Himax Technologies - 20-F annual report 2022

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UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

FORM 20-F

(Mark One)

☐        REGISTRATION STATEMENT PURSUANT TO SECTION 12(b) OR (g) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

OR

☒        ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2022

OR

☐        TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

OR

☐        SHELL COMPANY REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

Date of event requiring this shell company report ________________

For the transition period from ________________ to ________________

Commission file number: 000-51847

HIMAX TECHNOLOGIES, INC.

(Exact name of Registrant as specified in its charter)

Not Applicable

(Translation of Registrant’s name into English)

CAYMAN ISLANDS

(Jurisdiction of incorporation or organization)

NO. 26, ZIH LIAN ROAD

SINSHIH DISTRICT, TAINAN CITY 74148

TAIWAN, REPUBLIC OF CHINA

(Address of principal executive offices)

Jessica Pan

Chief Financial Officer

Telephone: +886-6-505-0880

E-mail: jessica_pan@himax.com.tw

Facsimile: +886-6-507-0038

No. 15, Zih Lian Road

Sinshih District, Tainan City 74148

Taiwan, Republic of China

(Name, Telephone, E-mail and/or Facsimile number and Address of Company Contact Person)

Securities registered or to be registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:

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*       Not for trading, but only in connection with the listing on the NASDAQ Global Select Market, Inc. of American Depositary Shares representing such Ordinary Shares.

Securities registered or to be registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act: None

Securities for which there is a reporting obligation pursuant to Section 15(d) of the Act: None

Indicate the number of outstanding shares of each of the issuer’s classes of capital or common stock as of the close of the period covered by the annual report. 348,833,050 Ordinary Shares.

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act. ⌧  Yes      ☐  No

If this report is an annual or transition report, indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. ☐  Yes      ⌧  No

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. ⌧  Yes      ☐  No

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit such files). ⌧  Yes      ☐  No

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, or an emerging growth company. See definition of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer,” and “emerging growth company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act. (Check one):

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If an emerging growth company that prepares its financial statements in accordance with U.S. GAAP, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards† provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act. ☐

† The term “new or revised financial accounting standard” refers to any update issued by the Financial Accounting Standards Board to its Accounting Standards Codification after April 5, 2012.

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has filed a report on and attestation to its management’s assessment of the effectiveness of its internal control over financial reporting under Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (15 U.S.C. 7262(b)) by the registered public accounting firm that prepared or issued its audit report.☒

If securities are registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act, indicate by check mark whether the financial statements of the registrant included in the filing reflect the correction of an error to previously issued financial statements.☐

Indicate by check mark whether any of those error corrections are restatements that required a recovery analysis of incentive- based compensation received by any of the registrant's executive officers during the relevant recovery period pursuant to §240.10D-1(b).☐

Indicate by check mark which basis of accounting the registrant has used to prepare the financial statements included in this filing:

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If “Other” has been checked in response to the previous question, indicate by check mark which financial statement item the registrant has elected to follow. ☐  Item 17      ☐  Item 18

If this is an annual report, indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act).☐  Yes      ⌧  No

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SPECIAL NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This annual report on Form 20-F contains “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”), and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”), that involve significant risks and uncertainties. Although these forward-looking statements, which may include statements regarding our future results of operations, financial condition, or business prospects, are based on our own information and information from other sources we believe to be reliable, you should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which apply only as of the date of this annual report. The words “anticipate,” “believe,” “expect,” “intend,” “plan,” “estimate” and similar expressions, as they relate to us, are intended to identify a number of these forward-looking statements. Our actual results of operations, financial condition or business prospects may differ materially from those expressed or implied in these forward-looking statements for a variety of reasons, including, among other things and not limited to, our anticipated growth strategies, our and our customers’ future business developments, results of operations and financial condition, our ability to develop new products, the future growth and pricing trend of the display driver markets, the future growth of end-use applications that use flat panel displays, particularly TFT-LCD panels, development of alternative flat panel display technologies, market acceptance and competitiveness of the driver and non-driver products developed by us, our ability to protect intellectual property, changes in customer relations and preference, shortage in supply of key components, our ability to collect accounts receivable and manage inventory, changes in economic and financial market conditions, and other factors. For a discussion of these risks and other factors, please see “Item 3.D. Key Information—Risk Factors.”

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CERTAIN CONVENTIONS

Unless otherwise indicated, all translations from U.S. dollars to NT dollars in this annual report were made at a rate of $1.00 to NT$30.73, the exchange rates set forth in the H.10 weekly statistical release of the Federal Reserve System of the United States (the “Federal Reserve Board”) on December 30, 2022. No representation is made that the NT dollar amounts referred to herein could have been or could be converted into U.S. dollars at any particular rate or at all. On March 31, 2023, the noon buying rate was $1.00 to NT$30.48.

Unless otherwise indicated, in this annual report,

“ADSs” refers to our American depositary shares, each of which represents two ordinary shares;

“ADRs” refers to the American depositary receipts that evidence our ADSs;

“AIoT” refers to Artificial Intelligence & Internet of Things;

“AMOLED” refers to active matrix organic light-emitting diode;

“AR” refers to the augmented reality;

“ASIC” refers to application specific integrated circuit;

“a-Si” refers to amorphous silicon;

“CMOS” refers to complementary metal oxide semiconductor;

“end-point AI” is the practice of running applications and storing data on devices located at the edge of a network. The aim is to reduce latency and network bandwidth by performing processing and storage functions locally on the device. This approach can improve the performance, reliability, and security of applications and data.

“head-mounted-display” refers to a display device, worn on the head or as part of a helmet, that has a small display optic in front of one or each;

“Himax Taiwan” refers to Himax Technologies Limited, our wholly owned subsidiary in Taiwan and our predecessor;

“IC” refers to integrated circuit;

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“IFRS” refers to The International Financial Reporting Standards as issued by the International Accounting Standards Board;

“IGZO” refers to indium gallium zinc oxide;

“Innolux” refers to Innolux Corporation, its predecessor and consolidated subsidiaries, unless the context otherwise requires;

“large-sized panels” refers to panels that are typically above ten inches in diagonal measurement; All sizes of TV, monitor and notebook displays are identified as large.

“LCoS” refers to liquid crystal on silicon;

“LED” refers to light-emitting diode;

“LTPS” refers to low temperature poly silicon;

“MEMS” refers to micro-electro mechanical systems;

“OLED” refers to organic light-emitting diode;

“PRC” or “China” for purposes of this annual report refers to the People’s Republic of China, excluding the special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macau;

“processed tape” refers to polyimide tape plated with copper foil that has a circuit formed within it, which is used in tape-automated bonding packaging;

“ROC” or “Taiwan” refers to the island of Taiwan and other areas under the effective control of the Republic of China;

“RSUs” refers to restricted share units;

“semiconductor manufacturing service providers” refers to third-party wafer fabrication foundries, gold bumping houses, and assembly and testing houses;

“shares” or “ordinary shares” refer to our ordinary shares, par value $0.3 per share;

“SLiM” refers to Structured Light Imaging Module, which is Himax homegrown structured light-based 3D sensing total solution;

“small and medium-sized panels” refers to panels that are typically around ten inches or less in diagonal measurement. All sizes of smartphone, automotive and tablet displays are identified as small and medium;

“Structured Light” refers to a 3D infrared structure light projector, which is composed of a laser light source, a collimated lens and a diffractive optics element (DOE);

“TDDI” refers to touch display driver integrated circuit for advanced in cell touch display;

“TFT-LCD” refers to thin film transistor liquid crystal display that may adopt a-Si, IGZO or LTPS technologies;

“ToF” refers to a time-of-flight (ToF) 3D camera works by illuminating the scene with a modulated light source, and observing the reflected light;

“Ultralow power WiseEye smart image sensing” refers to Company’s WiseEye^TM AI image sensing solution which includes Himax’s proprietary computer vision AI processor, ultralow power Always-On CMOS image sensor and CNN-based AI algorithms – all equipped with ultralow power design;

“VGA” refers to Video Graphics Array;

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“VR” refers to the virtual reality;

“wafer level optics” or “WLO” are optical products manufactured using semiconductor process on wafers;

“we”, “us”, “our company”, “our”, “the Company” and “Himax” refers to Himax Technologies, Inc., its predecessor entities and subsidiaries;

“WE1 AI Processor” refers to a Himax AI processor designed with power-efficient and multi-level power schemes for real-time motion detection, object detection and image processing, providing AI developers with possibilities of high performance and ultralow power.

all references to “New Taiwan dollars”, “NT dollars” and “NT$” are to the legal currency of the ROC; and

all references to “dollars”, “U.S. dollars” and “$” are to the legal currency of the United States.

On August 10, 2009, we effected: (i) a stock split in the form of a stock dividend of 5,999 ordinary shares for each ordinary share held by shareholders of record, followed by a consolidation of every 3,000 ordinary shares into one ordinary share; (ii) a change of the par value of our ordinary shares from $0.0001 each to $0.3 each; and (iii) a change in our ADS ratio from one ADS representing one ordinary share to one ADS representing two ordinary shares. See “Item 7.A. Major Shareholders and Related Party Transactions—Major Shareholders” for more information. Unless otherwise indicated, all shares, per share and share equity data in this annual report have been retroactively adjusted to reflect the effect of the stock split and the change in par value for all periods presented.

