Himax Ventures Into Market for Analog IC Chipsets

Taipei, Aug. 3, 2009 (CENS)--Actively expanding its business operations, Himax Technologies Inc., a designer of driver IC (integrated circuit) chipsets and affiliated with Taiwan-based Chi Mei Group, has announced a plan to kick off mass production of white LED (light emitting diode) driver ICs at the end of the third quarter of this year, to square off existing rivals in the market for analog IC chipsets, according to the company.

Himax claimed that the LED driver IC chipset features cost efficiency and will be mainly applied to netbook PC and notebook PCs. Also, power management ICs have been available in the company's portfolio.

Himax noted that LED is a power-saving, eco-friendly and lightweight product, and hence has been vastly used as the light source of backlights for display panels nowadays. Citing notebook PCs, the company added that LED-backlit models are expected to command 60% of the total this year and 95% in 2010, with over 150 million LED driver IC chipsets in demand worldwide.

In addition to notebook PCs, LCD (liquid crystal display) TVs are also an increasingly popular application of LED backlights, with a number of globally leading brands, starting with Samsung and LG, having been actively promoting their LED-backlit models recently. Therefore, the penetration rate of such models is estimated to reach 10-15% in the global market in 2010, strongly fueling the demand for LED driver ICs.

However, worth mentioning is that the market for LED driver ICs has been saturated, with Advanced Analog Technology Inc. and Richtek Technology Corp. leading the segment with cutting-edge analog technologies. This will somehow hinder Himax's moves into the segment, according to industry insiders.