Himax Technologies and CM Visual Technology Jointly Announce Microstructure Optical Film for Automotive Panel Customers

Rhea-AI Summary

Himax Technologies (Nasdaq: HIMX) announces collaboration with CM Visual Technology Corp. (CMVT) to enhance display performance through their Omniwide Film. Himax, the largest shareholder of CMVT since October 2020, aims to leverage CMVT’s advanced optical film designs to improve optical compensation in various displays. The product line includes solutions for TN, VA, IPS, and OLED displays, with the HVS series already designed into automotive platforms. The partnership is expected to generate significant revenue opportunities for both companies.

Positive

• Acquisition of 66.71% of CMVT enhances market position.
• Omniwide Film shows strong recognition from leading TV brands.
• New product series (HVN, HVA, HVS, HVD) address critical display issues.
• Collaborative investment expected to drive revenue growth.

Negative

• None.

TAINAN, Taiwan, April 19, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Himax Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq: HIMX) (“Himax” or “Company”), a leading supplier and fabless manufacturer of display drivers and other semiconductor products, and CM Visual Technology Corp. (CMVT), a Taiwan-based company dedicated to microstructure optical film design and manufacturing, today jointly announced their microstructure optical film, Omniwide Film, for resolving optical display performance challenges in certain types of display panel applications. In October 2020, Himax made a strategic cash investment to acquire 66.71% of the common shares of CMVT to become the largest shareholder. Since joining Himax, CMVT’s Omniwide Film has received greater recognition from leading TV brands and designed-in automotive panel platforms.

“CMVT has industry-leading microstructure optical film design capabilities along with nearly ten years of service and mass production experience. Its microstructure optical film, Omniwide Film, features optimized optical compensation and can be applied to various types of displays that are in high demand from Himax’s focused customer base,” said Dr. Biing-Seng Wu, Chairman of Himax. “Meanwhile, CMVT has developed its own unique optical simulation and design expertise as well as optical mold engraving technology. We believe this collaborative investment will strengthen our position and create positive technological synergies for Himax’s ever-growing optical-related product development.”

CMVT holds proprietary seamless roller type mold generation and roll-to-roll nano-imprinting production capabilities to manufacture the Omniwide Film. Its comprehensive Omniwide Film product lineups include the HVN series for TN TFT-LCD display, HVA series for VA TFT-LCD display, HVS series for IPS TFT-LCD display and HVD series for OLED display. By laminating to the top surface of the panel, the Omniwide Film offers optimized optical compensation for a superior user visual experience. Moreover, to avoid the most troublesome Moiré patterns frequently accompanying different kinds of microstructure optical film designs, CMVT offers the exclusive Moiré-free Omniwide Film design by leveraging CMVT’s advanced nano-scale engraving and precise positioning technologies. With the Moiré-free Omniwide Film’s exceptional applicability, it could drastically save mold developing fee, shorten product development time and eliminate lamination positioning, all greatly shorten manufacturing time while improving production yield.

The HVN series of Omniwide Film is designed to improve the gray scale inversion problem of TN TFT-LCD display. The HVA series of Omniwide Film is designed to improve the wash-out issue of VA TFT-LCD display. Both HVN and HVA Omniwide Films are in mass production and meanwhile the HVS series of Omniwide Film for IPS display is now available to the market. IPS has been widely adopted in automotive displays as mainstream technology. The automotive IPS display laminated with HVS Omniwide Film can eliminate the light leakage issue under oblique viewing angles. These results outperform optical compensation film solutions from rivals while also meeting performance requirements from automotive customers.

For isotropic self-light emitting OLED displays, the multi-layer thin-film structure constantly derived unequal optical interference from the RGB light signals. This caused the OLED display, particularly flexible OLED, to have severe color-shift problems and/or nonuniform color appearance under various customers’ use cases. CMVT’s HVD series Omniwide Film was especially designed to resolve these problems and greatly reduce the color-shift and nonuniform color problems as a result for OLED customers.

