Himax Technologies Stock

Himax Technologies, Inc. (Himax) operates as a fabless semiconductor solution provider dedicated to display imaging processing technologies.

The company is a worldwide market leader in display driver integrated circuits (ICs) and timing controllers used in TVs, laptops, monitors, mobile phones, tablets, automotive, digital cameras, car navigation, virtual reality (VR) devices and many other consumer electronics devices. Additionally, the company designs and provides controllers for touch sensor displays, in-cell Touch and Display Driver Integration (TDDI) single-chip solutions, AMOLED ICs, light-emitting diode (LED) driver ICs, power management ICs and liquid crystal on silicon (LCoS) micro-displays for augmented reality (AR) devices and heads-up displays (HUD) for automotive. The company also offers CMOS image sensors, wafer level optics for AR devices, 3D sensing and ultralow power WiseEye smart image sensing, which are used in a wide variety of applications, such as mobile phone, tablet, laptop, TV, PC camera, automobile, security, medical devices, home appliance, AIoT, etc. For display drivers and display-related products, the company's customers are panel manufacturers, agents or distributors, module manufacturers, assembly houses or end customers. It also works with camera module manufacturers, optical engine manufacturers, television / AIoT system manufacturers and certain Artificial Intelligence and Internet of Things (AIoT) system integration companies for various non-driver products.

Products and Solutions

The company has several principal product lines, such as Display drivers and timing controllers; ASIC service; LCoS and micro-electro mechanical systems (MEMS) products; Power ICs; complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) image sensor products; Wafer level optics products; 3D sensing business; and Ultralow power WiseEye smart image sensing.

Display Drivers and Timing Controllers

Display drivers deliver precise analog voltages and currents that activate the pixels on panels.

Large-Sized Applications

The company provides source drivers, gate drivers, power managements ICs (PMIC), P-gamma OP level shifter and timing controllers (TCON) for large-sized panels principally used in desktop monitors, notebook computers and televisions. Display drivers used in large-sized applications feature different key characteristics, depending on the end-use application. For example, the industry trend for large-sized applications is generally toward super high channel, low power consumption, low cost, thin and light form factor, touch function, higher data transmission rate and higher driving capabilities. Higher speed interface technologies are also key for 4Kx2K and 8Kx4K high-resolution TVs. Greater color depth, thermal solution, high data rate and high driving, are particularly important for advanced televisions and certain monitors.

The company's large display driver IC business achieved several milestones from 2019. For example, the company successfully added 12-inch fabs into the pool of its foundry capacity for its large display driver ICs to ease the capacity shortage of 8 inches foundry where the vast majority of large panel driver ICs are fabricated. On high-end TV, Himax outpaced peers to lead the mass production of customized high-speed point-to-point (P2P) transmission using embedded panel intra interface, such as iSP, CHPI, USI-T, CMPI, CEDS and CSPI for 4K TVs and 8K TV. On gaming monitor, the company has high frame rate and high driving driver to meet various resolutions needs and frame rates, such as UHD 240Hz, QHD 360Hz, FHD 480Hz, etc. The company also successfully developed low power consumption driver applied in low power monitor to satisfied Energy Star 8.0 and even Energy Star 9.0. Lastly, the company's P2P driver and TCON ICs with 13.3 inches FHD can meet Intel 1W project requirements.

The company also made tremendous progress in TCON product lines in 2022. The UHD TV penetration rate is larger than 65% in 2022, and the company developed competitive UHD TV TCON to seize this market. Himax UHD TV TCON has mass production at all major China LCD makers. The company also provides gaming TCON for the new QHD 360Hz and UHD 240Hz gaming monitor and notebook. For high-end gaming requirement, the company has developed eDP 8.1G TCON to increase bandwidth.

Small and Medium -Sized Applications

Automotive Display Applications

The company offers source drivers, gate drivers, timing controllers and integrated drivers for the fast-ramping automotive display applications, such as instrument cluster display (ICD), center stack display (CSD), head-up display (HUD), rear seat entertainment display (RSE), rearview mirror display and sideview mirror display.