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PART I

ITEM 1. IDENTITY OF DIRECTORS, SENIOR MANAGEMENT AND ADVISERS

Not applicable.

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ITEM 2. OFFER STATISTICS AND EXPECTED TIMETABLE

Not applicable.

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ITEM 3. KEY INFORMATION

3.A. [Reserved]

3.B. Capitalization and Indebtedness

Not applicable.

3.C. Reason for the Offer and Use of Proceeds

Not applicable.

3.D. Risk Factors

Risks Relating to Our Financial Condition and Business

Our suppliers may have increasing bargaining power as a result of industry consolidation, which could result in an increase in our average unit cost and a decrease in our profit margin.

There may be industry consolidation among our suppliers. Merger and acquisition activities will likely increase the size and market power of the relevant suppliers and reduce the number of suppliers we could use under a simpler supplier chain. Therefore, suppliers could be in a better position to bargain for higher prices, longer contract terms, higher deposit and/or higher contract breach penalties for their services and products, which could result in an increase in our average unit cost and/or penalty expenses. If we are unable to transfer any increase in average unit cost to our customers, our gross margin and results of operations could be adversely affected.

We derive the majority of our net revenues from sales to the TFT-LCD panel industry, which is highly cyclical and subject to price fluctuations. Such cyclicality and price fluctuations could negatively impact our business or results of operations.

In 2021 and 2022, 88.0% and 86.8% of our revenues, respectively, were attributable to display drivers that were incorporated into TFT-LCD panels. We expect to continue to substantially depend on sales to the TFT-LCD panel industry for the foreseeable future. The TFT-LCD panel industry is intensely competitive and is vulnerable to cyclical market conditions. The average selling prices of TFT-LCD panels generally decline with time as a result of, among other factors, drop in demand for end products that incorporate TFT LCD panels, new capacity ramp-up or factory utilization improvement, technological advancements and cost reduction with the exception of the new high end and high-resolution products.

The merger of certain of our major customers could result in an increase in their bargaining power and therefore subject us to additional downward pricing pressure. We cannot assure you that in such periods in which we experience significant downward pricing pressure, we could sufficiently reduce costs to completely offset the loss of revenues. In addition, a severe and prolonged industry downturn could also result in higher risks to the collectability of our accounts receivable, the marketability and valuation of inventories, the impairment of our long-term non-financial assets, which consist of property, plant and equipment and intangible assets, and the stability of our supply chain. As a result, the cyclicality of the TFT-LCD panel industry could adversely affect our revenues, cost of revenues and results of operations.

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Our strategy of expanding our product offerings to non-driver products may not be successful.

We have devoted, and intend to continue to devote, financial and management resources to non-driver products’ development, manufacturing and marketing to further diversify our product portfolio and improve gross margin as non-driver products may have higher gross margin than our driver products. Our non-driver technologies cover LCoS microdisplay, CMOS image sensor, wafer level optics (“WLO”), 3D sensing and ultralow power WiseEye smart image sensing, etc.

For our LCoS technology, at present our main focus areas for LCoS business are AR goggle devices, projectors and head-up-displays (HUD) for automotive. For CMOS image sensor business, in addition to the current shipment for notebook and webcam applications, we also extend the sensor business for the broad AI market. Our AoS CMOS image sensor is designed with proprietary architectures, readout, pixel, where the corresponding algorithms are integrated to contribute the always-on feature that consumes only several micro watts to enable people detection, eyeball tracking and many other features. On 3D sensing business, we focus on Structured Light and ToF 3D module solution and 3D decoder ASIC key component, aiming at emerging markets such as facial recognition-based e-payment, business access control, biomedical inspection device, eye-tracking and gesture control applications. For our ultralow power WiseEye smart image sensing business, we focus on providing leading end-point AI solutions, in both total solution and discrete key component, to meet diversified customer and application needs. Himax’s ultralow power WiseEye smart image sensing solution integrates in-house AoS sensor, ultralow power AI processor and CNN-based AI algorithm from in house or third-party algorithm partners. Our WiseEye AI total solution had already been adopted by one global leading notebook vendor and went into mass production from early 2022. We also see growing adoption of our WiseEye technology in a broad range of applications, covering shared bike parking, automotive, door lock, battery-powered surveillance camera, panoramic video conferencing, and medical capsule endoscope among others. Some of them already commenced production since 2022. As we focus on scaling adoption in this relatively untapped market, we also collaborate closely with numerous AI ecosystem partners and communities to make our AI solution more diverse and accessible. Progress has been made in areas such as smart city / home / office, healthcare, smart agriculture and smart retail. Himax is more committed than ever to strengthening the Company’s WiseEye product roadmap and retaining the leadership position in ultralow power AI processor and image sensor for end-point AI applications.

Developing and commercializing each of our non-driver products requires a significant amount of management, engineering and monetary resources. For example, we have established certain in-house facilities for key manufacturing processes of our non-driver products including LCoS microdisplay, WLO and 3D sensing. Numerous uncertainties exist in developing new products and we cannot assure you that we will be able to develop our non-driver products successfully. We may underestimate the amount of capital, personnel and other resources required to develop and commercialize our non-driver products. We may also overestimate the market potential of the end products that are utilizing or will utilize our non-driver products. The failure or delay in the development, production or commercialization of any of our non-driver products, the occurrence of any product defects or design flaws, or the low market acceptance of or demand for either of our products or the end devices using our products may adversely affect the impairment of our long-term non-financial assets, which consist of property, plant and equipment and intangible assets, for non-driver products, our results of operations and growth prospects. The lower capacity utilization rate of our factories will negatively affect our gross margin and our results of operations. Moreover, we will be subject to higher ramp-up expenses in the early stage of mass production of our non-driver products.

The concentration of our revenues and accounts receivable and the extension of payment terms for certain of our customers exposes us to increased credit risk and could harm our operating results and cash flows.

In 2022, Customer A and its affiliates accounted for 32.3% of our revenues. Our two largest customers together accounted for over 40% of our revenues in 2022. See “Item 5.A. Operating Results—Description of Certain Statements of Profit or Loss Line Items—Revenues” for our revenues description. Our results of operations and financial condition would be significantly linked to the success and purchase policy of any such customer. As of December 31, 2022, our accounts receivable from Customer A and its affiliates were $82.1 million, which represented approximately 31.5% of our accounts receivable, net. The concentration of our accounts receivable exposes us to increased credit risk. Moreover, we have at times agreed to extend the payment terms for certain of our customers. As a result, any loss of or a sharp reduction in any such customer’s sales, a default by any such customer, a prolonged delay in the payment of accounts receivable or the extension of payment terms for our customers could adversely affect our cash flow, liquidity and operating results.

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Our customers may experience a decline in profitability or may not be profitable at all, which could adversely affect our results of operations and financial condition.

TFT-LCD panel manufacturers, including our customers, experience significant pressure on prices and profit margins, due largely to growing industry capacity and fluctuations in demand for TFT-LCD panels. Some panel manufacturers have greater access to capital or greater production, research and development, intellectual property, marketing or other resources than our customers, who may not be able to compete and sustain their market positions. Further, our customers’ business performance may fluctuate significantly due to a number of factors, many of which are beyond their control, including and not limited to: (1) consumer demand and the general economic conditions, such as recent geopolitical tensions relating to invasion of Ukraine by Russia and China city lockdowns due to Covid mandates; (2) the cyclical nature of the TFT-LCD industry in average selling price fluctuations, as well as its downstream industries; (3) the speed at which TFT-LCD panel manufacturers expand production capacity; (4) brand companies’ continued needs for original equipment manufacturing services provided by TFT-LCD panel manufacturers; (5) access to raw materials, components, equipment and utilities on a timely and economical basis; (6) technological changes; (7) the rescheduling and cancellation of large orders; (8) access to funding on satisfactory terms; and (9) fluctuations in the currencies of TFT-LCD panels exporting countries against the U.S. dollar.

We depend on sales of display drivers used in TFT-LCD panels, and the limited potential for further growth in both the market size of display drivers and the market share of our display drivers or the absence of continued market acceptance of our display drivers could limit our growth in revenues or harm our business.

In 2021 and 2022, 88.0% and 86.8% of our revenues, respectively, were from the sale of display drivers used for large, small and medium-sized applications, and we expect to continue to derive a substantial portion of our revenues from these or related products. As the display driver industry is relatively mature, there may be limited potential for the overall display drivers market to grow and for us to further grow our market share and revenues.

Failure to grow our unit shipments for display drivers, coupled with a general decline in the average selling prices, could adversely and materially affect our results of operations. See also “—Risks Relating to Our Industry—The average selling prices of our products could decrease rapidly, which may negatively impact our revenues and operating results”. Therefore, the continued market acceptance of our display drivers is critical to our future success. Failure to grow or maintain our revenues generated from the sales of display drivers could adversely and materially affect our results of operations and financial condition.

We face risks related to public health epidemics, including the recent novel coronavirus outbreaks.

Our financial condition and results of operations may be adversely affected if a public health epidemic interferes with our ability, or that of our employees, suppliers, customers and other business partners to perform our and their respective responsibilities and obligations related to the conduct of our business. Since November 2019, a novel strain of coronavirus (Covid-19) has spread across the world. The outbreak of Covid-19 has caused significant disruption not only to the financial markets but also to global supply chains, which can substantially depress global business activities, restrict access to capital and result in a long-term economic downturn that would negatively affect our operating results.

