About Synaptics

Synaptics Incorporated operates as a worldwide developer and fabless supplier of premium mixed signal semiconductor solutions that enable people to engage with connected devices and data, engineering exceptional experiences throughout the home, at work, in the car and on the go. The company supplies connectivity, sensors, and AI-enhanced processor solutions to original equipment manufacturers, or OEMs, that design Internet of Things (IoT) products and devices for automobiles, virtual reality, smartphones, tablets, and notebook computers. The company’s served markets include Internet of Things, or IoT, personal computer, or PC, and Mobile. The company’s solutions either contain or consist of its wireless, voice and speech, video, fingerprint, authentication, display driver, or touch semiconductor solutions, which include the company’s hardware, and, where applicable, firmware and software. IoT Applications Market The company’s IoT market solutions broadly consist of wireless connectivity (Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and global positioning system, or GPS) products, System-on-Chip, or SoC, products, display and touch integrated circuits for use in automobiles, and a wide range of audio and video products and solutions. The company’s products enable smart devices at the edge of a network such as smart assistant speakers, over-the-top multimedia devices, wireless speakers, voice driven intelligent devices, including those integrating far-field technology, personal voice and audio products, set-top boxes, video interface solutions for docking stations, high-speed connectivity for virtual reality devices, video surveillance, voice over IP SoCs, image processing solutions for use in printers, and fax modems. In addition, the company’s automotive solutions include over a decade of mass production experience in mature touch solutions and display drivers adapted from the company’s mobile consumer business to meet automotive-grade quality standards. Within the growing consumer IoT market, the company continues to expand its footprint in various devices by bringing converged video, vision, audio, and voice technologies coupled with artificial intelligence and wireless connectivity capabilities. The company’s deep investment in far-field voice technology, the company’s intellectual property portfolio for video, vision, audio and security, and the company’s significant experience enabling Android-based platforms for service providers, coupled with the company’s focus on enabling high performance, low power, and highly secure SoC solutions enable the company to serve its existing customers and position the company to grow within the addressable market of consumer IoT devices. PC Product Applications Market The company provides custom and semi-custom product solutions for navigation, cursor control, access to devices or applications through fingerprint authentication, and human presence detection solutions, for many of the world’s premier PC OEMs. These functions are offered as both stand-alone and integrated touch pads plus fingerprint biometric solutions and as chipsets with integrated visual sensing software algorithms. In addition to notebook applications, other PC product applications for the company’s technology include peripherals, such as high-end keyboards and accessory touchpads. The company continues to expand its available product offerings through technology development enabling the company to increase the company’s product content within each notebook unit. The company is also applying its technologies to enable adoption of fingerprint recognition solutions to broaden the company’s market opportunities. Based on the strength of the company’s technology and engineering know-how, the company is well positioned to continue to take advantage of opportunities in the PC product applications market. Mobile Product Applications Markets The company’s intellectual property portfolio, engineering know-how, systems engineering experience, technological expertise, and experience in providing human experience product solutions to major OEMs position the company to be a key technological enabler for multiple consumer electronic devices targeted to meet the mobile product applications markets. Mobile product applications include smartphones, tablets, large touchscreen applications, as well as a variety of mobile, handheld, and entertainment devices. The company’s existing technologies, its range of product solutions, and its emphasis on ease of use, advanced functionality, small size, low power consumption, durability, and reliability enable the company to serve the markets for mobile product applications and other electronic devices. Acquisitions In February 2023, the company completed the acquisition of certain GPS developed technology intangible assets from Broadcom. These assets expand and enhance the company’s wireless connectivity technology product offerings to the company’s customer base. In October 2022, the company completed the acquisition of Emza Visual Sense, Ltd., or Emza, a developer of ultra-low-power artificial intelligence visual sensing solutions. Emza's technology extends the company’s position in Edge AI and allows the company to serve the personal computing market with a solution for human presence detection, or HPD. Strategy The key aspects of the company’s strategy are to extend the company’s technological leadership; focus on and grow in the IoT market; pursue strategic relationships and acquisitions; and plan to selectively partner with foundries and backend processors to solidify the company’s longstanding key supply chain relationships. Products The company’s family of product solutions allows its customers to solve their interface needs and differentiate their products from those of their competitors. Voice Over IP The company’s Digital Voice Family, or DVF, of SoC products is a comprehensive solution for developing affordable, scalable and power efficient VoIP, home and office products. DVF facilitates rapid introduction of embedded features into residential devices such as cordless IP and instant messaging phones. DVF enables development of low-power enterprise IP, analog terminal adapters, or ATAs, and home VoIP phones that offer superb acoustic echo cancellation, high-quality HD voice, multi-line capabilities, and an enhanced user interface. Built on an open platform with multi-ARM processors running on Linux OS, DVF includes IPfonePro, an extensive software development kit for IP