Himax Force Touch Preferred by Leading Smartphone Makers in Models Planned for 2016
Prepares for Mass Production to Meet Potentially Significant Adoption Rates
TAINAN, Taiwan, Nov. 20, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Himax Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq:HIMX) ("Himax" or "Company"), a leading supplier and fabless manufacturer of display drivers and other semiconductor products, today introduced the Multi-Level Force Touch controller as the new member of its HiTouchTM G series capacitive multi-touch, high performance single chip family. Himax's Multi-Level Force Touch already enables three levels of pressure, touch, peek and pop, in customers' early designs. In terms of its technical capability, it can actually support more than three levels of pressure - a feature that is expected to be explored by smartphone and tablet makers for their future designs to further enrich user experience. This cutting-edge controller supports all mainstream displays, including a-Si and LTPS TFT-LCD, and AMOLED. It is compatible with both out-cell and on-cell touch panel modules.
The Company's Multi-Level Force Touch controller has secured design-wins from leading smartphone makers for models to be launched in the first half of 2016, and will eventually be inside tablets and wearable devices as well.
Jordan Wu, President and Chief Executive Officer of Himax Technologies, Inc., commented: "We are proud to have a very comprehensive touch product portfolio especially with the addition of the latest Multi-Level Force Touch technology into our product portfolio. Early adopters of this product will be leading smartphone and panel makers seeking technology advancement and enhanced user experience. The introduction of Force Touch technology illustrates our leading edge competitiveness in the touch panel controller market. This is particularly important at a time when the market is moving toward in-cell touch display requiring integration of display driver and touch panel controller."
About Himax Technologies, Inc.
Himax Technologies, Inc. (HIMX) is a fabless semiconductor solution provider dedicated to display imaging processing technologies. Himax is a worldwide market leader in display driver ICs and timing controllers used in TVs, laptops, monitors, mobile phones, tablets, digital cameras, car navigation, and many other consumer electronics devices. Additionally, Himax designs and provides controllers for touch sensor displays, LCOS micro-displays used in palm-size projectors and head-mounted displays, LED driver ICs, power management ICs, scaler products for monitors and projectors, tailor-made video processing IC solutions and silicon IPs. The company also offers digital camera solutions, including CMOS image sensors and wafer level optics, which are used in a wide variety of applications such as mobile phone, tablet, laptop, TV, PC camera, automobile, security and medical devices. Founded in 2001 and headquartered in Tainan, Taiwan, Himax currently employs over 1,900 people from three Taiwan-based offices in Tainan, Hsinchu and Taipei and country offices in China, Korea, Japan and the US. Himax has 2,712 patents granted and 612 patents pending approval worldwide as of September 30, 2015. Himax has retained its position as the leading display imaging processing semiconductor solution provider to consumer electronics brands worldwide.
Forward Looking Statements
Factors that could cause actual events or results to differ materially include, but not limited to, general business and economic conditions and the state of the semiconductor industry; market acceptance and competitiveness of the driver and non-driver products developed by the Company; demand for end-use applications products; reliance on a small group of principal customers; the uncertainty of continued success in technological innovations; our ability to develop and protect our intellectual property; pricing pressures including declines in average selling prices; changes in customer order patterns; changes in estimated full-year effective tax rate; shortages in supply of key components; changes in environmental laws and regulations; exchange rate fluctuations; regulatory approvals for further investments in our subsidiaries; our ability to collect accounts receivable and manage inventory and other risks described from time to time in the Company's SEC filings, including those risks identified in the section entitled "Risk Factors" in its Form 20-F for the year ended December 31, 2014 filed with the SEC, as may be amended.