Good afternoon, and welcome to eMemory's third quarter 2021 webcast investor conference. Present today, we have our chairman, Dr. Charles Hsu, President, Mr. Michael Ho, Head of IR, Ms. Lijing Chen, and Director of the Finance Department, Ms. Teresa Kuo. The format of today's event will be as follows. First, eMemory's chairman, Dr. Charles Hsu, will give an opening remark. Afterwards, President Mr. Michael Ho will summarize our operations in the third quarter of 2021, followed by the outlook of our business. Next, Dr. Charles Hsu will introduce the topic titled Confidential Computing Architecture. Then we will go into the Q&A session, where our management team will be ready to answer your questions. Please feel free to submit your questions in the input box on the webcast window throughout the conference.
As a reminder, this conference is being recorded and a webcast replay will be available within three hours after the conference is finished. Please visit the company's website at www.ememory.com.tw under the Investor Relations section. As usual, before we begin, we would like to remind everyone that today's presentation may contain forward-looking statements that are subject to risk factors associated with the semiconductor and IP business. Please refer to the cautionary statement as shown on page three of today's presentation. Now I would like to give the floor over to eMemory's chairman, Dr. Charles Hsu.
Okay, good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for attending our conference call today. This quarter, our new president, Michael Ho, has officially taken office. Michael has nearly 20 years of management experience with eMemory and holds over 30 patents in the semiconductor technology field. Before becoming the president, Michael was the Senior Vice President and overseas sales, product marketing, global business development, and customer engineering services. During his tenure as Senior Vice President, Michael successfully expanded the global business, making eMemory one of the world's top 10 silicon intellectual property providers. We are confident that his professional knowledge and expertise will continue to help drive the company's growth. As mentioned in the previous quarters, eMemory has entered a multi-year growth cycle.
We have started to receive royalties for 60 nm and 7 nm. With this production record, we expect more customers' adoptions to come and will be our next driving force after 28 nm. In addition, customers' adoption of PUF-based solutions and emerging memory will increase license then royalties, which will drive our growth beyond the next three to five years. Later, I will explain what role PUF plays in confidential computing, which is considered one of the next big trend of the decade. With this next, I would like to invite our President Michael Ho to share our third quarter performance. Michael, please.
Thank you, Charles. Good afternoon, everyone. First, I will begin with our third quarter results. The third quarter revenue was TWD 594 million, up 9.8% sequentially and up 34.7% year-over-year, or up 11.1% sequentially and up 42.8% year-over-year in U.S. dollars. The operating expense were TWD 278 million, up 7.3% sequentially and up 13.8% year-over-year, mainly attributable to the increase in salary and other related human resource expenses, such as increases in bonus and rewards. This brings us to the operating income of TWD 317 million with an increase of 12% sequentially and 60.5% year-over-year.
Therefore, the operating margin increased by 1.1 percentage points sequentially and by 8.6 percentage points year-over-year to 53.3%. Overall, our third quarter EPS was TWD 3.72 and ROE was 53.2%. For the first three quarters of 2021, the revenue was TWD 1,732 million, up 35.3% year-over-year. The operating expense increased by 14.8% and the operating margin was 54.1% with an increase of 8.2 percentage points. EPS is TWD 10.92, and ROE is 52.1%. Now, let's move on to revenue contribution by Licensing and the Royalty. Licensing in the third quarter accounted for 31.7% of the revenue, up 8.1% sequentially, and up 69.8% year-over-year.
Up 9% sequentially and up 80% year-over-year in U.S. dollars. Royalties in the third quarter contribute 68.3% of total revenue, increasing 10.6% sequentially, and increasing 22.9% year-over-year, or up 12.1% sequentially and up 30.3% year-over-year in U.S. dollars. In the first three quarters of 2021, the total revenue grew 35.3% as compared to previous year. Licensing and the Royalty have a growth of 61.0% and 26.2% respectively. In terms of U.S. dollars, the total revenue increased 43.4% year-over-year, with Licensing and Royalty both increasing 70.8% and 33.6% respectively.