The automotive display drivers can support various display resolutions to meet the customized needs of automotive display, including gate in panel (GIP) panel and non-GIP panel, amorphous silicon (a-Si) TFT panel and low temperature poly silicon (LTPS) panel. Meanwhile, the automotive display drivers can support higher output driving voltage for higher contrast ratio and faster liquid crystal response in automotive display applications. The automotive Timing Controller can support Local Dimming function for the goal of higher contrast ratio and thermal reduction in automotive display applications. The company launched the world's first TDDI design for automotive displays technology which started shipping in 2019 with meaningful mass production shipment to industrial leading automotive panel house, Tier-1 and brands starting 2021.Himax is the market leader in automotive display driver business covering the entire spectrum of products and technologies, including the industry's most comprehensive traditional DDIC product offerings, as well as leading solutions for new technology areas, such as TDDI, local dimming Tcon, LTDI and active matrix organic light-emitting diode (AMOLED). The company's automotive TDDI is broadly adopted by named Tier 1s and auto makers in their new launches of vehicles. Himax also have reached over 10 million units shipment accumulated in the third quarter of 2022, a milestone that, demonstrates a robust growing trajectory moving forward. With the commencement of TDDI mass production and LTDI thereafter starting 2023, the company is confident that its overall market share in the automotive display driver market will continue to rise in the coming years and its technological prowess continues to separate it from peers for the next generation display for automotive. In addition, on TCON ICs for automotives, the company also has embedded local dimming feature in TCON for TFT-LCD to support higher contrast instrument panels needed for drivers to read the content of the meter quickly. Additionally, several key panel makers also seek Himax cooperation to develop AMOLED for automotive applications. The company has developed certain customized AMOLED ASIC for some of these key panel makers where some already started mass production in 2021.

Smartphone and Tablet Applications

The company offers display drivers for small and medium-sized displays in smartphone and tablet applications that combine source driver, gate driver, timing controller, DC to DC circuits, and optional frame buffer into a single chip or cascades chips in various display technologies, such as TFT-LCD and AMOLED.

Smartphones and tablet have gained greater popularity among small and medium-sized display drivers and enjoyed high growth in recent years. This has also contributed to increased demand for larger size and higher resolution smartphone displays. In 2016, Himax developed a series of single chip touch display driver integrated circuit (TDDI) for advanced in-cell touch display panel. Himax started the shipments of in-cell TDDI for some smartphones in 2016 and extended TDDI solution to tablet application in 2017. In-cell TDDI, featuring thinner display, slimmer border, and better visual quality, has been getting popular, so the company re-invented a new generation of TDDIs supporting chip-on-glass (COG) COG and COF for 18:9 or wider aspect ratio with interlaced output pins, which makes the bottom border of the in-cell touch display even smaller to gain higher display to body ratio. The company's FHD+ and HD+ TDDI successfully gained design-wins with a few leading Korean and Chinese smartphone brands and panel makers. The company started small volume shipments in the first half of 2018 with accelerating volume starting in the second half of 2018 into 2019 and beyond. Starting in 2020, the company extended its product offerings with high frame rate TDDI solution and has started shipping to top-tier smartphone OEMs.

A major development the company is seeing in the marketplace is increased utilization of the AMOLED display for smartphone, smart watch, automotive and tablet. This is due to investments on expanded AMOLED capacity, as well as increased demand for under-display fingerprint technology that is only available in the AMOLED display for the time being. The company is collaborating closely with leading panel makers across China and Korea for AMOLED product development in smartphone, tablet, automotive and other consumer electronics. In the first quarter of 2022, the company's flexible AMOLED driver and Tcon for automotive display successfully ramped up for a customer's flagship EV model, while in the second quarter of 2022, the company commenced production of AMOLED TCON and Driver IC chipsets for tablet applications for a leading OEM for their 11-inch and 12.6-inch flagship models. Concurrently, the number of awarded projects in AMOLED for automotive and tables with worldwide named vendors is increasing. AMOLED solutions, including driver ICs and Tcons, will become one of the major growth engines for the company moving forward.

On the other hand, the application of in-cell TDDI started to extend from mainstream smartphone to larger displays in 2018. Himax started to offer various new TDDI solutions for tablet, smart speakers, and even some infotainment displays in automobiles. The first tablet TDDI with WXGA resolution went into mass production in 2018 and also extended to leading smart speaker applications as well. In 2019, Himax announced a series of new driver and TDDIs for tablet application. The COF packaged driver IC solution enabled one leading tablet OEM to successfully launch a WQXGA resolution tablet with super slim bezel. The company is also added another new features to its TDDI that can support up to WUXGA and WQXGA resolution which has gained several design-wins from tablet OEMs across Korea and China in 2019. It also launched the first TDDI supporting active stylus function in tablets which commenced mass production and contributed to its tablet application business in early 2020. With the demand increase for bigger size display, higher resolution, and precise touch accuracy and stylus performance, Himax kept developing new tablet TDDIs to broaden the company's product lineup to maintain its leading market position. The company started mass production for the world's first 12.4 inches WQXGA super high-resolution in-cell tablet PC with a leading end customer in 2021 and expanded collaborations with more brands into more models in 2022.