phones and ATAs. DECT Cordless The company’s Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications, or DECT, SoC solutions provide integrated digital solutions and include all relevant digital baseband, analog interface and RF functionality. Enhanced with the company’s hardware and software technologies, these chipsets are highly versatile and enable the development of an array of cordless telephony solutions that allow for faster time to market than alternative custom silicon and software offerings. This portfolio supports cordless phones, cordless headsets, remote controls, home DECT-enabled gateways, fixed-mobile convergence solutions and home automation devices. Ultra-Low Power Edge AI The company’s ultra-low power edge AI platform includes a highly integrated edge AI SOC designed for battery powered wireless devices equipped with audio or camera capabilities for consumer and industrial IoT applications. These solutions are designed for a wide range of power constrained IoT applications used in office buildings, retail, factories, warehouses, robotics, and smart homes and cities. Wireless Connectivity The company’s wireless connectivity solutions include state-of-the-art Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, GNSS, and ULE to address broad IoT market applications including home automation, multimedia streamers, security sensors, surveillance cameras, wireless speakers, games, drones, printers, wearable and fitness devices, in addition to numerous other applications, which require a wireless connection. AudioSmart AudioSmart products bring forward optimum analog, mixed-signal and digital signal processor, or DSP, technologies for high-fidelity voice and audio processing. The company’s AudioSmart products include far-field voice technologies that enable accurate voice command recognition from a distance while disregarding other sounds, such as music, in order to activate smart devices, such as smart speakers. AudioSmart also includes personal voice and audio solutions for high-performance headsets that enable active noise cancellation. ConnectSmart The company’s ConnectSmart video interface IC portfolio offers a full range of high-speed video/audio/data connectivity solutions that are designed for linking CPUs/GPUs and various endpoints for applications, including PC docking stations, travel docks, dongles, protocol converters and virtual reality head mounted displays. DisplayLink The company’s DisplayLink products utilize highly efficient video encode/decode algorithms to deliver a semiconductor-based solution which transmits compressed video frames across low bandwidth connections. These solutions are used in PC docking applications, conference room video display systems, and video casting applications. VideoSmart The company’s VideoSmart series SoCs include CPUs running at up to 40K Dhrystone Million Instructions per Second, gaming-grade Graphics Processing Unit, or GPUs, voice, and neural network processing units, or NPU. These powerful solutions combine a central processing unit, or CPU, NPU, and GPU, into a single software-enriched SoC. They enable smart multimedia devices, including set-top boxes, or STB, over-the-top, or OTT, streaming devices, soundbars, surveillance cameras and smart displays. ImagingSmart The company’s ImagingSmart solutions include a product portfolio that spans four distinct product areas, including document and photo imaging controllers, digital video, fax, and modem solutions. ImagingSmart products leverage image processing IP, JPEG encoders and DSP technology to deliver a wide range of fax, modem, digital video and printer solutions for home, mobile and imaging applications. Natural ID The company’s Natural ID family of capacitive-based fingerprint ID products is designed for use in notebook PCs, PC peripherals, automobiles, and other applications. Thin form factors provide industrial design flexibility, while robust matching algorithms and anti-spoofing technology provide strong security. The company’s Natural ID family of products spans a range of form factors, colors, and materials suitable for design on the front, back or side of a device. Natural ID products are designed to be compatible with Fast IDentity Online, or FIDO, protocols, enhancing security and interoperability with a broad range of solutions. FIDO was formed to enhance online authentication by developing open, scalable technical standards to help facilitate the adoption of robust, easy to use authentication that reduces the reliance on passwords. Natural ID products increase the security of automobile and PC products while maintaining ease of use for the customer. TouchPad The company’s TouchPad family of products, which can take the place of, and exceed the functionality of a mouse, consists of a touch-sensitive pad that senses the position and movement of one or more fingers on its surface through the measurement of capacitance. The company’s TouchPad provides an accurate, comfortable, and reliable method for screen navigation, cursor movement, and gestures, and provides a platform for interactive input for both the consumer and corporate markets. The company’s TouchPad solutions allow the company’s OEMs to provide stylish, simple, user-friendly, and intuitive solutions to consumers. The company’s TouchPad solutions also offer various advanced features, including scrolling, customizable tap zones, tapping and dragging of icons, and device interaction. SecurePad The company’s SecurePad integrates its Natural ID fingerprint sensor directly into the TouchPad area, improving usability and simplifying the supply chain for notebook PC manufacturers. ClickPad The company’s ClickPad introduces a clickable mechanical design to the TouchPad solution, eliminating the need for physical buttons. The button-less design of the company’s ClickPad allows for unique, intuitive industrial design and makes an excellent alternative to conventional input and navigation devices. The company’s ClickPad is activated by pressing down on the internal tact switch to perform left-button or right-button clicks and provides tactile feedback similar to pressing a physical button. The latest version of ClickPad features ClickEQ, a mechanical solution that provides uniform click depth to maximize the surface area available for gestures and improves click performance over hinged designs. ForcePad The company’s ForcePad is a thinner version of its ClickPad, which introduces a new dimension in control through the addition of variable force