Yield Microelectronics Corp (億而得) yesterday said it would debut on the Taipei Exchange (TPEX) next month at the earliest, as it aims to raise funds for expansion plans.
The Hsinchu-based silicon intellectual property developer focuses on developing multi-time programmable embedded non-volatile memory (eNVM) chips used in microcontroller units (MCUs), driver ICs and power management chips.
The company has received regulatory approval to issue 2.62 million new shares at a tentative price of NT$65 each.
Photo: Vanessa Cho, Taipei Times
Yield Microelectronics generates revenue primarily by collecting license fees from its customers, which are mostly foundry service providers such as GlobalFoundries Inc, Vanguard International Semiconductor Corp (世界先進) and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電).
License income made up about 75 percent of its revenue last year.
The company, which holds a 2.5 percent share of the global eNVM market, expects revenue this year to expand by at least 22 percent to the peak level of NT$229 million (US$7.02 million) it recorded in 2022, due to a recovery in the wafer foundry segment.
“It looks like the fourth quarter of last year was the trough for this downcycle, as most foundry companies reported a slight increase or flat revenue in the first quarter,” Yield Microelectronics chairman Daniel Huang (黃文謙) told reporters at a media briefing in Taipei.
That bodes well, as foundry companies are likely to sign more license agreements with the company, Huang said.
By product segment, the company expects low-end MCUs and driver ICs to be this year’s major growth drivers, given that customers are expected to report increased wafer production this year, Huang said.
Chinese foundry companies are Yield Microelectronics’ major customers in terms of MCU business.
Last year, eNVM silicon intellectual property contributed the most, or 34 percent, to the company’s overall revenue.
High-end power management ICs made up 25 percent of revenue, while low-end power-managed ICs accounted for 14 percent and 12 percent came from display driver ICs.
Compared with local eNVM intellectual property developer eMemory Technology Inc (力旺), Huang said his company focuses on developing intellectual property for reprogrammable memory, rather than one-time programmable (OTP) memory as eMemory has been doing.
In an attempt to grow its revenue, Yield Microelectronics is shifting some of its resources to develop intellectual property for OTP memory, Huang said.
The company aims to expand OTP memory’s contribution to revenue to 40 percent within four years, compared with less than 10 percent now, he said.
The firm’s net profit last year plummeted about 56 percent to NT$32.02 million from NT$72.96 million in 2022, while earnings per share dropped to NT$1.19 from NT$2.72, company data showed.
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