In terms of revenue contribution by specific IPs, the results are as follows: NeoBit accounted for 20.7% of the total Licensing revenue in the third quarter, decreasing 22% sequentially, but increasing 56.5% year-over-year, mainly due to new applications in 8 in, such as automotive and IoT-related. Its Royalty accounted for 47.3% of total revenue Royalty, up 11.2% sequentially, but down 9.5% year-over-year as some PMIC and DDI customers migrate to 12 in and use the NeoFuse instead. Many new NeoBit tape-outs accumulated in the past years, such as legacy PMIC, automotive, and IoT-related products will drive the growth of NeoBit Royalty once it enters into mass production.
NeoFuse accounted for 49.5% of total Licensing revenue in the third quarter, down 8.7% sequentially, but up 36.2% year-over-year. Its royalties increased 10.9% sequentially and 88.7% year-over-year due to increase in production from existing and the new products, such as Wi-Fi 6/6E, OLED, DTV, DRAM, and others. This brings the Royalty of NeoFuse to 49.7% of total royalties. Our PUF-based security IPs contribute to 1.5% of total Licensing revenue and have a Royalty contribution in the third quarter. Our partnership with global customers is actively ongoing. We expect more contribution in the future.
As to MTP technology, Licensing revenue accounted for 28.3% of total Licensing revenue, increasing 164.6% sequentially and 367.6% year-over-year, mainly due to contribution from China customers. Royalty from MTP decreased 2.7% sequentially, but up 6.3% year-over-year to contribute 3% of total royalties. In the first three quarters of 2021, for NeoBit, the Licensing revenue increased 67.7% year-over-year, but Royalty decreased 5.5%, accounting for 40% of the total revenue. For NeoFuse, the Licensing and the Royalty revenue grew 26.2% and 92.5% year-over-year, contribution to 50% of the total revenue.
For PUF-based security IP, Licensing revenue increased 8% year-over-year, about 0.6% of total revenue. For MTP technology, the Licensing and the Royalty revenue increased 328.7% and 10.2% year-over-year, accounting for 9.4% of the total revenue. Now, looking at the royalties for 8 in and 12 in wafers. 8 in wafers, which accounted for 52.3% of royalties, increased 9% sequentially and 7.6% year-over-year due to applications expanding into automotive and IoT-related applications. 12 in wafers contribute to 47.7% of royalties, increased 12.3% sequentially and 47.4% year-over-year, mainly due to 22nm, 28 nm related product ramping up production.
There were 149 product tape-outs completed in the third quarter, which reflects that our IP demand remains strong. We will provide more information in the management report. In the next section, I will address our future outlook. We expect the growth of revenue to continue in the last quarter of 2021 and beyond. For the Licensing revenues, as the demand for all our technologies continues to remain strong, we expect Licensing revenue to continue growing in the fourth quarter and beyond. For the Royalty revenues, 8 in and 12 in royalties will continue their growth momentum. 8 in royalties will grow due to demand and content increase for automotive and IoT. For example, PMIC, MCU, fingerprint and sensor related applications.
12 in royalties will have a strong growth since customer productions are increasing for TDDI, OLED, ISP, DTV, set-top box, Wi-Fi 6/6E, Bluetooth, Ethernet, switch, TWS, DRAM and others. In addition, 12 nm, 16 nm and 7 nm royalties already started to contribute in the fourth quarter. Now, looking at the new business development. Our new applications are centered on the business development of hardware security. NeoFuse in advanced process is being adopted for AI, HPC and automotive applications, especially in 7 nm and 6 nm process nodes. Business activities for PUF-based security solutions are in progress in IoT, industrial IoT, AI, blockchain, FPGA, data processor unit, DPU, mobile storage, UFS and automotive applications. Our PUFrt and PUFcc have been adopted by several customers across various applications. Our collaboration with Arm will expand from IoT to CPU security architecture.