As a result of the pandemic, numerous unprecedented measures are in place to try to contain the virus, such as travel restrictions, quarantines, stay-at-home and social distancing orders, and shutdowns. These measures may further impact our workforce and operations, and the operations of our customers and suppliers. The ultimate impact and efficacy of measures and potential future measures is currently unknown. We have experienced and will experience disruptions to our business operations resulting from quarantines, self-isolations, or other restrictions on the ability of our employees to perform their jobs that may impact our ability to develop and design our products in a timely manner. Our suppliers, sub-contractors and customers have been and will be disrupted by quarantines and social distancing measures, office and factory closures, disruptions to ports and other shipping infrastructure, border closures, or other travel-related restrictions. Depending on the magnitude of such effects on our suppliers’ manufacturing, assembling, and testing operations, our supply chain, manufacturing and product shipments will be delayed, which could adversely affect our business, operations and customer relationships.

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Extra export licenses may be needed for certain product or technology for certain customers. These licenses are regulated by Export Administration Regulations (EAR) which are administered by the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS).

Our business is subject to various international laws and legal requirements from the U.S. Export Administration Regulations and other jurisdictions’ applicable executive orders in packaging, product content, labor and import/export regulations, etc. These laws, regulations and orders are complex, may change frequently and with limited notice, have generally become more rigorous and have intensified under the current U.S. administration, especially in recent geopolitical tensions with China. We may be required to incur significant expense to comply with, or to remedy violations of, these regulations. In addition, if our customers fail to comply with these regulations or our customers are sanctioned, or added to the Entity List of EAR by BIS, we may be required to suspend sales to these customers, which could damage our reputation and materially and adversely impact our results of operations. If our foundry, tape, assembly and testing suppliers fail to comply with these regulations or our suppliers are sanctioned or added to the Entity List of EAR by BIS, we may suspend their services and have to obtain alternative services in a timely manner. Considering the amount of time, it usually takes to qualify assembly and testing houses, we may experience significant delays in product shipments. Any problems that we may encounter with the delivery, quality or cost of our products could damage our reputation and result in a loss of customers and orders. Moreover, the scarcity and importance of services may necessitate us making investments in foundry, tape, assembly and testing service providers in order to secure capacity, which would require us to substantially increase our capital outlays and possibly raise additional capital, which may not be available to us on satisfactory terms, if at all.

Technological innovation may reduce the number of display drivers typically required for each panel, thereby reducing the number of display drivers we are able to sell per panel. If such a reduction in demand is not offset by the general growth of the industry, our market share or average selling prices, or our revenues may decline.

In order to reduce costs, TFT-LCD panel manufacturers generally seek to have display drivers with higher channel counts and new panel designs to reduce the number of display drivers required for each panel. We have been developing such innovative and cost-effective display driver solutions in order to grow our market share, attract additional customers, increase our average selling prices and capture new design wins. However, we cannot assure you that we will successfully achieve these goals. If we fail to do so and the number of display drivers typically required per panel decreases thereby reducing our unit shipments, our revenues may decline. TFT-LCD panel manufacturers have developed several panel designs to reduce the usage of display drivers, including gate in panel, or GIP, amorphous silicon gate, or ASG, or simply gateless designs, which integrate the gate driver function onto the glass and eliminate the need for gate drivers, as well as dual gate and triple gate panel designs, which would largely reduce the usage of source drivers. If such designs or technologies become widely adopted, demand for our display drivers may decrease significantly, which would adversely and materially affect our results of operations.

The strategic relationships between certain of our competitors and their customers and the development of in-house capabilities by TFT-LCD and AMOLED panel manufacturers may limit our ability to expand our customer base and our growth prospects.

Certain of our competitors have established or may establish strategic or strong relationships with TFT-LCD and AMOLED panel manufacturers that are also our existing or potential customers. Marketing our display drivers to such TFT-LCD and AMOLED panel manufacturers that have established relationships with our competitors may be difficult. Moreover, several TFT-LCD and AMOLED panel manufacturers have in-house design capabilities and therefore may not need to source semiconductor products from us. If our customers successfully develop in-house capabilities to design and develop semiconductors that can substitute for our products, they would likely reduce or stop purchasing our products. To sell new products, we will likely need to target new market segments and new customers with whom we do not have current relationships, which may require different strategies and may present difficulties that we have not encountered before. Failure to broaden our customer base and attract new customers may limit our growth prospects.

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As AMOLED offers brighter color, near-perfect-black, less power consumption and is thinner and lighter than TFT-LCD, it gradually penetrates the mid to high-end TFT-LCD market, especially the smartphone market. AMOLED display and related DDICs have been dominated by Korean companies. The marketplace is increasing utilization of the AMOLED display for smartphone and other consumer electronics due to expanded AMOLED capacity. We continue to gear up for the AMOLED driver IC development in partnership with major Chinese and Korean panel makers. For tablet, we are seeing shipments on the rise for premium models that adopt advanced AMOLED display, of which Himax offers both DDIC and Tcon and has commenced production to certain leading brands. For automotive AMOLED display, we continue to win project awards for our flexible AMOLED driver and Tcon with both conventional car makers and EV/NEV vendors. Finally, we are making good progress with leading panel houses for the development of AMOLED display drivers for smartphone, TV and notebook applications. However, we could not assure you the success of our AMOLED driver IC as we are unable to penetrate into the mass volume existing Korean and China supplier chain and/or find new AMOLED panel manufactures to design-wins our solutions into. AMOLED process maturity for the new manufactures and the possible specification change due to the immaturity of the AMOLED will also be a hurdle to our AMOLED share gain and success.

Himax’s shipment for AMOLED driver ICs and TCON started from automotive application and then extended to tablet PC. There are multiple AMOLED projects under development jointly with worldwide leading panel makers for other applications, including smart phones, TV, notebook PCs and many others. The growth momentum in AMOLED driver ICs and TCON is promising, but the risk of high dependency on limited customer base amid current macro uncertainty might result in fluctuation in sales performance.

We depend primarily on third-party foundries to manufacture our wafers, and any failure to obtain sufficient foundry capacity or loss of any of the foundries we use could significantly delay our ability to ship our products, causing us to lose revenues and damage our customer relationships.

Access to foundry capacity is crucial to our business because we do not manufacture our own wafers, instead relying primarily on third-party foundries. The ability of a foundry to manufacture our semiconductor products is limited by its available capacity. Access to capacity is especially important due to the limited availability of the high-voltage CMOS process technology required for the manufacture of wafers used in display drivers. If the primary third-party foundries that we rely upon are not able to meet our required capacity, or if our business relationships with these foundries are adversely affected, we would not be able to obtain the required capacity to meet increasing demand for our products. We may have to seek alternative foundries, which may not be available on commercially reasonable terms, or which may expose us to qualifying-new-foundry risks, as further discussed below.

We use several foundries for different semiconductor products, and certain of our products are manufactured at only one of these foundries. If any one of the foundries is unable to provide the required capacity to us, or does not deliver in a timely manner, or the quality or pricing terms are not acceptable to us, or any of the foundries experience financial difficulties or insolvency risks due to the impact of the global economic turmoil or any company-specific reasons or otherwise, if their operations are damaged or if there is any other disruption, directly or indirectly, of their foundry operations and we cannot qualify an alternative foundry in a timely manner, we could experience significant delays in receiving the product being manufactured by that foundry or incur additional costs to obtain substitutes, or interruption in our supply of the affected products. If we choose to use a new foundry or process technology for a particular semiconductor product, it will take us several quarters to qualify the new foundry or process before we can begin shipping. If we cannot qualify a new foundry in a timely manner, we may experience and incur damages as above mentioned and harm our customer relationships.

As a result of outsourcing the manufacturing of our wafers, we face several significant risks, including: (1) failure to secure manufacturing capacity, or being able to obtain required capacity only at higher costs; (2) risks of our proprietary information leaking to our competitors through the foundries we use; (3) limited control of delivery schedules, quality assurance and control, manufacturing yields and wafer costs; (4) the unavailability of, or potential delays in obtaining access to, key process technologies; and (5) financial risks of certain of our foundry suppliers.

To manufacture our display drivers used in TFT-LCD and AMOLED panels, we require foundries with high-voltage CMOS manufacturing process capacity. As a result, our dependence on high-voltage CMOS foundries presents the following, additional risks: (1) potential capacity constraints faced by the limited number of high-voltage CMOS foundries and the lack of investment in new and existing high-voltage CMOS foundries; (2) difficulty in attaining consistently high manufacturing yields from high-voltage CMOS foundries; (3) delay and time required to qualify and ramp up production at new high-voltage CMOS foundries; and (4) price increases.

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As a result, we may be required to use foundries with which we have no established relationships, which could expose us to potentially unfavorable pricing, unsatisfactory quality or insufficient capacity allocation. Moreover, the scarcity of high-voltage foundry capacity may necessitate us making investments in foundries in order to secure capacity, which would require us to substantially increase our capital outlays and possibly raise additional capital, which may not be available to us on satisfactory terms, if at all.

