O2Micro International Limited focuses on designing, developing, and marketing high performance integrated circuits and solutions for manufacturers of products in the consumer electronics, computer, industrial, and automotive markets.
The company has targeted, and is designing products for, applications, such as LCD and LED displays (including monitors and televisions), notebook computers, tablet computers, low/zero emission vehicles, mobile phones, power tools, energy efficient technology relat...
O2Micro International Limited focuses on designing, developing, and marketing high performance integrated circuits and solutions for manufacturers of products in the consumer electronics, computer, industrial, and automotive markets.
The company has targeted, and is designing products for, applications, such as LCD and LED displays (including monitors and televisions), notebook computers, tablet computers, low/zero emission vehicles, mobile phones, power tools, energy efficient technology relating to sophisticated batteries, LED lighting (including general lighting), and portable electronics devices. Some of the features of the company’s integrated circuit products include managing and providing power for LCD and LED lighting; controlling and monitoring battery charging and discharging in portable electronic devices and vehicles; performing DC/DC and AC/DC conversion; and providing select and switch functionality between power sources.
The company’s integrated circuit products use analog and mixed-signal designs that combine analog and digital circuits on a single chip, reducing the number of components needed for function performance, thereby allowing its customers to reduce the size, weight, power requirements and/or cost of their products. The company offers a wide range of proprietary application specific standard products, as well as customized products. The company works with its customers to identify their product needs and establish engineering priorities for new product designs and development.
The company sells its products to OEMs, ODMs and module makers. Its integrated circuits have been incorporated into products sold by Acer, Bissell, Bosch, Dell, Dyson, Electrolux, Foxconn, Hewlett-Packard, Husqvarna, Lenovo, LG, Makita, NEC, Panasonic, Quanta, Samsung, Sharp, Skyworth, Sony, TCL, TPV, TTI and Toshiba, among others. The company sells its products through its direct sales force, independent sales representatives and/or distributors in Asia, Europe and North America. The company also has design centers in many of its key markets to provide design and engineering support to its customers. The company outsources the fabrication of its products to standard high volume semiconductor foundries.
Products
The company markets power management components and solutions for the computer, consumer, industrial, and automotive markets. Its power management products include ICs to provide power for LCD and LED lighting, control and monitoring of battery charging and discharging, and DC/DC and AC/DC conversion; and provide select and switch functionality between power sources. In particular, its core technologies in the Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) chips are the company’s exclusive, proprietary technology, which allows the company to deliver enhanced performance and service to its customers. The majority of its products are sold into the following four end-markets:
Consumer electronics market, including LCD and LED displays (including monitors and televisions), portable media players, digital cameras, GPS/PND solutions for directional assistance, PDAs, games, and general lighting products (including LED light bulbs).
Computer market, including desktop computers, tablet computers, notebooks, netbooks, and mobile communication applications, including smart phones.
Industrial market and automotive, including any product that is specified to operate over an extended temperature range, i.e., beyond the standard commercial operating temperature range of standard semiconductor products (zero degrees to 70 degrees centigrade). These products include battery management systems for power tools, electric bikes, vacuum cleaners, LEV applications, LCD and LED monitors, notebooks, netbooks, industrial PCs, and general lighting products, as well as GPS units for navigational assistance in vehicles, Electric and Hybrid Vehicle (EV/HEV) battery management, and in-vehicle passenger entertainment and communication systems.
The majority of the company’s revenue is derived from the sale of its products in the consumer, industrial, and computer markets. Additionally, the company has increased its efforts to expand its product portfolio addressing opportunities in the automotive markets.
Marketing, Sales, and Customer Support
The company primarily sells proprietary application specific products to its customers and works with them on new product development. The company also designs customized products for its customers. The company works directly with its customers to create demand for its products by providing them with application specific product information for their system design, engineering and procurement groups. The company actively participates in their design processes to introduce them to its products and the target applications its products address.
The company sells its products to OEMs, ODMs and module makers. The company markets and sells these products through a combination of its direct sales force, independent sales representatives and distributors. The company maintains direct sales offices in most of its major markets, which include China, Taiwan, Korea, and Japan.
For the company’s other customers, sales are made through the company’s direct sales offices in Japan, Taiwan, Korea, and China. The company maintains customer support staff in China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and the United States for post order servicing and applications support.
Seasonality
The consumer electronics and computer markets are characterized by seasonal volume increases primarily driven by increased consumer spending during the holiday season. The company normally experiences the higher sales volume to its customers in these markets, when such customers increase their inventories in anticipation of increased seasonal demand. The company’s customers in the industrial markets are to a lesser extent subject to seasonal consumer demand. As a result, the company’s sales volume to those customers has been largely consistent from quarter-to-quarter (year ended December 2021).
Customers
The company focuses on the major OEMs (or brand owners) in the consumer electronics, computer and industrial markets. Many of these major OEMs use third-party providers, such as ODMs, module makers or other intermediaries, to produce their products or portions of their products containing its components. Hence, the majority of its direct sales are to these third-party providers.
Manufacturing
The company subcontracts the manufacture of its products and most of the testing for its products to semiconductor foundries, assembly and testing service providers.
Wafer Manufacturing: The company’s major semiconductor foundry providers are Vanguard International Semiconductor Corporation; CSMC Manufacturing Co., Ltd.; and TowerJazz Panasonic Semiconductor Co., Ltd.
Intellectual Property
As of December 31, 2021, the company had approximately 564 patents issued in the United States and approximately 1,316 patents issued in other countries. In addition, the company has approximately 18 patent applications pending in the United States Patent and Trademark Office, and approximately 61 patent applications pending in various countries other than the United States, which may or may not be issued as of December 31, 2021.
To protect the company’s proprietary rights, it also relies on a combination of copyrights, trademarks, trade secret laws, contractual provisions, licenses and mask work protection under the Federal Semiconductor Chip Protection Act of 1984, and similar laws in other jurisdictions.
Research and Development
The company’s research and development expenses were $19.4 million for the year ended December 31, 2021.
History
O2Micro International Limited was founded in 1995. The company was incorporated in the Cayman Islands in 1995.
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