eMemory have received the TSMC OIP Partner of the Year award for the twelfth year in a row, demonstrating the trust of our partners have in us. For new IP technology development, in Q3, NeoFuse has been qualified in TSMC N6 process. This security enhanced OTP combines NeoFuse with NeoPUF to protect data, targeting mobile, consumer, AI, networking, 5G infrastructure, GPU and high performance computing. Some customers have already completed design-in and the 5 nm is ongoing reliability verification. Our ReRAM IP has been qualified in UMC 40 nm process. We are one of the world's first companies to provide this emerging memory and offer more comprehensive solutions for automotive, edge computing, AI and AIoT markets. We will expand ReRAM technology to more leading process nodes and specialty process such as BCD and high voltage.
PUF-based solutions are under development for implementation in Wi-Fi 6/ 6E for AIoT edge devices and AI image processors. Now, I will pass the time to Dr. Charles Hsu, please. Thank you.
Okay, since there are many articles talking about the confidential computing, I would like to introduce this confidential computing architecture and also tell you why and how our PUF can be used in the confidential computing. Please turn to page 15. With the rise of IoT and AI applications, a tremendous amount of data are generated. The processing of this huge amount of data requires not only high speed computing, but also secure computing such that sensitive data is safeguarded. The processing of data includes data at rest, data in transit and the data in use. For the data at rest and in transit, we can encrypt the data so that they cannot be compromised.
However, for the data in use, such as execution of a program code, and its related instruction set, the data cannot be encrypted and need to be plain data for CPU to execute. In the current computer systems, data in use are brought into virtual memory, which is shared by different applications and is therefore not protected. This has been resulted in attacks on CPU, such as the Meltdown and the Spectre attack on Intel's CPU, which was reported last year or the year before. To solve this kind of issues, confidential computing architecture is needed. In the following slide, I will introduce what is the confidential computing. Please turn to page 16.
In this page, you can see the non-confidential computing in traditional architecture is illustrated in Figure 1. The CPU and the memory, they take care of the application. Since a single CPU can only run one application at a time, so in this case, the CPU will solely use the memory. To improve the security of such structures, the CPU's security function can encrypt and manage the memory, as shown in Figure 2. Please turn to page 17. However, as CPU moves to a multi-core structures, which can tackle many applications simultaneously, the architecture will evolve to the one shown in Figure 3. The applications are divided into two sections. One is secure section, and which will be operated in a trust realm, and the other is non-secure sections.
In the trust realm, the operation of the application happens inside the so-called secure enclave, which means the data and the code are all protected by its security functions. On the other hand, for the non-secure sections, data and the code are stored in the virtual memory, which is shared by many applications. On page 18, as more applications are required to operate in the trust realm, the dedicated memory, which was supposed to be solely used by its corresponding CPU, become inefficient. To improve such case, the secure applications will also need to use the virtual memory to increase its storage capacity and also flexibility, as shown in Figure 4 on the left-hand side.
In order to secure these applications by using virtual memory, the data and the code will be tagged for the specific application such that the other applications are not able to access them. Even if it can be accessed, the data is not meaningful since they are tagged or encrypted. Our PUF is needed for such functions since it can efficiently scramble the data and the code and also descramble using the same PUF numbers. In those applications, the trust realm will still be isolated because those applications will be mainly used for the payment-related applications, which need to be much more secure.
The rest of applications which also need security, but they can use the memory tagging technology to protect their program code and the data in the virtual memories. Okay, on page 19. How can our PUF help in the confidential computing architectures? Recently, like, the new rise of DPU, which actually is used to unload the data storage and the security functions of the CPU. The DPU is targeted at helping CPU's architecture move toward confidential computing. We are working with some companies to implement our PUF into their security architectures.
By applying PUF to protect the data and the code in the virtual memory, PUF can enable the computing to become confidential computing, and can help protect all the device of the internet and the cloud. This conclude my introduction for the confidential computing.