Tablet in-cell TDDI offers the benefits of lower cost and a simplified supply chain that represents an easier manufacturing process for panel makers. For consumers, it offers a lighter weight, slimmer and more stylish design, as well as improved touch accuracy with added option for active stylus. The company's active stylus in-cell technology is adopted in many launched tablet products. As of December 31, 2022, the company was the dominant supplier for literally all leading Android names. In 2020, tablet demand picked up significantly, fueled mainly by remote work and online learning demand due to the pandemic. TDDI for tablet application continues to broaden its market and penetrate notebook PC applications, representing a potential upside for Himax into 2023 and beyond.

Electronic Paper Display Applications

The company offers display driver for the Electronic Paper Display (EPD) applications, Electronic Shelf Label (ESL) and Signage Display. The Electronic Paper Display (EPD) drivers can support various display resolutions to meet the customized needs of applications. The company is collaborating with world-leading e-paper customers for certain ASIC projects on their next generation products. This consolidates the company's market presence in the emerging e-reading and e-signage segments from 2022 and onward.

ASIC Service

From 2012, the company successfully completed several ASIC service projects for Japan top TV, Projector and HMD makers with advanced and high-performance customized video processing chips. All of these chips are implemented with its proprietary video process platform that includes its video process display IPs and high-speed transmission IPs. The process nodes adopted for these ASICs are usually 40nm, 55nm and even 28nm processes. From 2016, the company also developed the depth sensing technology that aims 3D sensing and AR/VR markets.

LCoS and MEMS Products

Himax Display, the company's subsidiary, has contributed to its microdisplay products lines: Color-filter LCoS, Color-sequential LCoS, Front-Lit LCoS, Phase modulation LCoS and MEMS.

The latest development of Front-Lit LCoS enables an ultra-compact and extremely power-efficient optical engine by consolidating and integrating LED illumination system and the polarization beam splitter (PBS) into the micro display module itself. Front-Lit LCoS enables a much-simplified optical engine design and assembly process that could successfully lowered customers' manufacturing time and costs.

Himax Display is one of the market leaders of the LCoS industry since 2012 with its whole product line patented. Himax Display has a mass production ready liquid crystal assembly line, which is unique in the industry with mass production shipping volume. The company has produced and shipped around 3 million units from this ISO certified line. Its customers use its products in various applications, such as pico-projector, communication, toy projector, AR glasses, and AR-HUD for automotive.

Many of the company's industry-leading customers have demonstrated their state-of-the-art products, including pico-projector, holographic display, AR glasses and AR HUD system, with Himax LCoS technology inside at the 2020 CES with positive market feedbacks. Its technology leadership and proven manufacturing expertise have made it a preferred partner for customers in these emerging markets and their ongoing engineering projects in AR glasses and AR HUD for automotive applications. In May 2021, Himax Display revealed its proprietary LCoS 2.0 phase modulation technology, which enable features, such as multi-focal plane images displaying along with less power consumption and smaller form factor to enable holographic display applications for AR-HUD. In addition, phase modulation technology provides LiDAR for autonomous driving and Wavelength Selective Switch (WSS) for Wavelength-Division Multiplexing (WDM) optical communications networks. In the near future, it is expected that holographic display will provide a revolution to AR-glasses to achieve consumer friendly products (small size, light weight and low-power consumption).

The company provides a rich products family for customers to choose for different applications, as each product has its own most important parameters to select and Himax Display provides choices to customers. The following table shows certain details of the company's products:

Power ICs

Himax provides TFT-LCD television, monitor and notebooks power management solutions. The main products are Power Managements ICs (PMIC), Programmable Gamma OP ICs (PGOP) and Level Shifter ICs (LS). In recent years, PMIC/PGOP 2-in-1 and PMIC/PGOP/LS 3-in-1 PMIC have gradually become the mainstream solutions.

Power Management ICs

A power management IC integrates several power components to fulfill system power requirements. It may include step-up or step-down pulse width modulation, or PWM, DC-to-DC converters, low-dropout regulators, or LDO regulators, voltage detectors, operational amplifiers, p-gamma OP, level shifters, and/or other components. For panel module applications, a power management IC provides a reliable and precise voltage for source drivers, gate drivers, timing controllers, and panel cells. Moreover, its built-in over-temperature and over-current protections help prevent components from being damaged under certain abnormal conditions. As integrating an increasing number of components into a power management IC is likely to be a continuing trend, power management ICs will continue to be critical components of a TFT-LCD thin film transistor liquid crystal display that may adopt a-Si, IGZO or LTPS technologies) panel module.

