can be mass produced using the same well-established manufacturing technology, making their production much less costly than that of CCDs. In the past, it was difficult to produce a large-area CMOS sensor with high resolution, but this shortcoming has also been overcome by developing a new semiconductor manufacturing technology that involves step and repeat exposures of each part of the sensor to connect them into one complete large-area sensor. This technology has enabled the manufacture of extremely large CMOS sensors with high resolutions of over 10 megapixels.