Novatek site confirms the internal image sensor design efforts and mentions a number of image sensor accomplishments over 2011-13 years:
All these sensors are not mentioned among the current products, and their status is unknown.
- Oct 2013:
Introduce Novatek's 1/4" VGA CMOS Sensor with CVBS output
Introduce Novatek's first 1/7" HD CMOS Sensor with MIPI Interface - Sep 2011:
Introduce Novatek's first HD CMOS sensor - Feb 2011:
Introduce Novatek's first CMOS sensor in 1.75um cell size technology
All these sensors are not mentioned among the current products, and their status is unknown.