Since 2020, due to the pandemic lockdown, the work-from-home and learn-from-home new lifestyles triggered increasing demands for display and display drivers related products. The surging demand in display drivers caused the severe foundry capacity shortage, while the industry has no major expansion plan especially on the mature nodes we are primarily anchored to. To address the potential foundry capacity shortage worldwide, we had entered into strategic agreements with our foundry partners in order to secure capacity to fulfill our business needs. Under these strategic agreements, we are committed to purchasing a specific volume at fixed or variable prices. However, for both pricing agreements, there can be no assurance that these prices provided in the strategic agreements with our foundry partners will always remain competitive during the contract term. For example, in the event that the global semiconductor market changes due to foundry capacity expansion and/or shrunken customer demand, the fixed prices we agree to pay our foundry partners may become significantly higher than the then prevailing market price. The situation could materially adversely impact our pricing strategies, competitive position, profitability and results of operation. We may also be subject to contractual penalties if we are unable to purchase the committed volume from our foundry partners. In addition, since these strategic agreements with our foundry partners typically require us to make prepayments or refundable deposits to such foundry partners, our cash flow, liquidity and financial condition could be adversely affected.

Our inability to secure sufficient capacity from any of our third-party tape, assembly and testing houses at reasonable and competitive prices could disrupt our shipments, harm our customer relationships and reduce our sales.

Access to third-party tape, assembly and testing capacity is critical to our business because we do not have in-house tape, assembly and testing capabilities for commercial production and instead rely on third-party service providers. Access to these services is especially important to our business because display drivers require specialized tape, assembly and testing services. A limited number of third-party tape, assembly and testing houses tape, assemble and test substantially all of our current products. There has been an increased level of industry consolidation among our suppliers in recent years. Therefore, suppliers could be in a better position to bargain for higher prices, longer contract terms, higher deposit and/or higher contract breach penalties for their services and products, which could result in an increase in our average unit cost and/or penalty expenses. We do not have binding long-term supply arrangements with tape, assembly and testing service providers that guarantee us access to our required capacity. If the primary tape, assembly and testing service providers that we rely upon are not able to meet our requirements in price, quality, and service, or if our business relationships with these service providers were adversely affected, we would not be able to obtain the required capacity and would have to seek alternative providers, which may not be available on commercially reasonable terms, or at all. As a result, we do not directly control our product delivery schedules, tape, assembly and testing costs, and quality assurance and control. If any of these third-party tape, assembly and testing houses experiences capacity constraints, financial difficulties, suffers any damage to its facilities or if there is any disruption of its assembly and testing capacity, we may not be able to obtain alternative assembly and testing services in a timely manner. Because of the amount of time, we usually take to qualify assembly and testing houses, we may experience significant delays in product shipments if we are required to find alternative sources. Any problems that we may encounter with the delivery, quality or cost of our products could damage our reputation and result in a loss of customers and orders. Moreover, the scarcity and importance of tape, assembly and testing services may necessitate us making investments in tape, assembly and testing service providers in order to secure capacity, which would require us to substantially increase our capital outlays and possibly raise additional capital, which may not be available to us on satisfactory terms, if at all.

Shortages of key components for our customers’ products could decrease demand for our products.

Shortages of components and other materials that are critical to the design and manufacture of our customers’ products may limit our sales. These components and other materials include, but are not limited to, color filters, backlight modules, polarizers, printed circuit boards and glass substrates. In the past, companies that use our products in their production have experienced delays in the availability of key components from other suppliers. In addition, component manufacturers may not be able to increase or maintain their component supply because of labor shortage in China or otherwise and may shut down certain of their capacity from time to time because of weak demand, which may increase the instability of timely delivery and the risk of shortage of components. Such shortages of components and other materials critical to the design and manufacture of our customers’ products may cause a slowdown in demand for our products, resulting in a decrease in our sales and adversely affecting our results of operations. In addition, as a result of uncertain demand conditions, our customers may hesitate to build inventory on hand and tend to release orders on short notice.

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We rely on the services of our key personnel, and if we are unable to retain our current key personnel and hire additional personnel, our ability to design, develop and successfully market our products could be harmed.

We rely upon the continued service and performance of a relatively small number of key personnel, including Jordan Wu, our president and chief executive officer, and Dr. Biing-Seng Wu, our chairman, and certain engineering, technical and senior management personnel, in particular, who are critical to our corporate management, business operation strategy, operation execution, future technological and product innovations. Competition for these personnel is intense in the semiconductor industry in Taiwan. Moreover, our future success depends on the expansion of our senior management team and the retention of key employees. Any of our key employees could leave our company with little or no prior notice in applicable jurisdictions and could then work with a competitor. In addition, we do not have “key person” life insurance policies covering any of our employees. The loss of any key personnel or our inability to attract or retain qualified personnel, whether engineers or others, could delay the development and introduction of new products and would have a material adverse effect on our ability to sell our products and may impact our overall business and growth. We may also incur increased operating expenses and be required to divert the attention of other senior executives away from their original duties to recruiting replacements for key personnel.

If we fail to forecast customer demand accurately, we may have excess or insufficient inventory, which may increase our operating costs and harm our business.

The lead time required by the semiconductor manufacturing service providers is typically longer than the lead time that our customers provide for delivery of our products to them. To ensure availability of our products for our customers, we will typically ask our semiconductor manufacturing service providers to start manufacturing our products based on forecasts provided by our customers in advance of receiving their purchase orders. However, these forecasts are not binding purchase commitments, and we do not recognize revenues until they are delivered to customers. Moreover, for the convenience of our customers, we may agree to ship our inventory to warehouses located near our customers, so that our products can be delivered to customers more quickly. In such cases, we will not recognize revenues until the control over a product is given to our customers based on the shipping terms. Hence, we incur inventory and manufacturing costs in advance of anticipated revenues.

The anticipated demand for our products may not materialize; therefore, manufacturing based on customer forecasts exposes us to risks such as high inventory carrying costs, increased product obsolescence, erosion of the products’ market value as well as penalty incurred from unfulfillment of committed orders from capacity agreement with Company’s foundries and backend suppliers. If we overestimate demand for our products or if purchase orders are cancelled or shipments delayed, we may incur charges from agreements entered with foundries and backend suppliers for securing capacity, excess inventory that we cannot sell, or may have to sell at low profit margins or even at a loss, which would harm our financial results. Conversely, if we underestimate demand, we may not have sufficient inventory and may lose market share and damage customer relationships, which also could harm our business. These inventory risks are exacerbated by the high level of customization of our products, which limits our ability to sell excess inventory to other customers, which could eventually lead to write-down of these excess inventory.

If we do not achieve additional design wins in the future, our ability to grow will be limited.

Our future success depends on our customers designing our products into their products. To achieve design wins, we must design and deliver cost-effective, innovative, reliable and integrated products for our customers’ needs. A panel manufacturer may be reluctant to change its source of components due to the significant costs and time associated with qualifying a new supplier. A design win is not a binding commitment by a customer to purchase our products and may not result in large volume orders of our products. Rather, it is a decision by a customer to use our products in the design process of that customer’s products. Accordingly, our failure to successfully design, develop and introduce new products and product enhancements could harm our business, financial condition and results of operations.

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Our products are complex and may require modifications to resolve undetected errors or failures in order for them to function with panels at the desired specifications, which could lead to higher costs, customer dispute, a loss of customers or a delay in market acceptance of our products.

Our products are highly complex and may contain undetected errors or failures. Our products must operate according to specifications with the other components used by our customers in their product manufacturing process. If our products are delivered with errors or defects, we could incur additional development, repair or replacement costs, and our credibility and the market acceptance of our products could be harmed along with possible liability indemnification for defective product, customer disputes and lawsuits against us or our customers.

Our highly integrated products are difficult to manufacture without defects. The existence of defects in our products could increase our costs, decrease our sales and damage our customer relationships and our reputation.

The manufacture of our products that incorporate mixed analog and digital signal processing and embedded memory technology is complex and it is difficult for semiconductor foundries to manufacture them completely without defects. Minor deviations in the manufacturing process could cause substantial reduction in yield and quality.

Defective products can be caused by design, defective materials or component parts, or manufacturing difficulties. Thus, quality problems can be identified only by analyzing and testing our display drivers in a system after they have been manufactured. Difficulties in achieving defect-free products due to the increasing complexity of display drivers and the panel system may result in an increase in our costs and expenses, and delays in the availability of our products. In addition, if the foundries that we use fail to deliver products of satisfactory quality in the volume and at the price required, we will be unable to meet our customers’ demand or to sell those products at an acceptable profit margin, which could adversely affect our sales and margins and damage our customer relationships and our reputation.

We may not have long-term purchase commitments from our customers, which may result in significant uncertainty and volatility with respect to our revenues and could materially and adversely affect our results of operations and financial condition.

We may not have long-term purchase commitments from our customers; our sales are made on the basis of individual purchase orders. Our customers may also cancel or defer purchase orders. Our customers’ purchase orders may vary significantly from period-to-period, and it is difficult to forecast future order quantities. In the event of a cancellation, postponement, or reduction of an order, we would likely not be able to reduce operating expenses sufficiently so as to minimize the impact of the lost revenues. Alternatively, subject to real ever-changing circumstances over the periods, we may have excess inventory that we cannot sell, which would harm our operating results. In addition, changes in our customers’ business may adversely affect the quantity of purchase orders that we receive by reducing or canceling their orders of our products, and/or requesting higher-than-usual price concessions. We cannot assure you that any of our customers will continue to place purchase orders with us in the future. We also cannot assure you that the volume of our customers’ purchase orders will be consistent with our expectations when we plan our expenditures. Our results of operations and financial condition may thus be materially and adversely affected. Additionally, purchase order cancelations or negative alternation by customers may lead to a reduction in future earnings or cash flows subject to each event.

