FOCI Fiber Optic Communications, Inc. (TPEX: 3363) (“FOCI”),
announced today that its Board of Directors has approved the
issuance of 5,000,000 shares of common stock in a private placement
financing with Himax Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: HIMX) (“Himax” or
“Company”) participating as a strategic investor through its
wholly-owned Taiwan subsidiary, Himax Technologies Limited. The
subscription price is set at NT$104.4 per share (approximately
US$3.2), resulting in gross proceeds of NT$522 million
(approximately US$16 million), fully subscribed by Himax. Upon
completion, Himax will hold a 5.3% equity stake in FOCI.
Headquartered in Taiwan, FOCI is a leading
global silicon photonics (“SiPh”) connector manufacturer. With
decades of experience in optical communication technology, FOCI has
embarked on research and development in silicon photonics packaging
technology in recent years and has been in close collaboration with
world-class semiconductor clients in the field of Co-Packaged
Optics (“CPO”). The collaboration with Himax features the
integration of Himax’s Wafer Level Optics (“WLO”) and FOCI's CPO
technologies into cutting-edge multi-chip modules (“MCM”),
enhancing performance across various applications such as
High-Performance Computing (“HPC”), cloud servers, Artificial
General Intelligence (“AGI”), industrial digitization, healthcare,
and academic research.
CPO is an emerging technology that encapsulates
silicon photonic chips and optical connectors together in MCM
modules. This enables multiple semiconductor chips to be
connected via high-speed optical links, replacing the traditional
metal wire transmission, thereby enhancing bandwidth, increasing
data transfer rate, reducing signal loss, decreasing latency,
lowering transmission energy consumption, and significantly
reducing the size and cost of MCM modules. ReLFAConTM, developed by
FOCI, is the most advanced CPO solution in the industry,
integrating fiber optic array connectors into silicon photonic MCM
modules, enabling direct transmission of external photonic signals
with MCM modules to achieve the ideal signal transmission.
ReLFAConTM uses materials that are resilient to high-temperature
reflow and match the expansion coefficient of semiconductor silicon
wafers. Consequently, FOCI's CPO technology not only boasts
well-established mass production capability but also delivers
outstanding product reliability. FOCI has effectively combined the
above technological advancements with automated semiconductor
packaging production for seamless preparation for mass production
of fiber optic array connectors.
Additionally, Himax’s proprietary and
industry-leading WLO technology enhances the optical
characteristics of FOCI's ReLFAConTM connectors. Leveraging years
of WLO engineering expertise, Himax has meticulously designed and
developed nano-scale precision optical systems, which have been
successfully verified and integrated into FOCI's ReLFAConTM
products. With the jointly developed precision-engineered optical
design and manufacturing technologies, the optical signals in each
fiber precisely couple with the silicon photonic integrated circuit
(“PIC”) in CPO optical components, achieving high-precision,
low-loss and high-speed transmission to meet the demand for silicon
photonic transmission in high-speed computing.
Himax has accumulated significant WLO mass
production experience in collaborations with major international
names across various application domains. Key products include AR
glasses from renowned manufacturers, facial recognition solutions
for handheld devices, and spatial computation and gesture control
systems for VR goggles. Himax’s WLO technology boasts an impressive
track record of mass production, with over 600 million units
shipped over the past decade, demonstrating outstanding production
capability. The integration of Himax’s WLO technology enhances the
performance of FOCI's CPO solution, ensuring the design and
production of high-precision optical components to meet the growing
demand for silicon photonic transmission and driving significant
advancements in the fields of HPC, AGI, and communications.
“We are thrilled to welcome Himax as the major
investor and partner in this private placement round. Our mission
is to revolutionize high-performance computing with advanced
Co-Packaged Optics,” said Dingda Hu, President of FOCI. “By
integrating Himax’s WLO technology with our ReLFAConTM connector
product, we can provide exceptional alignment and high-precision
photonic propagation. This private placement financing will further
strengthen the long-term strategic partnership between FOCI and
Himax. Both parties will continue to collaborate with customers and
ecosystem partners to accelerate the development of CPO technology,
essential for high-speed computing requiring high bandwidth and low
latency,” concluded Mr. Hu.
“Investing in FOCI not only underscores Himax’s
commitment to expanding the diverse applications of optical
products but also highlights the nearly infinite potential of our
WLO technology in advancing cutting-edge technology,” said Jordan
Wu, CEO of Himax. “FOCI already possesses world-leading optical
communication and CPO technology. By combining their specialty with
Himax’s state-of-the-art WLO optical capabilities, both parties can
strengthen their leading positions in high-speed AGI computing and
optical communication. We look forward to a long-term strategic
collaboration with FOCI, jointly embracing the explosive demand for
high-speed transmission in the future,” concluded Mr. Wu.
