NFC chipset technology specialist Innovision has signed a licensing agreement with a “major global semiconductor corporation”. The unnamed semiconductor manufacturer will use Innovision’s Gem NFC intellectual property to build NFC functionality into high volume chipsets for mobile handsets and other consumer electronics products.
The deal will see Innovision receiving a licence fee and service revenues worth in excess of US$2m in this financial year and is expected to be worth more than $6m in total over the next few years, via a combination of licensing fees and royalties.
“This contract is particularly significant as it is the first where the end customer will licence and take delivery of the IP and then customise it to their requirements utilising their own engineering teams,” says Innovision.
Earlier this week Innovision unveiled a new generation of its Gem NFC IP, a suite of designs, patents and know-how which together form a complete on-chip NFC sub-system designed to enable NFC functionality to be added at low cost to mass-market mobile phones and other devices. The company expects that 15% to 20% of all the handsets shipped in 2012 will include the company’s low-cost NFC technology.
“This is an important milestone for the company as we further proliferate adoption of our IP into very high volume markets with major global players, while at the same time minimising the need to add large engineering teams for customisation as we have been doing to date,” says chief executive David Wollen.
“The majority of the tier one semiconductor connectivity companies worldwide are now adopting or evaluating our IP for NFC,” he added. “By encouraging customers to undertake any customisation they require themselves or to take the IP with minor changes, which becomes possible as it matures, we are able to start penetrating tier two and three accounts. This should further strengthen the future royalty stream.”
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