Thank you, Charles. This concludes our prepared statement. We will now begin the Q&A session. Please submit your questions in the input box on the webcast window, and you will enter a queue. Should you wish to raise your question in Chinese, we will translate it to English before our management team answers your question. We will now collect the questions and get back to you shortly. Please stay with us. Our first question is, compared to the past, has the development process for advanced nodes from initial development to mass production accelerated or slowed down? Take, for example, the 28 nm process node.
Okay. Compared to the past, the complexity of the design, the number of masks, production process, and the functional verification for advanced manufacturing process have greatly increased. Therefore, the time from development to mass production will be much longer. However, because of our credibility from the past, once we have production record for new technology and the new process nodes, customers will speed up the adoption of our IPs. In addition, our license fee and royalties will also increase because of the wafer ASP of advanced process is much higher than that of a mature process. For example, the foundry wafer price and the license fee of 28 nm will probably be four or five times more than that in 0.18- micron, which will definitely increase our revenue. Thank you.
Our second question is, will emerging memory, MRAM and ReRAM, replace eMemory's current OTP and MTP markets?
It's a good question. For emerging memory like MRAM and ReRAM, targeted at a traditional embedded flash market. Compared to embedded flash, ReRAM and MRAM require fewer mask layers and are much easier for process integration, which can maintain the existing device model. Furthermore, they are applicable to more leading process nodes, especially after 28 nm. Our OTP can work as the security and the repair function to protect and correct the data stored in the emerging memory. Therefore, this emerging memory helps extend our technology portfolios, but not replace our existing technologies. Thank you.
The next question is, along with traditional applications in DDI, PMIC, DRAM, and multimedia, what other areas of applications can NeoFuse 12 in grow significantly? What is the target market share of 12 in in the future, excluding NeoPUF?
Okay. Besides those traditional applications, we also have NeoFuse OTP adopt in 12 in wafer process, like, ISP, CIS, TWS, Wi-Fi, network IC, SSD controller, AI SoC, ADAS, and other applications. We expect they will have obvious growth in the near future. It will also help increase our Royalty ASP and bring in more design license fees as well. Thank you.
Yes. How are the certification progress and implementation status for MRAM and ReRAM? Does eMemory own the IP? Is the business model still charging royalties?
As mentioned in our joint press release last week, our ReRAM IP was qualified on the UMC 40 nm process. We are also working on 22 nm process node for both ReRAM and MRAM technology development and the designs in ongoing projects. Fab customers license memory sales from patent owner. For example, IBM for MRAM and Panasonic for ReRAM. Based on the memory sale, we add the circuit design to become a complete IP. Our business model remains the same. We will charge the negotiated Royalty rate of MRAM, ReRAM according to wafer price after the initial license. Thank you.
Our next question is, does eMemory expect NeoFuse and NeoPUF to significantly mass produce and increase the revenue and royalties in 2023 or 2024, or will it take longer?
Thanks for the question. NeoFuse Royalty has significantly increased already. We have also started to receive some Royalty income from NeoPUF technology. With the production record, we expect more customer adoption to come and drive Royalty growth. Thank you.
Our sixth question comes from, are eMemory IPs applicable to metaverse related applications?
Okay. It's a very hot topic recently. Yes, VR, AR devices will use DDI, power, sensor, low power embedded memory MCU, and the connection speed will require at least Wi-Fi 6E, which will use our IP. For example, our IPs are already applied into HoloLens. After that, there will be security requirements, which will require PUF. Thank you.
Yeah. I can also add a comment on this new applications. Since this is new applications and eMemory, we also have the new IPs, such as those security IP and the PUF IP. When a customer has a new applications, they will have a new product. The new product always would like to use the new IP to add the value on the applications. I think with this new application in the metaverse, we will have more IPs to support these applications. Thank you.
Our next question, also related to metaverse. The concept of metaverse requires information security. What potential role can eMemory play in metaverse?