Programmable Gamma OP ICs

It is a Programmable Gamma, DVR and VCOM IC. Each is controlled by a 10-bit digital analog converter (DAC). The user can easily select one of the two gamma curves to compensate for the display. The PGOP also includes a channel DVR, VCOM buffer and built-in 7-bit DAC. Support 128-step to adjust the VCOM output voltage by I2C control setting automatically.

Level Shifter

TFT-LCD panel manufacturers have developed panel designs to reduce the usage of display drivers, like gateless designs, which integrate the gate driver function onto the glass but needed level shifter. All level shifter channels feature the same input circuitry and are compatible with the standard logic-level signals generated by timing controllers in typical applications. The level shifter converts the timing-controller (TCON) logic-level signals to the high-level signals needed by the GOA (gate on array) display. The output circuitry has been designed to achieve high rise and fall times when driving the capacitive loads typically encountered in TFT-LCD display applications.

LED Driver

A light-emitting diode (LED) is a semiconductor light source that is widely used in lighting, display and TFT LCD backlight nowadays. The advantages of LEDs as light sources are the small size, fast switching, low power consumption and long lifetime etc.

LED driver IC is designed to dim the LEDs with critical features, such as high current accuracy, high current matching, short light-emitting diode (LED) protection, open LED protection, over voltage protection, ghosting effect reduction and sink leakage protection etc.

CMOS Image Sensor Products

The CMOS image sensor products are developed by the company's subsidiary, Himax Imaging. The products were designed firstly for camera-equipped mobile devices, such as mobile phones, tablets and notebook computers, with a focus on low light image and video quality. Although it seems relatively challenging for the company to gain significant market share in conventional RGB camera, it does think there are various interesting and different applications in imaging. Based on the technologies and IP the company developed, on top of legacy products for laptop and multimedia it has been supplying, its product lines have been expanded to cover three domains: ultralow power computer vision- Always-On Sensor (AoS), Near Infrared (NIR) sensor, and big pixel BSI sensors in automotive and surveillance. In 2019, the company further prioritized its focus on ultralow power computer vision- Always-On Sensor (AoS) as the demand for battery-powered smart device with AI intelligent sensing is rapidly growing. Together with the technologies the company already developed, such as Near Infrared (NIR) sensor, it can provide its customers the best integrated solutions for several specific domains.

In addition to advancing its AoS sensor to drive the power as low as possible, the company also devotes itself to developing sensors that have industry leading small pixel (1.12um) with higher near infrared Quantum Efficiency (QE) to support the new generation cameras. Their superior performance hugely helps to reduce the system's power consumption and therefore enhances the system performance. With the high QE in NIR band, the company opens the doors to building more sensor and camera systems for machine vision. For example, the company's HM11B1 is a critical part of Himax's WiseEye notebook solution, an AI-based ultralow power AI image sensing total solution and has penetrated into the laptop ecosystem for the most stylish super slim bezel design. Given its slim dimension (narrower than 2mm of the chip itself) to support ultra-thin bezel, the company originally combines IR sensor to support Windows Hello, and then added intelligent AoS sensor into a single silicon. This 2-in-1 sensor not only enables new features, but also greatly saves laptop makers' effort in mechanical design and overall cost.

The company is committed to be a key player in the CMOS image sensor business with continuous investment in experienced human resources, an efficient supply chain, as well as strategic technology developments and partnerships to further increase the performance and improve features of small and specially designed pixel sensors.

Wafer Level Optics Products

Wafer level optics are optical products manufactured using semiconductor process on wafers. This innovative approach enables wafer level optics to manufacture micro/nano optics structure and high temperature resistance, making the compatible Surface-Mount Technology or SMT reflow process possible. The company offers entire optical solutions for customers who need compact and easy-to-handle optical products on their electronic devices.

Combining traditional optical lens design, precise mold control and semiconductor manufacturing expertise, the company's WLO lens with integrated waveguide, refractive optics and diffractive optical element (DOE) is one of the best solutions for next generation computational imaging module for 2D/3D illumination and 3D dot projector, which can be applied to 3D face recognition, 3D sensing, 3D reconstruction, and gesture control. With the innovative process and specific structure, the company's wafer level optics (WLO) products provide small form factor and compact module size to be easily integrated into consumer products. The diffraction optics technology is well adopted in 3D sensing, AR/VR devices, holographic display, automotive, biomedical inspection, optical communication, etc. The company is seeing that DOE plays an even more decisive role for the next generation optical technology in light of its high-precision and lightweight characteristics.