About FOCI Fiber Optic Communications,
Inc.FOCI Fiber Optic Communications, Inc. (“FOCI”) was
established in 1995. FOCI was founded by a core team of the
Industrial Technology Research Institute (“ITRI”) which is the most
prestigious institute in Taiwan. FOCI is recognized as a pioneer in
fiber optic interconnect, FBT (Fused Biconic Taper), and PLC
(Planar Lightwave Circuit) technology development in Taiwan. FOCI
designs, manufactures and markets a broad range of high performance
fiber optic components and integrated modules including fiber optic
coupler, PLC splitter, thin film coarse WDM, dense WDM, multi-fiber
cable assembly module, etc. that increase the bandwidth and
flexibility of today’s communication networks. In addition to fiber
to the home (FTTH) application, FOCI has developed new high-speed
optical cable products under Light peak technology to bring fiber
to the desk applications into practice. FOCI integrates the needs
of customers and suppliers, and offers the total solutions for
various new product design, such as customized optical transceiver
products, Co-packaged optics systems, etc.
FOCI’s products make it easier for its customers
to innovate, compete and continue to drive down the cost of optical
communication hardware worldwide, and to deliver optical networking
systems to the rapidly growing long-haul, metropolitan and
last-mile access segments of the communication networks.
FOCI has the resources, innovative technology
and industry expertise to meet the growing needs of customers
around the corner and around the world. In viewing Fiber to the
home (FTTH) and Cloud Computing has become a reality as well as
growing rapidly for recent years, FOCI has provided most efficient
and cost effective volume manufacturing optical modules to fit your
configuration design. All our products feature excellent optical
performance and pass strict reliability tests and have been widely
deployed in broadband networks around the world.
https://www.foci.com.tw
About Himax Technologies,
Inc.Himax Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: HIMX) is a leading
global fabless semiconductor solution provider dedicated to display
imaging processing technologies. The Company’s display driver ICs
and timing controllers have been adopted at scale across multiple
industries worldwide including TVs, PC monitors, laptops, mobile
phones, tablets, automotive, ePaper devices, industrial displays,
among others. As the global market share leader in automotive
display technology, the Company offers innovative and comprehensive
automotive IC solutions, including traditional driver ICs, advanced
in-cell Touch and Display Driver Integration (TDDI), local dimming
timing controllers (Local Dimming Tcon), Large Touch and Display
Driver Integration (LTDI) and OLED display technologies. Himax is
also a pioneer in tinyML visual-AI and optical technology related
fields. The Company’s industry-leading WiseEye™ Ultralow Power
AI Sensing technology which incorporates Himax proprietary ultralow
power AI processor, always-on CMOS image sensor, and CNN-based AI
algorithm has been widely deployed in consumer electronics and AIoT
related applications. While Himax optics technologies, such as
diffractive wafer level optics, LCoS microdisplays and 3D sensing
solutions, are critical for facilitating emerging AR/VR/metaverse
technologies. Additionally, Himax designs and provides touch
controllers, OLED ICs, LED ICs, EPD ICs, power management ICs, and
CMOS image sensors for diverse display application coverage.
Founded in 2001 and headquartered in Tainan, Taiwan, Himax
currently employs around 2,200 people from three Taiwan-based
offices in Tainan, Hsinchu and Taipei and country offices in China,
Korea, Japan, Germany, and the US. Himax has 2,772 patents granted
and 398 patents pending approval worldwide as of March 31,
2024.
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,
2023 filed with the SEC, as may be amended.
FOCI Contacts:
Grace Yu, CFO & Chief IRFOCI Fiber Optic
Communications, Inc.Tel: +886-3-577-0099Email:
ir@foci-cpo.comhttps://www.foci.com.tw
Jeffrey Wang, Vice President & Acting Chief
IRFOCI Fiber Optic Communications, Inc.Tel:
+886-3-577-0099Email: ir@foci-cpo.comhttps://www.foci.com.tw
Himax Contacts:
Eric Li, Chief IR/PR
OfficerHimax Technologies, Inc.Tel: +886-6-505-0880 Fax:
+886-2-2314-0877Email: hx_ir@himax.com.twwww.himax.com.tw
Karen Tiao, Investor
RelationsHimax Technologies, Inc.Tel: +886-2-2370-3999Fax:
+886-2-2314-0877Email: hx_ir@himax.com.twwww.himax.com.tw
Mark Schwalenberg, DirectorInvestor
Relations - US RepresentativeMZ North AmericaTel:
+1-312-261-6430Email: HIMX@mzgroup.uswww.mzgroup.us
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