As I mentioned earlier, besides the fact that our IPs will be applied in various chips, eMemory's role in metaverse is meant to provide chip hardware Root of Trust and the co-processor solution, and help servers and the connected devices by providing the unique identity, key generation and authentication, and encryption and decryption functions required for metaverse security network connection. Thank you.
Our next question is, what are the target applications for automotive?
Thank you for the question. Our large NVM and the security IPs are used in automotive applications like ADAS, various kinds of sensors, for example, like a TPMS, CIS, temperature, light, motion sensors, PMIC, infotainment display, and the security protection applications. We offer IP solutions from 0.25- micron to 7 nm, which all have customer adoption already. Thank you.
Our next question is, top global companies like Apple, Tesla, and NVIDIA have split their stock prices after their share prices have increased exponentially in recent years. Does your company consider evaluating a potential stock split?
Our focus is to innovate and secure our technology for our customer in the market and aim for sustainable long-term growth model for our shareholder. Whether or not stock are split does not change the fundamental of a company, and is therefore not within our consideration.
Question is, looking at the history of eMemory, the business model has evolved. In the beginning, no one guessed that eMemory's technology could play such an important role in semiconductor applications. Can you discuss the company's development direction for the next 10 years and beyond?
eMemory's business model haven't changed since we launched our IP business. In the early days, our IPs were widely used in analog-related chips with our innovation into security area. For the next 10 years and beyond, we will continue developing technology and extending it to every IC. Security will be tremendous driving force beyond that. Thank you.
How does the current shortage of automotive chips affect eMemory's revenue? What is automotive's proportion in eMemory's revenue? Do you expect future growth in the automotive application?
We didn't classify the automotive segment as some of our existing customers supplied their chips to all smartphone, industrial, and automotive applications. For example, DDI for infotainment, sensor and MCU or PMIC for EV cars. In addition, as our technologies are already in leading-edge process nodes, we have expanded our IPs into autonomous driving platform, which will be applied into ADAS and the various networking chips. We do expect automotive contribution to be one of the driving force for our growth in the future. Thank you.
12th question is. In the past, management have predicted the market share for the 8-inch and 12-inch market. Can management also offer a prediction for eMemory's possible market share in hardware security?
For 5G and IoT relevant, security needs, security is essential for particular processors, which are mainly in production on the 12 in leading process node. Therefore, we believe our market share in 12 in will be higher than in 8 in as our solution is much better and more secure than existing eFuse solutions. Thank you.
Question is: Apple, Intel, and NVIDIA will all be developing chips with RISC-V architecture. Besides cooperating with Andes on RISC-V, does eMemory plan to collaborate with other companies?
Yes, we already have a joint development and a press release with Andes on their RISC-V CPU core, along with our PUF-based Root of Trust and crypto coprocessors. We are also working with several other leading RISC-V based CPU core companies such as SiFive, OpenFive, StarFive. Some of them are in U.S. and China, and other regions too. We're also working with VeriSilicon and Alchip to provide our OTP and the PUF-based IP solutions to fulfill their customers' security needs. Thank you.
Our next question is: Is there any progress in the FIPS 140-3 standard?
The FIPS standard, which is a certification for the CMVP encryption module required for the product design of eMemory's customer. In short, the FIPS basically certifies the products, not the IP. However, our IP, which includes a cryptographic algorithm developed by us, has passed the CMVP certification and which can help customers accelerate their CMVP or FIPS certifications. Thank you.
Our next question is: Based on the company's current partnership with PUF customers, what applications and process nodes are these customers targeting?
Mentioned earlier, our PUF-based security solution are under progress in applications of IoT, industrial IoT, AI, FPGA, data processor unit, Wi-Fi, and automotive fields. The relevant process node ranges from 14 nm to 7 nm.
Thank you. Our next question is: What is the relationship between eMemory's IP and virtual currency? What can it be used for?