The company's WLO technology is also adapted to form microstructures, such as lens array, DOE and lenticular lenses for advanced applications in digital and computational imaging fields. These technologies stand in a unique position to integral optical design, semiconductor manufacturing process, and compact packaging service, which are rarely covered by one single company. Deeply rooted in core wafer level optics technologies, the company provides highly customized optical solutions and high-volume manufacturing to many Tier-1 customers, such as structured lighted and ToF 3D sensing on mobile devices, AR/VR gadgets, automotive, biomedical devices and many other AIoT applications.

The company continued its shipment to an anchor customer for their legacy product and continue making progress on R&D projects with world-leading high-tech giants for ToF 3D sensing, AR/VR gadgets, automotive, biomedical devices and others, targeting their future generation products centered around its exceptional design know-how and mass production expertise in WLO technology. One illustration is the company's WLO technology being deployed by one VR player to empower 3D perception sensing for precise controller-free gesture recognition. The company expects volume production starting in 2023.

3D Sensing Business

The company continues to participate in most of the smartphone OEMs' ongoing time-of-flight (ToF) 3D sensing projects. In 2018, the company's structured light-based 3D sensing total solution targeting Android smartphone's front-facing application was unsuccessful due to the high hardware cost of 3D sensing, the long development lead time required to integrate it into the smartphone and the lack of killer applications which is limited to phone unlock and online payment. Instead of 3D sensing, most of the Android phone makers have chosen the lower cost fingerprint technology which can achieve similar phone unlock and online payment functions with somewhat compromised user experience.

As a leading provider of 3D sensing technology, Himax is also an active participant in smartphone OEMs' design projects for new devices involving ToF technology. The company is seeing increasing ToF adoption by smartphone makers for world-facing cameras to enable advanced photography, distance/dimension measurement and 3D depth information generation for AR. Unlike structured light 3D sensing where it provides total solution or just projector module or optics depending on customers' needs, with ToF, the company will only focus on transmitter module or optics component by leveraging its WLO related expertise. The company continues to actively work with industry leading VCSEL providers, sensor companies, module manufacturers and smartphone makers for a new and advanced ToF 3D solution development, targeting Android smartphones. Leveraging on its WLO technology, the company has provided its partners with spot projectors or optics components for their reference design.

3D sensing can have a wide range of applications beyond smartphone. The company has started to explore business opportunities in various industries by leveraging its structured light 3D sensing total solution. Starting in 2021, the company shipped small volume of business access control and biomedical inspection devices with more design-ins and engagements under progress. To strengthen its offers in 3D sensing total solution, the company has been collaborating closely mainly with two types of partners: those with industry-leading expertise in facial recognition algorithm and those offering application processors with strong AI capability.

Other than 3D sensing total solution, the company also provides key component, including 3D decoder IC and 3D vision processors. The company's proprietary 3D decoder IC can accelerate local image processing for face recognition and offer best-in-class security authentication, therefore it- is particularly suitable for customers who wish to design their own structured light-based 3D sensing solution. It was already certified by the leading Chinese electronic payment standard with requirements of accurate data decoding, timely operation and strict privacy and it's well-adopted by many China e-payment solution providers. The company entered into volume production of its proprietary 3D decoder IC in 2020, followed by meaningful volume shipments into 2021 and 2022. In the light of increasing adoption of 3D sensing technologies in various aspect of the company's daily life, a series of next generation 3D vision processors is also under development to support a variety of state-of-the-art 3D sensing technologies in Time of Flight (ToF) and structured light, aiming to improve user experience when people interact with AR and VR applications.

The company's critical 3D sensing Technologies includes the following:

Wafer Level Optics Products

WLO is one of the key technologies enabling 3D sensing, AR goggle devices, and many other applications. Levering on its exceptional design know-how and mass production experience in WLO technology, the company is able to produce the world's most compact optics required for 3D sensing, while also achieving superior performance and lower costs.

