Himax Unveils Phase Modulation LCoS Platforms for AR HUD and WSS Applications

TAINAN, Taiwan, May 19, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Himax Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq: HIMX) (“Himax” or “Company”), a leading supplier and fabless manufacturer of display drivers and other semiconductor products, today unveils its latest liquid crystal on silicon (LCoS) technology, phase modulation LCoS, for two key application platforms, namely AR Head-Up Display (“AR HUD”) used as holographic display for automotive, and Wavelength Selective Switch (“WSS”) for Wavelength-Division Multiplexing (“WDM”) optical communications networks.

AR HUD using holographic display offers intuitive multi-focal planes viewing experience

Himax demonstrated an AR HUD platform using its phase modulation LCoS as holographic display that offers more compelling visual experience than conventional HUD solution. The AR HUD not only provides brighter and higher contrast images, but also displays multi-focal plane images concurrently along with less power consumption, lower cost and smaller form factor. For the use case with two focal planes of AR HUD in automotive, the information displayed on the dashboard is projected directly onto the windshield in the driver’s line of sight with focus at 50 cm. Another long-range plane focused around 10 meters fuses augmented reality information, such as navigation map and driving instructions, with far field real world images for the driver to see intuitively on windshield. The AR HUD also features a proprietary Computer Generated Holographic engine for real time augmented reality information fusion as well as image distortion adjustment to fit for different windshield curvatures.

WSS triggers flexible high-bandwidth data manipulation

Inside a state-of-the-art WSS system of WDM network, phase modulation LCoS disperses and switches the incident laser light into separate ports without a digital de-multiplexor. The simplification of the switching architecture could achieve a better, more flexible wavelength grid to efficiently manipulate the data routing. In addition, the phase modulation LCoS panel of Himax WSS platform provides a stable 2-pi control with no ripple noise at 1550 nm wavelength. All of these features have made Himax WSS platform offering an extremely stable switching mechanism with higher bandwidth to the optical communication industry.

“AR HUD will be one of the next key features in automotive. Himax’s phase modulation LCoS enables multi-focal holographic displays in automotive AR HUD and will disrupt the common standard of HUD today. Meanwhile, with the proliferation of 5G, our proposed WSS system, where our phase modulation LCoS is the heart of the system, is well-positioned to offer higher data bandwidth to the communication backbone,” said Mr. Jordan Wu, President and Chief Executive Officer at Himax. “We are a company who believes in innovation. Answering to the challenging requirements in automotive and communication industries, our engineers take advantage of our world-leading LCoS technology and push the technological envelop to create new and innovative solutions for our future customers.”

The design and production of Himax’s LCoS displays span well over a decade and were included in the products of some of the world’s top tech names for the mass market. Himax currently maintains an in-house LCoS production facility in Taiwan which has a proven shipping record of up to 300,000 units per month and could be scalable up to 2 million units per month at its current location.

About Himax Technologies, Inc.

Himax Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: HIMX) is a fabless semiconductor solution provider dedicated to display imaging processing technologies. Himax is a worldwide market leader in display driver ICs and timing controllers used in TVs, laptops, monitors, mobile phones, tablets, automotive, digital cameras, car navigation, virtual reality (VR) devices and many other consumer electronics devices. Additionally, Himax designs and provides controllers for touch sensor displays, in-cell Touch and Display Driver Integration (TDDI) single-chip solutions, LED driver ICs, power management ICs and LCoS micro-displays for augmented reality (AR) devices and heads-up displays (HUD) for automotive. The Company also offers CMOS image sensors, wafer level optics for AR devices, 3D sensing and ultralow power smart sensing, which are used in a wide variety of applications such as mobile phone, tablet, laptop, TV, PC camera, automobile, security, medical device, home appliance, AIoT, etc. Founded in 2001 and headquartered in Tainan, Taiwan, Himax currently employs around 2,000 people from three Taiwan-based offices in Tainan, Hsinchu and Taipei and country offices in China, Korea, Japan, Israel, and the US. Himax has 3,012 patents granted and 534 patents pending approval worldwide as of March 31, 2021. Himax has retained its position as the leading display imaging processing semiconductor solution provider to consumer electronics brands worldwide.

http://www.himax.com.tw

Forward Looking Statements

Factors that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those described in this conference call include, but are not limited to, the effect of the Covid-19 pandemic on the Company’s business; general business and economic conditions and the state of the semiconductor industry; market acceptance and competitiveness of the driver and non-driver products developed by the Company; demand for end-use applications products; reliance on a small group of principal customers; the uncertainty of continued success in technological innovations; our ability to develop and protect our intellectual property; pricing pressures including declines in average selling prices; changes in customer order patterns; changes in estimated full-year effective tax rate; shortage in supply of key components; changes in environmental laws and regulations; changes in export license regulated by Export Administration Regulations (EAR); exchange rate fluctuations; regulatory approvals for further investments in our subsidiaries; our ability to collect accounts receivable and manage inventory and other risks described from time to time in the Company's SEC filings, including those risks identified in the section entitled "Risk Factors" in its Form 20-F for the year ended December 31, 2020 filed with the SEC, as may be amended.

Company Contacts:

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

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

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