Our corporate actions are substantially controlled by officers, directors and affiliated entities who may take actions that are not in, or may conflict with, our or our public shareholders’ interests.

As of March 31, 2023, Jordan Wu and Dr. Biing-Seng Wu (who are brothers) beneficially owned approximately 2.1% and 22.0% of our ordinary shares, respectively. For information relating to the beneficial ownership of our ordinary shares, see “Item 7.A. Major Shareholders and Related Party Transactions—Major Shareholders.” These shareholders, acting together, could exert substantial influence over matters requiring approval by our shareholders, including electing directors and approving mergers or other business combination transactions. This concentration of ownership may also discourage, delay or prevent a change in control of our company, which could deprive our shareholders of an opportunity to receive a premium for their shares as part of a sale of our company and might reduce the price of our ADSs. Actions may be taken even if they were opposed by our other shareholders.

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Assertions against us by third parties for infringement of their intellectual property rights could result in significant costs and cause our operating results to suffer.

The semiconductor industry is characterized by vigorous protection and pursuit of intellectual property rights and positions, which results in protracted and expensive litigation for many companies. We have received, and expect to continue to receive, notices of infringement of third-party intellectual property rights. We may receive claims from various industry participants alleging infringement of their patents, trade secrets or other intellectual property rights in the future. Any lawsuit resulting from such allegations could subject us to significant liability for damages and invalidate our proprietary rights. These lawsuits, regardless of their success, would likely be time-consuming and expensive to resolve and would divert management time and attention. Any potential intellectual property litigation also could force us to do one or more of the following: (1) cease and desist and/or stop selling products or using technology or manufacturing processes that contain the allegedly infringing intellectual property; (2) pay damages to the party claiming infringement; (3) attempt to obtain a license for the relevant intellectual property, which may not be available on commercially reasonable terms or at all; and (4) attempt to redesign those products that contain the allegedly infringing intellectual property with non-infringing intellectual property, which may not be possible.

The outcome of a dispute may result in our need to develop non-infringing technology or enter into royalty or licensing agreements. We have to undertake the contractual and tort liabilities in applicable law jurisdictions, and we have agreed to indemnify certain customers for certain claims of infringement arising out of the sale of our products. Any intellectual property litigation could have a material adverse effect on our business, operating results or financial condition.

Our ability to compete will be harmed if we are unable to protect our intellectual property rights adequately.

We believe that the protection of our intellectual property rights is, and will continue to be, important to the success of our business. We rely primarily on a combination of patents, trademarks, trade secrets and copyright laws and contractual restrictions to protect our intellectual properties. These afford only limited protection. Despite our efforts to protect our proprietary rights, unauthorized parties may attempt to obtain, copy or use information that we regard as proprietary, such as product design and manufacturing process expertise. Our pending patent applications and any future applications may not result in issued patents or may not be sufficiently broad to protect our proprietary technologies. Moreover, policing any unauthorized use of our products is difficult and costly, and we cannot be certain that the measures which we have implemented will prevent misappropriation or unauthorized use of our technologies, particularly in foreign jurisdictions where the laws may not protect our proprietary rights as fully as the laws of the United States. Others may independently develop substantially equivalent intellectual properties or otherwise gain access to our trade secrets or intellectual properties. Our failure to protect our intellectual properties effectively could harm our business.

We may undertake acquisitions or investments to expand our business that may pose risks to our business and dilute the ownership of our existing shareholders, and we may not realize the anticipated benefits of these acquisitions or investments.

As part of our growth and product diversification strategy, we will continue to evaluate opportunities to acquire or invest in other businesses, intellectual property or technologies that would complement our current offerings, expand the breadth of markets we can address or enhance our technical capabilities. Acquisitions or investments that we have completed or potentially may make in the future entail a number of risks that could materially and adversely affect our business, operating and financial results, including: (1) problems integrating the acquired key employees, operations, technologies or products into our existing business and products; (2) diversion of management’s time and attention from our core business; (3) adverse effects of losses of the acquired target upon our financial condition and results of operations; (4) adverse effects on existing business relationships with customers; (5) the need for financial resources above our planned investment levels; (6) dilution of share ownership of current shareholders under share swap transactions; (7) risks associated with entering markets in which we lack experience; (8) potential write-offs of acquired assets; and (9) potential impairment charges related to the goodwill acquired.

We may also face challenges in international acquisitions, such as compliance with local law and regulation, limited access to target companies and cultural assimilation challenges. Our failure to address these risks successfully may have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations. Any such acquisition or investment may require a significant amount of capital investment, which would decrease the amount of cash available for working capital or capital expenditures. In addition, if we use our equity securities to pay for acquisitions, the value of our ADSs and the underlying ordinary shares may be diluted. If we borrow funds to finance acquisitions, such debt instruments may contain restrictive covenants that can, among other things, restrict us from distributing dividends.

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System security risks, data protection breaches or unexpected system outage or failures could impact our business.

Our computer systems and networks are vulnerable to damage or interruption from earthquakes, fires, power loss, telecommunications failures, cyber-attacks, computer viruses or other malicious attempts. The reliability and safety of our information technology infrastructure / software, and the ability to continually expand and update technologies / software in response to dynamic changing needs and cybersecurity threats, are critical to our business. In recent years, there are increasing and evolving risks to cybersecurity and privacy, including criminal hackers, state-sponsored intrusions, industrial espionage, employee malfeasance and human / technological errors. All of the above could result in the loss of our intellectual property, the leak of commercially sensitive information, and the misappropriation of confidential information of our employees, customers and suppliers, and therefore could cause the interruption of our business. Failures to protect the privacy of employees, customers or suppliers’ confidential data against breaches of network security could result in the loss of existing or potential customers, other financial loss, and damage to our reputation. In addition, the operational cost and consequences against breaches and remedial measures could be significant. While we seek to annually review and assess our cybersecurity policies and procedures to ensure their adequacy and effectiveness, we still cannot guarantee that we will not be susceptible to new and emerging risks and attacks in the evolving landscape of cybersecurity threats. As of March 31, 2023, we are not aware of any material cyberattacks or incidents that had or would be expected to have a materially adverse effect on our business and operations, nor had we been involved in any legal proceedings or regulatory investigations related thereto.

Our data centers are subject to the risk of break-ins and sabotage. Our disaster recovery plan cannot account for all eventualities. Consequently, the occurrence of a natural disaster or other unanticipated problems at our data centers could result in loss of production capabilities and lengthy interruptions in our services and business. Some of our system services are based on public cloud services, which are also subject to interruption due to cloud service providers’ unexpected downtimes, cyberattacks or any type of failure, telecommunication failure and/or other unidentified problems while connecting to cloud. These cloud services interruptions could result in loss of production capabilities and lengthy interruptions in our services and business. Cloud cybersecurity breaches could result in adverse effects on our customers, employees, suppliers, reputation, and business.

Risks Relating to Our Industry

The average selling prices of our products could decrease rapidly, which may negatively impact our revenues and operating results.

The price of each semiconductor product typically declines over its product life cycle, reflecting product obsolescence, decreased demand as customers shift to more advanced products, decreased unit costs due to advanced designs or improved manufacturing yields, excess inventory destocking amidst low market demand, and increased competition as more semiconductor suppliers are able to offer similar products. We may experience substantial period-to-period fluctuations in future operating results if our average selling prices decline. We may reduce the average unit price of our products in response to competitive pricing pressures, new product introductions by us or our competitors, and other factors. We expect that these factors will create downward pressure on our average selling prices and operating results. If we are unable to offset any reductions in our average selling prices by increasing our sales volumes and corresponding production cost reductions, or if we fail to develop and introduce new products and enhancements on a timely basis, our revenues and operating results will suffer.

The semiconductor industry, in particular semiconductors used in flat panel displays, is highly competitive, and we cannot assure that we will be able to compete successfully against our competitors.

Increased competition in the semiconductor industry may result in pricing pressure, reduced profitability and loss of market share, any of which could seriously harm our revenues and results of operations. We continually face intense competition from fabless display driver companies and integrated device manufacturers. Some of our competitors have substantially greater financial and other resources to pursue engineering, manufacturing, marketing and distribution of their products. As a result, they may be able to respond more quickly to changing customer demands or devote greater resources to the development, promotion and sales of their products. Some of our competitors are affiliated with, or are subsidiaries of, our panel manufacturer customers. These relationships may also give our competitors significant advantages such as early access to product roadmaps and design-in priorities, which would allow them to respond more quickly to changing customer demands and achieve more design-wins than we can. We cannot assure you that we will be able to increase or maintain our revenues and market share or compete successfully against our competitors in the semiconductor industry.

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Our business could be materially and adversely affected if we fail to anticipate changes in evolving industry standards, fail to achieve and maintain technological leadership in our industry or fail to develop and introduce new and enhanced products.

