Mainland brand mobile phones have jumped to become the main force outside of Apple and Samsung Electronics. The fingerprint identification business opportunities in the market have become a place of contending. According to estimates, there are nearly 30 global fingerprint identification suppliers, but now they are real. Independent chip makers who have made achievements are nothing more than European FPC, American SynapTIcs, Taiwan Duntai, Elan, Aegis, and mainland Siliwei, Huiding. It is expected that the global fingerprint identification mobile phone will grow in 2017. Up to 400 million, but the chip factory will have a wave of intense reshuffle!
Fingerprint identification chips have become a star-rated product in the semiconductor industry, but in fact, its technical difficulty is not high, the real threshold is in patents, capital, and the relationship with suppliers.
In the past, the field of fingerprint identification chips was monopolized by the three major suppliers, namely FPC, Authentec, and Validity. However, after Apple bought AuthenTec for US$370 million in July 2012, AuthenTec announced that it would stop shipping to third-party customers and officially become Apple. In-house's chip supplier, this decision also laid the key reason for FPC's unprecedented market share in the field of fingerprint identification.
FPC is a Swedish chip maker. Founded in 1998, the main patent is capacitive fingerprint identification technology, which specializes in the mainland mobile phone market. This product line has become the company's main force. After the biggest competitor AuthenTec was bought by Apple, FPC was in 2013~ Revenue, stock price and market capitalization during 2014 were skyrocketing.
Another well-known fingerprint identification chip maker is Validity, whose fingerprinting technology has been used on laptops. However, in 2013, Validity was sold to SynapTIcs for $250 million.
After Apple added the fingerprint identification function to the iPhone 5s, the function immediately jumped to the standard of high-end smart phones, followed by Samsung, Huawei, Oppo, LG, etc., and because there was no choice at the time, other chip factories The solutions are not yet mature, so almost all mobile phone factories use FPC solutions.
However, between the two to three years, the newly added fingerprint identification force has sprung up, mainly in Taiwan and the mainland, including MediaTek's Huiding, mainland CMOS Sensor and LCD Driver IC supplier Gegewei. Si Liwei, as well as Duntai and Elan, which were originally used as touch chips, are also involved in this battlefield. In addition, there are also Aegis fingerprinting algorithms. The chip vendors in Europe, America, Taiwan and mainland China add up to an estimated 30 fingerprints. Identify the chip supplier.
The industry also admits that the technical difficulty of fingerprint identification chips is actually not high, and it is not a high threshold in the IC industry. The real threshold is the patent, capital and supplier relationship.
In terms of patents, FPC, Authentec, Validity and other large European and American manufacturers, because of the advantages of advanced people, are not grabbing the majority of market share, or selling the company in the early stage of demand explosion, and more importantly, they are on hand. Also has a lot of patents, and there may be many patent wars in the field of fingerprint identification in the future.
In addition, at the supplier and capital level, due to the low technology of the fingerprint identification chip, in fact, for the foundry, the gross profit margin for producing the product is not high. Currently, in addition to Apple's production at the 12-inch fab, Almost all fingerprint identification chips are produced in 8-inch fabs.
The size of the fingerprint identification chip should be able to detect the fingerprint of the finger. It is conceivable that the chip area is very large. Therefore, the number of fingerprint recognition chips that can be cut by each wafer is actually very small. In other words, this is a product line that consumes a lot of wafers. For the foundry, although the gross profit margin is not high, it is very good to fill the capacity. Taking one order means taking up a few hundred or thousands of wafers. .
Therefore, if the production capacity is tight, the relationship with the foundry is very important. If it is less than the capacity, the customer and the order are useless. Moreover, the fingerprint identification chip is so productive, if If you are planning a production capacity, you will need to pay a large amount of the booking fee. This is a test for a small chip factory, and the capital turnover ability is strong enough to survive.
Excluding Apple and Samsung, the global fingerprint identification chip demand is about 200 million in 2016. It is expected to grow to 400 million in 2017. This is only the market for mid-to-high-end smartphones. In the future, low-end smartphones will also be equipped with standard fingerprints. Recognizing the ranks of functions, it is estimated that the growth of the market in the next 3 to 5 years is still strong.
According to the current situation of the chip factory, although the market share of FPC is extremely high, with the mass production of other chip factories, the future will break the FPC monopoly situation, and nearly 30 fingerprint identification chip suppliers will encounter in the future. A wave of strong shuffling wars, which are expected to survive, may be as many as five. Due to the rise of mainland brand smart phones, it will definitely be the main battlefield.
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