The physics goals of many high energy experiments require a precise determination of decay vertices, imposing severe constraints on vertex detectors (readout speed, granularity, material budget,…). The IPHC-IRFU collaboration developed a sensor architecture to comply with these requirements. The first full scale CMOS sensor was realised and equips the reference planes of the EUDET beam telescope. Its architecture is being adapted to the needs of the STAR (RHIC) and CBM (FAIR) experiments. It is a promising candidate for the ILC experiments and the ALICE detector upgrade (LHC). A substantial improvement to the CMOS sensor performances, especially in terms of radiation hardness, should come from a new fabrication technology with depleted sensitive volume. A prototype sensor was fabricated to explore the benefits of the technology. The crucial system integration issue is also currently being addressed. In 2009 the PLUME collaboration was set up to investigate the feasibility and performances of a light double sided ladder equipped with CMOS sensors, aimed primarily for the ILC vertex detector but also of interest for other applications such as the CBM vertex detector.