We have crypto mining customers who adopt our NeoPUF and also the PUF RT mainly for the security functions. In addition, using NeoPUF or the PUF Root of Trust, we can provide this as security function. We can provide the private key for storing the cryptocurrency is the most secure methods making the PUF an ideal choice for the implementation across various digital wallet. Furthermore, using the private key generated by PUF as the digital signature in different blockchain applications is the simplest and also safest and the most convenient security method for the cryptocurrency protections and the transactions. Thank you.
Our next question is: How does PUFsecurity plan to quickly educate its customers on how to use PUF and PUF-based solutions? What is the current progress of PUFsecurity's software development? How can the collaboration with Arm expand the product application base?
If you look at our website, we also have our blog, and also in many different media, PUFsecurity is regularly publish new product information and the security technology design white papers through this social media and the webinar, also with various application subjects. In addition, we also have PUF Academy, which provide several hardware security training courses to educate the market and help chip designers to implement our solution into their design.
For the software development, which we are doing, is mainly aimed at developing and verifying various software and firmware used for the security function and also the driver and the APIs, which are required to use the PUF-based IP solutions. Our subsidiary, PUFsecurity, is currently working with CPU IP vendors to develop the SoC chip security design architecture for their customers. Thank you.
My next question is, last year, eMemory mentioned transforming into a security as a service company. Is the goal of PUFsecurity to become a security as a service company, or do they have other plans?
I would like to clarify that this is not for the business transformation. The reason that eMemory we established PUFsecurity is basically to expand our business by using the PUF technology invented by eMemory. It is to expand our new business instead of transformation of our business. Because our current business, IP business, still have a lot of room to grow. We would like to expand our business into the security because the PUF technology based on eMemory's original OTP technology it currently is the best PUF in the world. We can provide an integrated one-stop shopping for the security solution to customers.
Our next question is, we know that security is essential in the 5G era. What is the estimated total market value for security in 2025? Moreover, what percentage of this total would you estimate would be for hardware security?
Connected world from 5G and IoT will need the security IP for the unique ID and authentication and also for the secure communication functions. For 5G and the IoT market, they are in the order of several billions of devices per year. We believe that the hardware security protection functions will perform much better than the software security. Hardware security will also play a major part in the long run, for example, for the Zero Trust security, for the new applications such as metaverse and also confidential computing. Thank you.
Our next question is, Apple M1, AMD, NVIDIA chips all emphasize the connection between processor and memory. Will eMemory's experience in memory development benefit from this trend?
OTP and the PUF-based security IPs can be used for setting, configuration, encryption, and data protection functions. We already have several projects ongoing with customers for relevant applications. Thank you.
Our next question is, what is the difference between NeoPUF and Synopsys DesignWare tRoot H5 hardware security module?
Unlike the Synopsys tRoot. Our PUF-based solution is a PUF security coprocessor developed by our subsidiary PUFsecurity. The Synopsys solution is a pure digital design which contains security algorithm. The key for Root of Trust is generated from the algorithm and needs to be injected through an external security environment, which is usually not very safe. Instead, our PUF security coprocessor includes PUF inside, and we also have the secure OTP. We also have two random number generator and also put this all into the anti-tampering encryption. For our PUF-based Root of Trust, the key is inborn by the chip itself, which is more secure and cost efficient than Synopsys solutions. Thank you.
Our next question is, Palo Alto Networks can also use software to achieve a Zero Trust network access from the cloud and generate public and private keys. What are the advantages of eMemory compared to Palo Alto Networks?
Again, a similar question as the previous one. The answer is, our NeoPUF is a chip fingerprint that comes from the chip itself. This fingerprint can be used to generate a chip's genetic private key and also public key. If the key pair is generated by the software solution, such as what Palo Alto Networks does, it needs to be stored into the chips. Again, to do such, it must inject through an external very secure environment and which is usually very high cost and is actually not very secure too, because you also need to have the operator to do these operations.
In comparison, the genuine Root of Trust based on PUF, our NeoPUF is more secure and cost efficient. Thank you.
The next question is, for advanced packages such as CoWoS, InFO, and other 2.5D or 3D packages, what functions or benefits can eMemory's IPs provide for customers who adopt?