Our products are generally based on industry standards, which are continually evolving. The emergence of new industry standards could render our products or those of our customers unmarketable or obsolete and may require us to incur substantial unanticipated costs to comply with any such new standards. Our past sales and profitability have resulted, to a significant extent, from our ability to anticipate changes in technology and industry standards, and to develop and introduce new and enhanced products in a timely fashion. If we do not anticipate these changes in technologies and rapidly develop and introduce new and innovative technologies, we may not be able to provide advanced display semiconductors on competitive terms, and some of our customers may buy products from our competitors instead of from us. Our continued ability to adapt to such changes and anticipate future standards will be a significant factor in maintaining or improving our competitive position and our growth prospects. We cannot assure you that we will be able to anticipate evolving industry standards, successfully complete the design of our new products, have these products manufactured at acceptable manufacturing yields, or obtain significant purchase orders for these products to meet new standards or technologies. If we fail to anticipate changes in technology and to introduce new products that achieve market acceptance, our business and results of operations could be materially and adversely affected.

Risks Relating to Our Holding Company Structure

Our ability to receive dividends and other payments or funds from our subsidiaries may be restricted by commercial, statutory and legal restrictions, and thereby materially and adversely affect our ability to grow, fund investments, make acquisitions, pay dividends and otherwise fund and conduct our business.

We are a holding company and our assets consist mainly of our 100% ownership interest in Himax Taiwan. We receive cash from Himax Taiwan through intercompany borrowings. Himax Taiwan has not paid us cash dividends in the past. Nonetheless, dividends and interest on shareholder loans that we receive from our subsidiaries in Taiwan, if any, will be subject to withholding tax under ROC law. The ability of our subsidiaries to provide us with loans, pay dividends, repay any shareholder loans from us or make other distributions to us is restricted by, among other things, the availability of funds, the terms of various credit arrangements entered into by our subsidiaries, as well as statutory and other legal restrictions. Any limitation on dividend payments by our subsidiaries could materially and adversely affect our ability to grow, finance capital expenditures, make acquisitions, pay dividends, and otherwise fund and conduct our business.

Political, Geographical and Economic Risks

Climate change and natural disasters could adversely affect our business.

Climate change concerns has led to international legislative and regulatory initiatives directed at limiting carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions. Proposed and existing efforts to address climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions could directly or indirectly affect our costs of compliance, including costs associated with changes to manufacturing processes or the procurement of raw materials used in manufacturing processes, increased capital expenditures to improve facilities and equipment, and higher compliance and energy costs to reduce emissions, as well as increased indirect costs resulting from our customers, suppliers or both incurring additional compliance costs that are passed on to us, which could harm our business and financial results by increasing our expenses or requiring us to alter our operations and product design activities.

In addition, climate change could cause certain natural disasters to occur more frequently or with greater intensity. Most of our operations, and the operations of many of our semiconductor manufacturing service providers, suppliers and customers are located in Taiwan, which is vulnerable to natural disasters, in particular, earthquakes and typhoons. Our principal foundries, tape and assembly and testing houses upon which we have relied to manufacture substantially all of our display drivers are located in Taiwan. As a result of this geographic concentration, disruption of operations at our facilities or the facilities of our semiconductor manufacturing service providers and suppliers for any reason, including work stoppages, power outages, water supply shortages, fire, typhoons, earthquakes or other natural disasters, could cause delays in production and shipments of our products. In addition, shortages or interruptions in electricity supply could further be exacerbated by changes in the energy policy of the government, such as to make Taiwan a nuclear-free country. Any delays or disruptions could result in our customers seeking to source products from our competitors. If such disruption of operation at our customers’ facilities and our customers may be required to shut down temporarily or to substantially reduce the operations of their fabs, these would seriously affect demand for our products.

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Disruptions in Taiwan’s political environment could negatively affect our business and ADSs market price.

Our principal executive offices and a substantial amount of our assets are located in Taiwan, and a substantial portion of revenues is derived from operations in Taiwan. Our business, financial condition and results of operations and our ADSs market price may be affected by changes in ROC policies, taxation, inflation or interest rates, and by social instability and diplomatic issues that are outside of our control.

Taiwan has a unique international political status. Since 1949, Taiwan and the PRC have been separately governed. The government of the PRC claims that it is the sole government in China and that Taiwan is part of China. Although significant economic and cultural relations have been established during recent years between Taiwan and the PRC, the PRC government has refused to renounce the possibility that it may at some point use force to gain control over Taiwan. Furthermore, the PRC government adopted an anti-secession law relating to Taiwan. Relations between the ROC and the PRC governments have been strained in recent years for a variety of reasons, including the PRC government’s position on the “One China” policy and tensions concerning arms sales to Taiwan by the United States government. Any tension between the ROC and the PRC, or between the United States and the PRC, could materially and adversely affect our ADSs market prices.

A substantial portion of our sales are made to customers in the PRC, which may expose us to additional political, regulatory, and economic risks.

We have been increasingly selling our products to customers in the PRC. In 2021 and 2022, approximately 81.5% and 77.0% of our revenues, respectively, were from customers headquartered in the PRC. We expect to continue to increase our sales to customers in the PRC in the future. With regional customer concentration, we are particularly subject to economic and political events and other developments that affect our customers in the PRC.

The PRC economy differs from the economies of most developed countries in many respects, including the structure, level of government involvement, level of development, foreign exchange control and allocation of resources. The PRC economy has been transitioning from a planned economy to a more market-oriented economy and is growing rapidly. For the past two decades, the PRC government has implemented economic reform measures emphasizing utilization of market forces in the development of the economy and also adjusted its macroeconomic control policies from time to time. These policies have led and may continue to lead to changes in market conditions. Further, if new, US sanctions are imposed on China and any new tariffs, legislation and/or regulations are implemented, or if existing trade agreements are renegotiated or, in particular, if the U.S. government takes retaliatory trade actions due to recent U.S.-China trade tensions, such changes could have an adverse effect on our customers or suppliers in China. We cannot predict whether changes in the PRC’s political, economic and social conditions, laws, regulations and policies will have any adverse effect on our customers in the PRC. In addition, the interpretation of PRC laws and regulations involves uncertainties. We cannot assure you that changes in such laws and regulations, or in their interpretation and enforcement, will not have a material adverse effect on the businesses and operations of our customers in the PRC and consequently have a material adverse effect on our business and operations.

Fluctuations in exchange rates could result in foreign exchange losses and affect our results of operations.

Our functional and reporting currency is U.S. dollars. In 2022, more than 99% of our revenues and cost of revenues were denominated in U.S. dollars. However, we have foreign currency exposure and are primarily affected by fluctuations in exchange rates between the U.S. dollar and the NT dollar. This is because a majority portion of our employees and facilities are based in Taiwan and operating expenses are denominated in NT dollars and we maintain a portion of our cash in NT dollars for Taiwan working capital purposes. For example, in December 2022, approximately 61% of our operating expenses were denominated in NT dollars, with a small percentage denominated in Japanese Yen, Korean Won and Chinese Renminbi, and the majority of the remainder in U.S. dollars. As a result, any significant fluctuations to our disadvantage in exchange rate of U.S. dollars against such currencies, in particular a weakening of the U.S. dollar against the NT dollar, would have an adverse impact on our operating expenses as expressed in U.S. dollar and adversely affect our operating profit.

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Changes in ROC tax laws would likely increase our tax expenditures and decrease our net income.

The Company is incorporated in the Cayman Islands, a tax-free country; accordingly, pretax income generated by the group parent company is not subject to local income tax. Substantially all of the Company's taxable income is derived from the operations in the ROC and we are exposed primarily to taxes levied by the R.O.C. government. Any unfavorable changes of tax laws and regulations in this jurisdiction could increase our effective tax rate and have an adverse effect on our operating results. See “Item 5.A. Operating and Financial Reviews and Prospects -Operating Results-Tax Credits” for further discussion of significant tax regulation changes.

On July 12, 2016, the ROC Legislative Yuan passed the third reading of anti-avoidance to establish Article 43-3 Controlled Foreign Company (“CFC”) rules and Article 43-4 Place of Effective Management (“PEM”) rules of the Income Tax Act (“ITA”). Detailed introduction of the CFC and PEM rules are described as follows:

According to the legislative intent, the CFC and PEM rules, in principle, will not be put into force immediately, but will wait until the China-Taiwan Cross-Strait Tax Agreement is effectuated, the OECD’s Common Reporting and Due Diligence Standard (“CRS”) for the automatic exchange of information of financial accounts is widely implemented internationally, and the relevant bylaws of the CFC and PEM rules have been adequately enacted and properly advocated. The date of implementation will be determined by the Executive Yuan. On January 14, 2022, Executive Yuan had announced the relevant bylaws of the CFC would be implemented from January 1, 2023 and we expect that CFC would have no material impact to affect our operating profit.

Additionally, dividend payments made by us are not subject to withholding tax in the Cayman Islands. However, if the relevant bylaws of the PEM rules have been adequately enacted and properly advocated, we may be determined to be within the territory of the ROC and our income tax shall be levied in accordance with the Income Tax Act and relevant tax regulations. Therefore, dividend payments made by us would be subject to withholding tax in the ROC.

We may be affected by the Cayman Economic Substance Law

Pursuant to the International Tax Co-operation (Economic Substance) Act (2021 Revision) (as amended) of the Cayman Islands (the “ES Act”), a “relevant entity” is required to satisfy the economic substance test set out in the ES Act. A “relevant entity” includes an exempted company incorporated in the Cayman Islands as is our company. Based on the current interpretation of the ES Act, we believe that our company, Himax Technologies, Inc., is a pure equity holding company since it only holds equity participation in other entities and only earns dividends and capital gains.