Dr. Walter Li, Chairman of CMVT, said, “Aside from the industrial panel market that we focus on, we are pleased to partner with Himax to leverage their strengths in marketing and operational management to proactively engage with TVs, public displays (PID), automotive, laptop and OLED markets.” Mr. Yi-Pin Shen, General Manager of CMVT added, “After joining Himax, our HVA series products have received greater recognition from leading TV brands in terms of outstanding optical performance. In addition, the HVS series has designed-in automotive panel platforms and is under customer verification. We expect these opportunities to swiftly generate meaningful revenue. In the meantime, CMVT will closely collaborate with Himax to enable additional business engagements with display customers.”

CMVT will participate in the 2021 Touch Taiwan exhibition in Taipei Nangang Exhibition Hall, Taipei City, Taiwan, from April 21 to 23, 2021, and will showcase their Omniwide Film products. The booth number is L628.

About Himax Technologies, Inc.

Himax Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: 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, automotive, digital cameras, car navigation, virtual reality (VR) devices and many other consumer electronics devices. Additionally, Himax designs and provides controllers for touch sensor displays, in-cell Touch and Display Driver Integration (TDDI) single-chip solutions, LED driver ICs, power management ICs and 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 smart sensing, which are used in a wide variety of applications such as mobile phone, tablet, laptop, TV, PC camera, automobile, security, medical device, home appliance, AIoT, etc. Founded in 2001 and headquartered in Tainan, Taiwan, Himax currently employs around 2,000 people from three Taiwan-based offices in Tainan, Hsinchu and Taipei and country offices in China, Korea, Japan, Israel, and the US. Himax has 3,012 patents granted and 534 patents pending approval worldwide as of March 31st, 2021. Himax has retained its position as the leading display imaging processing semiconductor solution provider to consumer electronics brands worldwide.

http://www.himax.com.tw

About CM Visual Technology Corp

CM Visual Technology Corp. (CMVT) is an industry-leading microstructure optical film manufacturer. CMVT is dedicated in providing exceptional nano-scale optical simulation, optical film design and manufacturing capabilities as well as optical mold engraving technology for microstructure optical films. CMVT currently offers its microstructure optical film solution, Omniwide Film, to improve the optical performance of different types of TFT-LCD displays including TN, VA and IPS types, and OLED display, which are commonly used in TV, PID, navigation, automotive, laptop and tablet applications. CMVT was founded in September 2010 and is headquartered in Tainan, Taiwan. In October 2020, Himax made a strategic investment to CMVT to become the largest shareholder.

http://www.cmvt.com.tw/index.html

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, 2020 filed with the SEC, as may be amended.

Company Contacts:

Eric Li, Chief IR/PR Officer
Himax Technologies, Inc.
Tel: +886-6-505-0880
Fax: +886-2-2314-0877
Email: hx_ir@himax.com.tw
www.himax.com.tw

Karen Tiao, Investor Relations
Himax Technologies, Inc.
Tel: +886-2-2370-3999
Fax: +886-2-2314-0877
Email: hx_ir@himax.com.tw
www.himax.com.tw

Mark Schwalenberg, Director
Investor Relations - US Representative
MZ North America
Tel: +1-312-261-6430
Email: HIMX@mzgroup.us

www.mzgroup.us

FAQ

What is the significance of Himax's investment in CM Visual Technology Corp (CMVT)?

Himax's investment of 66.71% in CMVT enhances its market position and accelerates product development in optical films.

What does the Omniwide Film product line offer for display technologies?

The Omniwide Film product line offers solutions for TN, VA, IPS, and OLED displays, addressing issues like gray scale inversion and color shift.

When did Himax acquire its stake in CMVT?

Himax acquired a 66.71% stake in CMVT in October 2020.

How is the HVS series of Omniwide Film beneficial for automotive displays?

The HVS series eliminates light leakage under oblique viewing angles, improving performance for automotive displays.

What are the expected financial impacts of the collaboration between Himax and CMVT?

The collaboration is expected to generate significant revenue opportunities as CMVT's products gain recognition and customer validation.