ASIC

One of the critical elements of the company's 3D sensing total solution is an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) for 3D depth map generation. The company is able to develop the ASIC thanks to its unique in-house capability in developing video ASICs for customers. Equipped with the ASIC, the company's 3D sensing total solution can substantially reduce the power consumed while processing 3D sensing, enhance personal data security, accelerate the 3D depth map generation, and provide superior depth data output that matches with its optical component. The company considers this unique capability as its competitive advantage. It has been and will continue to be one of its key drivers in the success of its 3D sensing total solution.

Active Alignment

With much experience in optical assembly for AR and VR devices, the company's factory has developed a system to do active alignment for tiny components. From the incoming quality check, assembly process, and testing, all steps are monitored and checked. The precision assembly capability gives it a very good foundation to do the optical assembly for DOE, WLO, and laser.

Laser Driver

Based on its expertise in projector, optics, and driver, the company has designed a special Glass Broken Detection (GBD) mechanism on its projector. The company also has a proprietary laser driver design that detect the connection of the GBD on the projector. When GBD connection is abnormal, which means glass was broken, the laser driver can cease the laser to prevent users from being exposed to higher power laser energy leaking from the broken glass.

Ultralow Power WiseEye Smart Image Sensing

By combining an ultralow power image sensor with a custom computer vision ASIC and machine-learning algorithms, Himax ultralow power WiseEye smart image sensing solution enriches connected edge devices with AI capability. The end-point AI system, which consumes only a few mW power consumptions, is leading the industry for the next-generation of battery operated, clever computer vision applications. The ultralow power WiseEye smart image sensing solution is being engaged in a variety of applications, such as notebook, home appliances, utility meter, automotive, battery-powered surveillance camera, panoramic video conferencing, and medical, just to name a few. Among Himax's ultralow power WiseEye smart image sensing businesses, the company's WiseEye for notebook solution features human presence detection and on-looker detection, offering power saving and enhancing privacy and security for notebook users. In 2021, the company was highly encouraged by its WiseEye notebook solution being officially awarded by Dell, with a sizable purchase order, for a series of their new models. This represented a remarkable achievement and an illustration of the robustness of the company's AI solution. In 2022, the company continued to support the mass production of Dell's notebook and other end-point AI applications, such as shared bike parking, video conference device, door lock and medical capsule endoscope and many others. The company expects to see more design-wins awarded across a broad customer base and a high variety of applications leading to robust sales growth for this new high margin product line moving forward.

For the other business model, the company provides key components, such as proprietary ultralow power WE1 AI processor or Always-On CMOS image sensor (AoS). For its key component business model, the company reinforced its go-to-market strategy by intensively participating in leading AI partners' infrastructures and ecosystems and/or AI communities. The company collaborates with world-leading edge-to-cloud service providers and system integration companies, such as Google TensorFlow, Microsoft Azure, Arm AI Partner Program, tinyML Foundation, Seeed Studio and many others, to enjoy the enormous network of these ecosystems partners and their numerous participants to drive further adoption on applications, such as smart home/ office, healthcare, agriculture, retail and many other applications. Additionally, the company continued its marketing efforts through joint webinars and other online activities with several well-known platform partners, such as Edge Impulse, Digi-Key and SparkFun. The company continues to receive inquiries from large corporations and individual developers alike with hundreds of evaluation boards and developments kits having been purchased online and distributed across the globe. The company is encouraged by the traction this relatively new product line has generated in a short amount of time and expects to see increasing sales contribution through 2023 and beyond.

Core Technologies and Know-How

Driving System Technology: Through its collaboration with panel manufacturers, the company has developed extensive knowledge of circuit design, TFT-LCD/AMOLED driving systems, high-voltage CMOS processes and display systems, all of which are important to the design of high-performance TFT-LCD/AMOLED display drivers. The company is leveraging its know-how of display drivers and driving system technology to develop display drivers for panels utilizing other technologies, such as next generation AMOLED and electronic paper displays.

High-Voltage CMOS Circuit Design: The company has developed circuit design technologies using a high-voltage CMOS process that enables it to produce high-yield, reliable and compact drivers for high-volume applications.

High-Bandwidth Interfaces: The company has applied several high-speed interfaces, including transistor-transistor logic (TTL), Reduced Swing Differential Signaling (RSDS), mini low-voltage differential signaling (LVDS), dual-edge TTL (DETTL), turbo Reduced Swing Differential Signaling (RSDS), Mobile Industry Processor Interface (MIPI) and other customized interfaces in its display drivers.

Die Shrink and Low Power Technologies: The company's engineers are highly skilled in employing their knowledge of driving technology and high-voltage CMOS circuit design to shrink the die size of its display drivers while leveraging their understanding of driving technology and panel characteristics to design display drivers with low power consumption.