Accordingly, for so long as our company is a “pure equity holding company”, it is only subject to the minimum substance requirements, which require us to (i) comply with all applicable filing requirements under the Companies Act (2021 Revision) of the Cayman Islands; and (ii) have adequate human resources and adequate premises in the Cayman Islands for holding and managing equity participations in other entities. However, there can be no assurance that we will not be subject to more requirements under the ES Act. Uncertainties over the interpretation and implementation of the ES Act may have an adverse impact on our business and operations.

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Risks Relating to Our ADSs and Our Trading Market

The market price for our ADSs is volatile.

The market price for our ADSs is volatile and has ranged from a low of $4.81 to a high of $16.28 on the NASDAQ Global Select Market in 2022.

The market price is subject to wide fluctuations in response to various factors, including the following: (1) actual or anticipated fluctuations in our quarterly operating results; (2) changes in financial estimates by securities research analysts; (3) changes in the expectation of our product launch timing, forecast and estimates; (4) conditions in the TFT-LCD and OLED panel market; (5) changes in the economic performance or market valuations of other display semiconductor companies; (6) announcements by us or our competitors of new products, acquisitions, strategic partnerships, joint ventures or capital commitments; (7) the addition or departure of key personnel; (8) fluctuations in exchange rates between the U.S. dollar and the NT dollar; (9) litigation related to our intellectual property; and (10) the release of lock-up or other transfer restrictions on our outstanding ADSs or sales of additional ADSs.

In addition, as a result of the worldwide financial crisis, business and manufacture disruptions caused by Covid-19 mandates and global developments relating to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, global stock markets have experienced extreme price and volume fluctuations. This volatility has had a significant effect on the market prices of securities issued by many companies for reasons which may not be directly related to their operating performance, including but not limited to events such as tax-loss selling, mutual fund redemptions, hedge fund redemptions and margin calls. These market fluctuations may also materially and adversely affect the market price of our ADSs.

Future sales or perceived sales of securities by us, our executive officers, directors or major shareholders may hurt the price of our ADSs.

The market price of our ADSs could decline as a result of sales of ADSs or shares or the perception that these sales could occur. As of March 31, 2023, we had 348,833,050 outstanding shares and a significant number of our shares were beneficially owned by certain major shareholders such as our directors and executive officers. See “Item 7.A. Major Shareholders and Related Party Transactions—Major Shareholders.” If we, our executive officers, or directors or our shareholders sell ADSs or shares, the market price for our shares or ADSs could decline.

You may not have the same voting rights as the holders of our ordinary shares and may not receive voting materials sufficiently in advance to be able to exercise your right to vote.

Except as described in the deposit agreement, holders of our ADSs will not be able to exercise voting rights attaching to the shares evidenced by our ADSs on an individual basis. Holders of our ADSs will appoint the depositary or its nominee as their representative to exercise the voting rights attaching to the shares represented by the ADSs. In certain circumstances, the depositary shall refrain from voting and any voting instructions received from ADS holders shall lapse. Furthermore, in certain other circumstances, the depositary will give us a discretionary proxy to vote shares evidenced by ADSs. You may not receive voting materials sufficiently in advance to instruct the depositary to vote or persons who hold their ADSs through brokers, dealers or other third parties will not have the opportunity to exercise a right to vote.

You may not be able to participate in rights offerings and may experience dilution of your holdings as a result.

We may from time to time distribute rights to our shareholders, including rights to acquire our securities. Under the deposit agreement for the ADSs, the depositary will not offer those rights to ADS holders unless both the rights and the underlying securities to be distributed to ADS holders are either registered under the Securities Act, or exempt from registration under the Securities Act with respect to all holders of ADSs. We are under no obligation to file a registration statement with respect to any such rights or underlying securities or to endeavor to cause such a registration statement to be declared effective. In addition, we may not be able to take advantage of any exemptions from registration under the Securities Act. Accordingly, holders of our ADSs may be unable to participate in our rights offerings and may experience dilution in their holdings as a result.

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You may be subject to limitations on transfer of your ADSs.

Your ADSs represented by the ADRs are transferable on the books of the depositary. However, the depositary may close its transfer books at any time or from time to time whenever it deems expedient in connection with the performance of its duties. In addition, the depositary may refuse to deliver, transfer or register transfers of ADSs generally when books or the books of the depositary are closed, or at any time if we or the depositary deem it necessary or advisable to do so because of any requirement of law, any government, governmental body, commission, or any securities exchange on which our ADSs or ordinary shares are listed, or under any provision of the deposit agreement or provisions of, or governing, the deposited securities or any meeting of our shareholders, or for any other reason.

Your ability to protect your rights through the United States federal courts may be limited, because we are incorporated under Cayman Islands law, conduct a substantial portion of our operations in Taiwan, and all of our directors and officers reside outside the United States.

We are incorporated in the Cayman Islands. However, a substantial portion of our operations is conducted in Taiwan through Himax Taiwan, our wholly owned subsidiary, and substantially all of our assets are located in Taiwan. All of our directors and officers reside outside the United States, and a substantial portion of the assets of those persons is located outside the United States. As a result, it may be difficult or impossible for you to bring an action against us or against these individuals in the United States in the event that you believe that your rights have been infringed under the securities laws or otherwise. Even if you are successful in bringing an action of this kind, the laws of the Cayman Islands and of Taiwan may render you unable to enforce a United States judgment against our assets or the assets of our directors and officers. There is no statutory recognition in the Cayman Islands of judgments obtained in the United States, although a final and conclusive judgment in the federal or state courts of the United States under which a sum of money is payable, other than a sum payable in respect of multiple damages, taxes, or other charges of a like nature or in respect of a fine or other penalty, may be subject to enforcement proceedings as debt in the courts of the Cayman Islands under the common law doctrine of obligation, provided that (a) such federal or state courts of the United States had proper jurisdiction over the parties subject to such judgment; (b) such federal or state courts of the United States did not contravene the rules of natural justice of the Cayman Islands; (c) such judgment was not obtained by fraud; (d) the enforcement of the judgment would not be contrary to the public policy of the Cayman Islands; (e) no new admissible evidence relevant to the action is submitted prior to the rendering of the judgment by the courts of the Cayman Islands; and (f) there is due compliance with the correct procedures under the laws of the Cayman Islands.

Therefore, our public shareholders may have more difficulty in protecting their interests through actions against our management, directors or major shareholders than shareholders of a corporation incorporated in a jurisdiction in the United States.

You may face difficulties in protecting your interests as a shareholder because judicial precedents regarding shareholders’ rights are more limited under Cayman Islands law than under U.S. law, and because Cayman Islands law generally provides less protection to shareholders than U.S. law.

Our corporate affairs are governed by memorandum and articles of association, the Companies Law, Cap. 22 (Law 3 of 1961, as consolidated and revised) of the Cayman Islands, or the Cayman Islands Companies Law, and the common law of the Cayman Islands. The rights of shareholders to take action against directors, actions by minority shareholders and the fiduciary responsibilities of our directors to us under Cayman Islands law are to a large extent governed by the common law of the Cayman Islands. The common law is derived in part from comparatively limited judicial precedent in the Cayman Islands as well as from English common law, which has persuasive, but not binding, authority on a court in the Cayman Islands. The rights of shareholders and the fiduciary responsibilities of directors under Cayman Islands law are not as clearly established as they would be under statutes or judicial precedent in some jurisdictions in the United States. In particular, the Cayman Islands have a less developed body of securities law than the United States.

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ITEM 4. INFORMATION ON THE COMPANY

4.A. History and Development of the Company

Himax Taiwan, our predecessor, was incorporated on June 12, 2001 as a limited liability company under the laws of the ROC. On April 26, 2005, we established Himax Technologies Limited, an exempted company with limited liability under the Cayman Islands Companies Law, as a holding company to hold the shares of Himax Taiwan in connection with our reorganization and share exchange. On October 14, 2005, Himax Taiwan became our wholly owned subsidiary through a share exchange consummated pursuant to the ROC Business Mergers and Acquisitions Law through which we acquired all of the issued and outstanding shares of Himax Taiwan, and we issued ordinary shares to the shareholders of Himax Taiwan. Shareholders of Himax Taiwan received one of our ordinary shares in exchange for one Himax Taiwan common share. The share exchange was unanimously approved by shareholders of Himax Taiwan on June 10, 2005 with no dissenting shareholders and by the ROC Investment Commission on August 30, 2005 for our inbound investment in Taiwan, and on September 7, 2005 for our outbound investment outside of Taiwan. We effected this reorganization and share exchange to comply with ROC laws, which prohibit a Taiwan incorporated company not otherwise publicly listed in Taiwan from listing its shares on an overseas stock exchange. Our reorganization enables us to maintain our operations through our Taiwan subsidiary, Himax Taiwan, while allowing us to list our shares overseas through our holding company structure.

On September 26, 2005, we changed our name to “Himax Technologies, Inc.,” and on October 17, 2005, Himax Taiwan changed its name to “Himax Technologies Limited” upon the approval of shareholders of both companies and amendments to the respective constitutive documents. We effected the name exchange in order to maintain continuity of operations and marketing under the trade name “Himax Technologies, Inc.,” which had been previously used by Himax Taiwan.

Our ADSs have been listed on the NASDAQ Global Select Market since March 31, 2006. Our ordinary shares are not listed or publicly traded on any trading markets.

