Touch IC Development Trends in 2013

As smartphone screens continue to expand and operations become more complex, SoCs will continue to be a challenge for touch IC companies in the smart phone field.

Smartphones are almost touchless. In the case that the touch experience has become a necessary requirement for smart phones, touch control ICs have become one of the essential components of touch screen control. At the same time, smart phone sales have also greatly stimulated the market for touch ICs. Demand. However, due to the low cost of smart phones and the promotion of SoC in IC products, touch ICs will inevitably develop in both directions in 2013.

Growth rate can still maintain double digits

Touch IC shipments reached 1.7 billion units in 2012, a 30% increase; the market will continue to maintain double-digit growth for the next two years; the 2015 growth rate will decline slightly, but shipments will reach 2.4 billion units. .

Touch screens have been used in portable electronic products for many years because smartphones and tablet PCs are sold, and the popularity of touch screens is not unexpected. However, there are still some new bright spots in the market in 2013, such as the further growth of the touch screen and touch IC market brought about by the rise of low-priced smartphones.

According to IHS iSuppli's report, the touch screen in smartphones and tablets has grown dramatically, forming a comprehensive demand for supporting large-, medium- and small-sized touch ICs. In 2012, shipments will reach 1.7 billion units, an increase of 30%; the next two years, the market will continue to maintain double-digit growth; 2015 growth rate will decline slightly, but shipments will reach 2.4 billion .

However, IHS iSuppli also pointed out that touch ICs will face declines in average selling prices, the number of touch ICs used in each panel in medium-sized applications will decrease, and the market pressure caused by integrated solutions provided by IC vendors in Asia will increase. Although shipments of discrete touch ICs will continue to grow in 2012 and in the coming years, it is expected that the company’s operating revenue growth will be relatively limited. In 2012, the touch IC’s operating revenue was approximately US$1.5 billion, an increase of 15% from the US$1.3 billion in 2011, indicating that the sales growth rate is lower than the growth rate of shipments, and this trend will also be faced in 2013. .

Low-cost solutions are related to profit growth

Smartphones extend to low-end and mid-range markets. Domestic touch IC companies are mainly oriented to the needs of the local market. They should pay more attention to cost-sensitive applications and introduce low-cost solutions.

In 2013, smart phones are rapidly expanding into low-end and mid-to-low-end markets. There will be more and more low-priced smart phones under 1,000 yuan. Not only has processor companies started to launch a large number of application processors for low-end and mid-range markets, touch IC manufacturers have also had to cope with the trend of low prices and further exacerbated the challenge of increasing the profitability of touch IC companies.

For touch IC manufacturers, cost control will be the biggest challenge for some time to come. Binay Bajaj, director of marketing for Atmel’s touch business, said that there are many new manufacturers and solutions on the market to deal with this cost issue, and Atmel is working with some touch screen suppliers with medium-to-large size touch screen production capacity to solve this problem. problem. As for domestic IC design companies, they are mainly guided by the needs of the local market, and they should pay attention to cost-sensitive applications and introduce low-cost solutions.

Keep optimistic about OGS program

On-Cell is developed by Samsung, and In-Cell is developed by Apple. Only the OGS panel's market opportunity can be divided among many independent small and medium touch IC manufacturers in China.

With the touch IC companies facing a trend of low prices, the OGS solution is expected to become a new bright spot in the market in 2013. In recent years, the development of touch panels has entered the fast lane. From the perspective of touch technology and structure, both On-Cell and In-Cell panels favored by Samsung and Apple are favored by the market. They are light, thin, and have good optical effects. The OGS structure projected capacitive touch panel with more cost advantage and production efficiency has also been rapidly developed. Recently, it was reported that although the iPhone 5 partially used the Incell technology touch screen, the yield rate of the iPhone 5 was impaired. In the next version of the iPhone 5 S, the OGS screen may be used instead. This has made the OGS screen a hot spot in the market.

To this end, Lin Ting, an analyst at Tuoba Industry Research Institute, pointed out that OGS, On-Cell, and In-Cell are the current mainstream smartphone touch panel technologies. However, On-Cell is developed for Samsung, and touch ICs will be developed internally by Samsung Group; In-Cell will be developed for Apple, and the corresponding touch ICs will also be controlled by Apple; therefore, only the market opportunities for OGS panels can be used by many in China. Independent small and medium-sized touch IC manufacturers divide up. In 2012, mobile phones equipped with OGS touch panels have been launched, and the market share of related technologies in 2013 is expected to further expand. In addition, OGS technology can be used not only for smart phones but also for laptops. Compared with the ordinary external touch panel, the performance is more suitable for cost, weight, and thickness. Therefore, for touch IC manufacturers, supporting OGS solutions will be an important research and development direction.

Will face the SoC challenge

As smartphone screens continue to expand and operations become more complex, SoCs will continue to be a challenge for touch IC companies in the smart phone field.

The integration trend will be a major challenge for future independent touch IC companies. Currently, in order to save manufacturing costs and simplify system design, tablet computer manufacturers have begun to use multi-core processors with built-in touch algorithms to reduce the use of discrete touch ICs. For example, the Tegra3 quad-core processor on the Nexus7 launched by Google recently built the DirectTouch algorithm developed by nVIDIA. In addition, there are also plans to integrate touch functions into display driver ICs. These practices will have a great impact on the development of the touch IC factory in the tablet market.

However, discrete touch ICs are still used in smartphones at this stage. Because the smart phone user's touch operation is relatively simple compared to the tablet computer, the touch IC has less usage and the price is relatively cheap, and the system factory does not need to purchase a complicated touch algorithm at a high cost. However, with the continuous expansion of smart phone screens and the increasingly complex operation, the performance requirements of users for touch ICs will continue to increase, and prices will increase accordingly. SoCs will continue to be a challenge that touch IC companies have to face in the field of smart phones.

In summary, the integration of touch ICs is a big development trend. This will not affect the entire touch IC industry. After all, the touch function still exists. It is only from discrete to integrated. , was done on the chip, the corresponding profits and shipments are still in the hands of IC manufacturers. However, as far as a single IC design company is concerned, it is likely to face the risk of technological upgrading and business integration. Therefore, it will be necessary to upgrade the technology in a timely manner and enrich its own product line.