WiseEye Smart Image Sensing Technologies:The company's industrial first AoS CMOS image sensor features ultralow power and low latency back-illuminated solution for always on, intelligent visual sensing applications. With Himax's exceptional low power know-how and ASIC implementation technologies, the company's WiseEye AI image processor featured different power domain and mode management schemes, together with advanced image processing hardwired accelerators to construct different operating modes in balancing processor performance and power consumptions.

LCoS Microdisplay Technologies: Himax Display has own proficient engineering team to develop patented industry-only non-captive LCoS, front-lit waveguide, and module design, along with an in-house ISO certified manufacture line, all of which positions the company at the forefronts of leading AR glasses and AR-HUD markets. The latest development of Front-Lit LCoS enables an ultra-compact and extremely power-efficient optical engine by consolidating and integrating LED illumination system into the micro display module itself and makes the patented technology ideal for AR headsets. Furthermore, Himax Display provided phase modulation LCoS 2.0 technologies to offer high-efficient, low power and multi-focal plane displaying features to fit for holographic displaying needs in numerous leading applications.

3D Technologies: Several technologies in Himax are integrated together to form the company's 3D solution. First, wafer level nanoimprinted technology is used to design and manufacture DOE and Waveguide. Then, the company's in-house capability on semiconductors enables it to design IC that particularly matches its optical component. The company's expertise in precision assembly in optics also helps it to provide a more complete solution to its customers.

Customers

The company's customers for display drivers are primarily panel manufacturers and mobile device module manufacturers, who in turn design and market their products to manufacturers of end-use products, such as notebook computers, desktop monitors, televisions, smartphone, tablet, automotive and consumer electronics products. The company may sell its products through agents or distributors for certain products or in certain regions. As of December 31, 2022, the company sold its products to more than 200 customers.

Certain of company's customers provide it with a long-term (twelve-month) forecast plus three-month rolling non-binding forecasts and confirm orders about one month ahead of scheduled delivery. In general, purchase orders are not cancellable by either party, although from time to time the company and its customers have agreed to amend the terms of such orders.

Sales and Marketing

The company focuses its sales and marketing strategy on establishing business and technology relationships principally with panel manufacturers, using LTPS and a-Si TFT-LCD, and organic light-emitting diode (OLED) technologies, mobile display module and mobile device manufacturers for smartphone, tablet and automotive, and camera module houses in order to work closely with them on future semiconductor solutions that align with their product road maps. The company's end market for large-sized panels is concentrated among a limited number of major panel manufacturers. The company also markets its products directly to TV, monitor, notebook and mobile, tablet and automotive device manufacturers so that its products can be qualified for their specifications and designed into their products.

The company primarily sells its products through its direct sales teams located in Taiwan, China, South Korea and Japan. The company also has dedicated sales teams for certain of its most important current or prospective customers. The company has offices in Tainan, Hsinchu, Taipei, Taiwan; and Shenzen and Suzhou, China. The company has other sales and technical support offices in Hefei, Beijing, Shanghai, Fuzhou, Foshan, Fuqing, Ningbo, Wuhan, Nanjing, Chongqing, Chengdu, Xi'an and Xiamen, China; Tokyo, Japan; Asan-si and Bundang-gu, South Korea, Munich, Germany; and Irvine and San Jose, California and Minneapolis, Minnesota, the U.S.A., all in close proximity to its customers. For certain products or regions, the company may sell its products through agents or distributors.

The company's sales and marketing team possesses a high level of technical expertise and industry knowledge used to support a lengthy and complex sales process. This includes a highly trained team of product managers and field applications engineers. The company's team is equipped with extensive strategic marketing experience and a strong capability to identify market trends. The company also provides technical support and assistance to potential and existing customers in system/SoC architecture, designing, testing and qualifying display modules, camera modules and end application systems that incorporate its products and ASICs.

Semiconductor Manufacturing Service Providers and Suppliers

Through its relationships with leading foundries, assembly, gold bumping and testing houses and processed tape suppliers, the company has established a supply chain that enables it to deliver high-quality products to its customers in a timely manner.

The company has obtained its foundry services from TSMC, UMC, Vanguard, Macronix, Globalfoundries Singapore, PSMC, Nexchip and SKHYSI in the past few years. These are among a select number of semiconductor manufacturers that provide high-voltage CMOS process technology required for manufacturing display drivers. The company engages assembly and testing houses that specialize in TAB and COG packages, such as Chipbond, Chipmore International trading company Ltd., ChipMOS Technologies Inc., Nepes Corporation and King Yuan Electronics Co., Ltd, etc.