In February 2007, we completed the acquisition of Wisepal, currently known as Himax Semiconductor, Inc., a fabless semiconductor company focusing on the development of LTPS TFT-LCD drivers for small and medium-sized applications. This transaction strengthened our competitive position in the small and medium-sized product areas and further diversified our technology and product offerings. For management purpose, Himax Semiconductor Inc. was merged into Himax Taiwan on July 2, 2018.

In March 2007, we established Himax Imaging, Inc., or Himax Imaging, which develops and markets CMOS image sensors with an initial focus on camera applications used in cell phones and notebook computers.

In July 2012, our subsidiary, Himax Display, completed the acquisition of Spatial Photonics, currently known as Himax Display (USA) Inc., a Delaware corporation engaged in the business of manufacturing and production of MEMS products.

In June 2018, we completed the acquisition of Emza Visual Sense Ltd., or Emza, which is dedicated to the development of visual sensors that include proprietary machine-vision algorithms and specific architectures that enable always-on visual sensing capabilities, achieving improvement in power consumption, price and form factor. On October 25, 2022, we disposed of 100% of our shareholdings in Emza to a third party.

From time to time, we have also made minority investments in various companies for strategic purposes in the ordinary course of business.

Our principal executive offices are located at No. 26, Zih Lian Road, Sinshih District, Tainan City 74148, Taiwan, Republic of China. Our telephone number at this address is +886-6-505-0880. Our registered office in the Cayman Islands is located at Cricket Square, Hutchins Drive, P.O. Box 2681, Grand Cayman KY1-1111, Cayman Islands. Our telephone number at this address is +1-345-945-3901. In addition, we have offices in Hsinchu and Taipei, Taiwan; Foshan, Fuqing, Ningbo, Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Suzhou, Wuhan, Hefei, Chengdu, Fuzhou, Nanjing, Chongqing, 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, USA.

Investor inquiries should be directed to our Investor Relations department by email to hx_ir@himax.com.tw. The SEC maintains an Internet site that contains reports, proxy and information statements, and other information regarding issuers that file electronically with the SEC. The address of the SEC’s Internet site is http://www.sec.gov. Our website is www.himax.com.tw. The information contained on our website is not part of this annual report.

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4.B. Business Overview

We are a fabless semiconductor solution provider dedicated to display imaging processing technologies. We are 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, we design and provide controllers for touch sensor displays, in-cell Touch and Display Driver Integration (TDDI) single-chip solutions, AMOLED ICs, LED driver ICs, power management ICs and LCoS micro-displays for augmented reality (AR) devices and heads-up displays (HUD) for automotive. We also offer 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, our customers are panel manufacturers, agents or distributors, module manufacturers, assembly houses or end customers. We also work with camera module manufacturers, optical engine manufacturers, television / AIoT system manufacturers and certain AIoT system integration companies for various non-driver products.

Industry Background

We mainly operate in the flat panel display semiconductor industry. As the majority of our revenues derive from products that are critical components of flat panel displays, such as display drivers, timing controllers, power ICs and other semiconductor products, our industry is closely linked to the trends and developments of the flat panel display industry.

Flat Panel Display Semiconductors

Flat panel displays require different semiconductors depending upon the display technologies and the applications. Some of the most important ones include the following:

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Characteristics of the Display Driver Market

Although we operate in several distinct segments of the flat panel display semiconductor industry, our principal products are display drivers. Display drivers are critical components of flat panel displays. The display driver market has specific characteristics, including those discussed below.

Concentration of Panel Manufacturers

The global TFT-LCD panel industry consists of a small number of manufacturers, substantially all of which are based in Asia. In recent years, Korean TFT-LCD panel makers have gradually undergone restructurings to shift their technology and manufacture focus from TFT-LCD to OLED and TFT-LCD panel manufacturers, especially China-based manufacturers which have invested or are planning to invest heavily to establish, construct and ramp up additional fab capacity. The capital-intensive nature of the industry often results in TFT-LCD panel manufacturers operating at a high level of capacity utilization in order to reduce unit costs. This tends to create a temporary oversupply of panels, which reduces the average selling price of panels and puts pricing pressure on component companies including display driver companies. Moreover, the concentration of panel manufacturers permits major panel manufacturers to exert pricing pressure on display driver companies such as us. The small number of panel manufacturers exacerbates this situation as display driver companies, in addition to seeking to expand their customer base, must also focus on winning a larger percentage of such customers’ display driver requirements.

Customization Requirements

Each panel display has a unique pixel design to meet its particular requirements. To optimize the panel’s performance, display drivers have to be customized for each panel design. The most common customization requirement is for the display driver company to optimize the gamma curve of each display driver for each panel design. Display driver companies must work closely with their customers to develop semiconductors that meet their customers’ specific needs in order to optimize the performance of their products.

Mixed-Signal Design and High-Voltage CMOS Process Technology

Display drivers have specific design and manufacturing requirements that are not standard in the semiconductor industry. Some display drivers require mixed-signal design since they combine both analog and digital devices on a single semiconductor to process both analog signals and digital data. Manufacturing display drivers require high-voltage CMOS process technology operating typically at 4.5 to 24 volts for source drivers and 10 to 50 volts for gate drivers, levels of voltage which are not standard in the semiconductor industry. For display drivers, the driving voltage must be maintained under a very high degree of uniformity, which can be difficult to achieve using standard CMOS process technology. Moreover, manufacturing display drivers does not require very small-geometry semiconductor processes. Typically, the manufacturing process for large panel display drivers require geometries between 0.11 micron and 1 micron because the physical dimensions of a high-voltage device do not allow for the economical reduction in geometries below this range. We believe that there are a limited number of fabs with high-voltage CMOS process technology that are capable of high-volume manufacturing of display drivers.

Special Assembly and Testing Requirements

Manufacturing display drivers requires certain assembly and testing technologies and equipment that are not standard for other semiconductors and are offered by a limited number of providers. The assembly of display drivers typically uses either tape-automated bonding, also known as TAB, or chip-on-glass, also known as COG, technologies. Display drivers also require gold bumping, which is a process in which gold bumps are plated onto each wafer to connect the die and the processed tape, in the case of TAB packages, and the glass, in the case of COG packages. TAB may utilize tape carrier packages, also known as TCP, or chip on film, also known as COF. The type of assembly used depends on the panel manufacturer’s design, which is influenced by panel size and application and is typically determined by the panel manufacturers. Display drivers for large-sized applications typically require TAB package and, to a lesser extent, COG package types, whereas display drivers for smartphone, tablet and consumer electronics products typically require COG packages. The testing of display drivers also requires special testers that can support high-channel and high-voltage output semiconductors. Such testers are not standard in the semiconductor industry.

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Supply Chain Management

The manufacturing of display drivers is complex and requires several manufacturing stages such as wafer fabrication, gold bumping, and assembly and testing, and the availability of materials such as the processed tape used in TAB packaging. We refer to these manufacturing stages and material requirements collectively as the “supply chain”. Panel manufacturers typically operate at high levels of capacity utilization and require a reliable supply of display drivers. A shortage of display drivers, or a disruption to this supply, may disrupt panel manufacturers’ operations. As a result, a company’s ability to deliver its products on a timely basis at the quality and quantity required is critical to satisfying its existing customers and winning new ones. Such supply chain management is particularly crucial to fabless display driver companies that do not have their own in-house manufacturing capacity. In the case of display drivers, supply chain management is further complicated by the high-voltage CMOS process technology and the special assembly and testing requirements that are not standard in the semiconductor industry. Access to this capacity also depends in part on display driver companies having received assurances of demand for their products since semiconductor manufacturing service providers require credible demand forecasts before allocating capacity among customers and investing to expand their capacity to support growth.

Need for Higher Level of Integration

The small form factor of smartphone, tablet, automotive and certain consumer electronics products restricts the space for components. Small and medium-sized panel applications typically require one or more source drivers, one or more gate drivers and one timing controller, which can be installed as separate semiconductors or as an integrated single-chip driver. Customers are increasingly demanding higher levels of integration in order to manufacture more compact panels, simplify the module assembly process and reduce unit costs. Display driver companies must be able to offer highly integrated chips that combine the source driver, gate driver and timing controller, as well as semiconductors such as memory, power circuit and image processors, into a single chip. Due to the size restrictions and stringent power consumption constraints of such display drivers, single-chip drivers are complex to design. For large-sized panel applications, integration is both more difficult to achieve and less important since size and weight are less of a priority. Lastly, as some of our TFT-LCD panel customers had turned to pure in-cell TDDI panel development for thinner display designs, we have developed a series of single chip touch display driver integrated circuit (TDDI) for advanced in-cell touch display panel.

Products and Solutions

We have several principal product lines:

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Display Drivers and Timing Controllers

Display Driver Characteristics

Display drivers deliver precise analog voltages and currents that activate the pixels on panels. The following is a summary of certain display driver characteristics and their relationship to panel performance.

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Large-Sized Applications

We provide source drivers, gate drivers, 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.

Our large display driver IC business achieved several milestones from 2019. For example, we successfully added 12-inch fabs into the pool of our foundry capacity for our large display driver ICs to ease the capacity shortage of 8” 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, we have high frame rate and high driving driver to meet various resolutions needs and frame rates such as UHD 240Hz, QHD 360Hz, FHD 480Hz, etc. We 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, our P2P driver and TCON ICs with 13.3" FHD can meet Intel 1W project requirements.

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

The table below sets forth the features of our products for large-sized applications:

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