Tech Hardware Supply Chain - Gazhoo

Bhavin Shah
(852) 2800-8538
bhavin.a.shah@jpmorgan.com
118
Figure 66: Samsung’s F490
(Haptic)
Source: www. samsung.com.
Asia Pacific Equity Research
20 April 2009
Imagis, a fabless IC design house in Korea, provides driver ICs for the VibeTonz
system of SEC’s Haptic phone. Given the relatively low-entry barrier of driver IC
coupled with high dependence on IMMR, we expect that benefits from the emerging
Haptic trend to driver IC design companies could be limited.
We also project Haptic-enhanced handsets to drive the demand for LRA (Linear
Resonant Actuator), as LRA motors enable handsets to realize more dedicated
movement of vibrations, compared to the ERM (Eccentric Rotating Mass) actuator
type. We believe SEMCO is currently supplying LRAs for SEC’s Haptic phone.
Jahwa Electronics (033240 KS, Not Rated) also claims that it is a potential
beneficiary of the Haptic handset trends as it will likely provide LRA motors to
SEC’s Haptic-enhanced handsets.
SEC’s F490 (Haptic)
SEC has come out with a new range of touchscreen phones which include the haptic
feedback. The prominent ones are F480, F490 and Omnia. SECF490 has a 3.2-inch
260,000 color touchscreen, 5MP camera and supports HSDPA. It has Haptic
feedback, 16:9 wide screen, internet browsing.
Acoustic components
Acoustic components for the mobile handset can be categorized into built-in
components and accessories. Built-in components include miniature receiver,
microphone, polyphonic speaker and vibrator. Accessories refer to headset.
Major handset acoustic component makers include Hosiden (Japan–receiver);
Pioneer (Japan–speaker); Philips (Europe–speaker); AAC (China–
receiver/speaker/microphone); Merry (Taiwan–headset); BSE (Korea–microphone);
and Knowles (US–MEMS microphone).
Acoustic components carry the critical task of receiving and producing sounds in
mobile phones. Key trends for the technology development include:
• Noise cancellation microphone: This has been adopted by Motorola in its
ClearTalk technology, which uses 2 or 4 microphones to achieve the noisecancellation
effect.
• MEMS microphone: While more expensive, we believe MEMS microphone is
more consistent and small in size.
• Multi-functional device: Motorola first tried receiver/speaker/vibrator 3-in-1
device in MOTOFONE in late 2006, and now Nokia is adopting this strategy to
cut costs without sacrificing the acoustics performance.
Camera module
There are two key components within the phone camera module: (1) sensor; and
(2) lens, which account for ~50% and ~20% module BOM cost, respectively.
Packaging is another critical technology for making a good camera module.
Sensors
Due to cost concerns, most sensors used are complementary metal-oxide
semiconductor (CMOS). CMOS sensor has come a long way from having low
resolution a few years ago to now accommodating 8-10 mega-pixels in digital