The company's principal semiconductor manufacturing service providers and suppliers:

Wafer Fabrication: Globalfoundries Singapore Pte., Ltd.; Macronix International Co., Ltd.; Nexchip Semiconductor Corporation; Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp.; SK hynix system ic; Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited; United Microelectronics Corporation; and Vanguard International Semiconductor Corporation.

Gold Bumping: Chipbond Technology Corporation; Chipmore International Trading Company Ltd.; ChipMOS Technologies Inc.; LB Semicon, Inc.; and Union Semiconductor Co., Ltd.

Processed Tape for tape-automated bonding (TAB) Packaging: JMC Electronics Co., Ltd.; LG Innotek Co., Ltd.; Stemco., Ltd.; and Chipbond Technology Corporation.

Assembly and Testing: Ardentec Corporation; Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc.; Chipbond Technology Corporation; Chipmore International Trading Company Ltd.; ChipMOS Technologies Inc.; Global Testing Corporation; Greatek Electronics Inc.; Jiangsu Changjiang Electronics Technology Co., Ltd.; King Yuan Electronics Co., Ltd.; Micro Silicon Electronics Corp.; Nepes Corporation; Taiwan IC Packaging Corporation; LB Lusem Co., Ltd.; and Union Semiconductor Co., Ltd.

Chip Probe Testing: Chipbond Technology Corporation; Chipmore International Trading Company Ltd.; ChipMOS Techlogies Inc.; Global Testing Corporation; Greatek Electronics Inc.; King Yuan Electronics Co., Ltd.; Micro Silicon Electronics Corp.; LB Semicon, Inc.; Union Semiconductor Co., Ltd.; and YoungTek Electronics Corp.

Intellectual Property

As of March 31, 2023, the company held a total of 2,900 patents, including 1,268 in Taiwan, 967 in the United States, 564 in China, and 101 in other countries. The expiration dates of the company's patents range from 2023 to 2042. The company also has a total of 45 pending patent applications in Taiwan, 95 in the United States and 245 in other jurisdictions, including the People's Republic of China (PRC or China), Japan, Korea, Israel and Europe. In addition, the company has registered 'Himax and logo' as trademarks in Taiwan, China, Europe, Singapore, Korea, Japan and the United States. 'Omniwide Film and logo' as trademarks in Taiwan, China, Europe, Korea, Japan and the United States, 'CMVT' as trademarks in Taiwan and China, as well as 'WISEEYE' as trademark in Israel and the United States.

Research and Development

The company's research and development expenses were $175.6 million in 2022.

Competition

The company continually faces intense competition from fabless display driver companies, including Fitipower Integrated Technology, Inc.; FocalTech Systems Co., Ltd.; Novatek Microelectronics Corp.; Raydium Semiconductor Corporation; Sitronix Technology Co., Ltd.; Ilitek Corp.; LX Semicon.; ESWIN; Chipone; Newvision; Ribbon Display Japan; Hisilicon; and Synaptics Incorporated. The company also faces competition from integrated device manufacturers, such as Rohm Co., Ltd.

For In-cell TDDI, the company competes with Novatek Microelectronics Cop.; Synaptics Incorporated; FocalTech Systems Co., Ltd.; and Ilitek Corp., etc.

For LCoS microdisplay products, the company faces competition from OmniVision; Jasper; Citizen; Syndiant; Kopin; and RAONTECH. The company also competes with alternative microdisplay technology providers, such as Texas Instruments with DLP, Sony with Micro OLED and Bosch with scanning mirror.

For power ICs, the company faces competition from Taiwan companies, including Richtek Technology Corp.; Global Mixed-mode Technology Inc.; Novatek Microelectronics Corp.; Fitipower Integrated Technology Inc. The company also competes with worldwide suppliers, such as Silergy Corp.; and Rohm Co., Ltd.

For CMOS image sensor products, the company faces competition from OmniVision Technologies Inc.; Sony Corporation; Pixart Imaging Inc.; and Samsung Semiconductor, Inc.

For wafer level optics products, the company faces competition primarily from Heptagon that was acquired by ams AG and certain new optical design houses from China, such as Angstrong Tech; and Yuguang Science and Technology Development Co.

For ultralow power WiseEye smart image sensing, the main competition is Qualcomm with its 'Glance' device.

History

Himax Technologies, Inc. was founded in 2001. The company was incorporated in 2001.