Tech Convergence Will Spur Demand for New ADAS Technology

Foxconn-Owned Socle Tech Corp. Publishes Sharp Presentation Including MVIS

This Sharp Laser Diodes Product Introduction presentation dated October 2018 posted by the Foxconn-owned Socle Technology Corp is apparently a companion document to the Sharp Laser Diode Family sales flyer posted on September 30.

Of note, this document explicitly includes the MVIS Projector module as the enabler for the key high-volume applications, on a slide called "Sharp's activities". The "Pico Projector" slide shows a Microvision SHOWWX laser projector, as well as Robohon, the robot by Sharp with an MVIS projector in its forehead.

The document also includes an interesting Lineup and Application chart that shows which wavelength laser diode at what power level goes to which market application.

Of keen interest here is the "Ultra small module" on the eyewear slide (#31). It's also an interesting happenstance that WPG Holdings is listed as an authorized distributor, the No.1 Global Semiconductor Distributor and the largest electronics distributor in Asia, previously announced as an MVIS distributor.

Here's what CFO Steve Holt said on September 6 about MVIS Display-Only licensee:

Excerpted Steve Holt commentary:

In the display only products, in May of this year we licensed our display only technology to a company. Can’t give you the name, but it’s a major company that you would know. We licensed them the ability to make and sell our display only modules, for a five-year exclusive license. It’s a $10 million license fee that they paid, $5 million they paid back in June and another $5 million is due in October. We do expect to have some NRE related to that, non-recurring engineering work, where they want us to do various things for them. And we expect that that to be $3-4 million of work. They will purchase components from us that they will then incorporate into their display only modules. And there’s a minimum requirement for them to maintain their exclusivity...roughly $20 million of business to us [per year] in terms of selling them components if they maintain their minimum. 

And you know some folks ask why this licensee? Part of it is that they share our go to market strategy of targeting tier 1 customers. We’re targeting tier 1 customers, customers that can move significant volume. And so, the licensee shares that philosophy of who to go after for customers. They have some of the right attributes as to be successful in this space. And one of them is the ability to produce at high levels and to bring costs down. And this company is a significant company with significant revenue and manufacturing expertise and the ability to bring the cost of these display only modules to the right space. And they have also the technical capabilities that are needed to be successful. And also they have experience with dealing with tier 1 folks as well.

And then the other advantage here is that as they buy components from us for their customer that helps us reduce the cost of the products that we’re selling because our products and their products use many of the same components, same MEMS, asics and things like that. So we get some economies of scale from their volume going through the product.

H/T Geo_Rule, here is the MVIS Reddit thread.







Original Laser Diode Family Sales Flyer


Comments