sensitivity. ForcePad is designed to provide consistent performance across OEM models through its design intelligence and self-calibration features. By detecting the amount of force applied, ForcePad is engineered to enable more intuitive and precise user interactions in operating system controls and applications. Designed with thin and light notebooks in mind, ForcePad is 40% thinner than a conventional touch pad. ClearPad The company’s ClearPad family of products enables the user to interact directly with the display on electronic devices, such as mobile smartphones, tablets, and automobiles. The company’s ClearPad has distinct advantages, including low-profile form factor; high reliability, durability, and accuracy; and low power consumption. The company typically sells its ClearPad solution as a chip, together with customer-specific firmware, to sensor manufacturers, OLED manufacturers or LCD manufacturers, to integrate into their touch-enabled products. ClearView The company’s ClearView display driver products offer advanced image processing and low power technology for displays on electronic devices, including smartphones and tablets. ClearView products include adaptive image processing that works in concert with proprietary customization options to enable the development of high-performance solutions and faster time to market. The company’s display driver products offer automatic regional control of color balance that optimizes light and dark areas of an image simultaneously, and sunlight readability enhancement capabilities that optimize image quality under various lighting conditions. The company’s virtual reality bridge and virtual reality display driver integrated circuit, or DDIC, chips enable the company’s customers to move to higher resolution and faster response displays. TouchView The company’s TouchView solutions include its TDDI products that combine two functions, a touch controller, and a display driver, into a single chip that incorporates all the features of the company’s ClearView and ClearPad products. TouchView products enable thinner form factors to help customers minimize component count and add flexibility to their industrial designs. These products are used in large screen devices, including notebooks and tablets, and are also certified for automotive display applications. Other Products Other product solutions the company offers include Dual Pointing Solutions, and TouchStyk. The company’s dual pointing solutions offer TouchPad with a pointing stick in a single notebook computer, enabling users to select their interface of choice. TouchStyk is a self-contained pointing stick module that uses capacitive technology similar to that used in the company’s TouchPad. Intellectual Property Rights As of June 2023, the company held 2,583 active patents and 569 pending patent applications worldwide that expire between 2023 and 2043. Customers The company’s customers include many of the world’s largest mobile and PC OEMs, based on unit shipments, as well as many large IoT OEMs, automotive manufacturers and a variety of consumer electronics manufacturers. The company generally supplies its products to OEMs through their contract manufacturers, supply chain or distributors. The company consider both the OEMs and their contract manufacturers or supply chain partners to be the company’s customers, as well as in some cases, the company’s distributors. Sales and Marketing The company sells its product solutions for incorporation into the products of the company’s OEM customers. The company generates sales through direct sales employees, as well as outside sales representatives, distributors and value-added resellers. The company maintains customer support offices domestically and internationally, which are located in the U.S., Taiwan, China, India, Korea, Japan, the United Kingdom and Switzerland. In addition, the company utilizes value-added resellers and sales distributors that are primarily located in the U.S., China, Korea, Japan, Taiwan and Germany. International sales constituted nearly all of the company’s revenue for 2023. Approximately 63% of the company’s sales in 2023 were made to companies located in China and Taiwan that provide design and manufacturing services for major IoT, notebook computer, and mobile product applications OEMs. Competition IoT The company’s principal competition in the IoT market include Broadcom, MediaTek, NXP, AmLogic, and Ambarella, among others. The company’s competitors in the sale of audio products include Cirrus Logic, BES Technic, Realtek, and Qualcomm. The company’s principal competition includes Infineon, Qualcomm, MediaTek, NXP, and Silicon Labs, among others. The company’s automotive products include touch, display driver, SmartBridge, and TDDI solutions for major automotive OEMs. The company’s principal competitors for these products include Focaltech, Himax, Novatek Microelectronics and Microchip. The company’s IoT video interface products are sold into PC and smartphone docks and wireless adapter market applications. The company’s principal competitors in the sale of IoT interface products are Parade, Megachips, and Realtek. The company also provides fax, modem and image processors and software solutions for printers, fax machines, point of sale terminals, and medical applications. Its principal competitors in these markets are Skyworks, Marvell, and Qbit. PC and Mobile The company’s principal competition in the sale of touchscreen products includes Broadcom, Goodix, Focaltech, ST Micro and various other companies involved in human experience semiconductor product solutions. The company’s principal competitors in the sale of notebook touch pads are Cirque Corporation, Elan Microelectronics and Goodix. The company’s principal competitors in the sale of display driver products for mobile product applications market include Novatek Microelectronics, Samsung LSI, LX Semicon and Raydium. The company’s principal competitors in the sale of display driver products for virtual reality applications market include Novatek Microelectronics and Samsung LSI. The company’s principal competitors in the sale of fingerprint authentication solutions for PC product applications markets are Egis Technology, Elan Microelectronics, and Goodix. Research and Development Expenses The company’s research and development expenses were $351.2 million for 2023. History Synaptics Incorporated was founded in 1986. The company was initially incorporated in California in 1986 and was re-incorporated in Delaware in 2002.