Elan Microelectronics Corp (義隆) yesterday reported that its net profit grew 25 percent quarter-on-quarter and 12 percent year-on-year to NT$346 million (US$11.43 million) last quarter on the back of rising demand for driver ICs used in smartphones and notebook touchpads.
Thanks to new orders from clients — including Japan’s Sony Corp and China’s Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (阿里巴巴) — Elan shipped 4.54 million touch-screen driver ICs used in smartphones last quarter, up 50 percent from 3.02 million units in the previous quarter.
In contrast, shipments of touch-screen driver ICs used in tablets dropped 87 percent sequentially to 493,000 units last quarter, while those of touch-screen driver ICs used in notebooks declined 1 percent to 2.37 million units last quarter, the firm’s financial report showed.
Shipments of touchpad ICs for notebooks — which are the company’s major revenue source — increased 11 percent sequentially to 10.82 million units last quarter.
Supported by the 12.2 percent expansion in shipments of driver ICs for touch-screen products, net profit last year reached a record-high NT$1.46 billion, or earnings per share of NT$3.8, the report showed.
“We are set to mass produce driver ICs used in wearable devices and Chromebooks from this year,” Elan chairman Yeh I-hau (葉儀皓) told an investors’ conference.
Elan is likely to start supplying driver ICs used in smartglasses and smartwatches, and touchpad ICs for Chromebooks next quarter, Yeh said.
However, he declined to confirm if Google Inc — the developer of Google Glass — is one of its customers, saying only that top-tier PC brands, including Lenovo Group Ltd (聯想), Hewlett-Packard Co (HP), Acer Inc (宏碁) and Asustek Computer Inc (華碩), are among its major clients for touchpad ICs.
“We expect the penetration rate of touch-enabled notebooks to increase to at least 20 percent this year from 12 percent last year, but it depends on whether two-in-one detachable notebooks can create huge market demand,” Yeh said.
“Elan’s product-mix diversification plan is designed to catch changing market trends and avoid over-reliance on the touch notebook market,” he added.
After a sampling phase, Elan will start mass producing driver ICs designed for fingerprint sensors for smartphones or tablets, Yeh said, adding that the earliest possible timing for the company’s “next big project” is in the third quarter of the year.
For this quarter, Elan forecast that sales would drop between 9.18 percent and 14.52 percent sequentially to between NT$1.6 billion and NT$1.7 billion due to seasonal factors.
Gross margin is expected to improve to between 44 percent to 46 percent this quarter from 44 percent last quarter, while operating margin is estimated to stay between 15 percent and 17 percent, compared with last quarter’s 16 percent.
Elan’s capital expenditure is expected to stay at the same level as NT$1.9 billion as that of last year, the company said.
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has appointed Rose Castanares, executive vice president of TSMC Arizona, as president of the subsidiary, which is responsible for carrying out massive investments by the Taiwanese tech giant in the US state, the company said in a statement yesterday. Castanares will succeed Brian Harrison as president of the Arizona subsidiary on Oct. 1 after the incumbent president steps down from the position with a transfer to the Arizona CEO office to serve as an advisor to TSMC Arizona’s chairman, the statement said. According to TSMC, Harrison is scheduled to retire on Dec. 31. Castanares joined TSMC in
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the
FACTORY SHIFT: While Taiwan produces most of the world’s AI servers, firms are under pressure to move manufacturing amid geopolitical tensions Lenovo Group Ltd (聯想) started building artificial intelligence (AI) servers in India’s south, the latest boon for the rapidly growing country’s push to become a high-tech powerhouse. The company yesterday said it has started making the large, powerful computers in Pondicherry, southeastern India, moving beyond products such as laptops and smartphones. The Chinese company would also build out its facilities in the Bangalore region, including a research lab with a focus on AI. Lenovo’s plans mark another win for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who tries to attract more technology investment into the country. While India’s tense relationship with China has suffered setbacks