For multi-chip packaging, eMemory OTP IP provide in-package repair function for DRAM, calibration function for power management display and image sensors. Therefore, in this aspect, our IP improves the yield of multi-chip packaging. Second, PUF security IPs are our security functions in the security chip of multi-chip packaging. In this aspect, our IPs enable the security of the subsystem. Thank you.
Question is, are there any network effects with adoption of NeoPUF? That is, are hardware security protocols easier to implement if everyone uses the same PUF, such that if one leading company adopts NeoPUF, then others will follow, and NeoPUF will effectively become an industry standard?
Question is asked by David from New Street Research. I think this is a very good question. Yeah. I think, from our past history, when we always create the new IP, new solution to disrupt the traditional usage of the technologies. Again, in the NeoPUF, actually, this is also very new to the industry and will be used for the security. If there's a leading company which adopt these solutions and of course, because this solution will give a much better security solution to their hardware. If the leading company or there are a couple of companies begin to use this solution, then the rest of the industry will start to follow.
It's just like those leading company will be just like early adopters. When the early adopters start to adopt these solutions, there are many more company, they are, we call it, early majorities, they follow with this early adopters to adopt this solution. I think this is what you call the network effect. It's definitely yes.
Next question is, for quarter three, the 28 nm Royalty, what is the ratio for the 28 nm Royalty?
The third quarter of 2021, the proportion of 20 nm, 18%, compared to last year is [audio distortion]
The next question is, for quarter three, 0.11, 0.13, and 0.18 micrometer Licensing suddenly increased. Why is that?
The third quarter, in the legacy node, we also receive some NTOs from like automotive-related, IoT-related, this kind of applications. We see the NTO number increased in the third quarter. Thank you.
I think one of the major reason is from China, because China want to localize. Actually, it is our main application, especially power management and driver IC. Our Licensing from China actually increased a lot. Okay. This is one of the reason David asked about, the MTP Licensing increase, which is they pretty interested on all kind of emerging memory. We are working with the China government-based fab for MRAM development. Thank you. [audio distortion]
Our next question is, why has PUF Licensing revenue declined year-over-year in Q3? How do you estimate the potential total addressable market size for PUF? Oh, what is the Root of Trust chip and hardware security market size?
I think this is the very beginning of the PUF. We do have a lot of activity, but every case is changing about the security architecture. If you change about the architecture, which will take a much longer time for the engagement. You pretty see some kind of lumpy number at the very beginning stage, just at the beginning, what we seeing on the NeoFuse. This is quite normal. Once we have the class effect, they will become the pretty steady income. That's the reason. This is the beginning of the... Especially right now we have the production record from our first PUF customer, which you just had a question asked, is a 7 nm FPGA. This is very important for us, breakthrough of the...
Because most of customer will ask if you have a production record or not. We do working with many customer, and they're all waiting on the production record. Okay. In the future, especially next year, you're going to see a much more significant growth, moving forward. Thank you.
What process node does PUF work best? Actually, the range of process node which all require PUF for the security. For example, in the process node 40 nm, that's basically the IoT applications. For the 55 nm, that's basically for the MCU applications. For the 20 nm, that will be for the AI applications. For 16 nm, that's also AI. For the down below 7 nm, there are some of the customers working on the GPU and the FPGA and also the BPU, and well, and also for up to that will be 5 nm and the 3 nm. I think that will mainly be for the confidential computing.
That's a whole range of the process node and for different applications. As long as they require security, the PUF will be good for those applications.
What are the key risks to your continued growth success? Any emerging competitors?
I think, for our business model, we also have continued to innovate the new technology to meet the industry's requirements. The risk for us, I think, is the global economies. If the global economies is not good and the demand on the electronic device decrease, I think that will impact us too, because then if there's no chip is produced then, because we license our technology to those chip makers, right? That's the risk we have seen currently so far.
For the emerging competitors, currently, I think the reason that we are not afraid of competition is because our security basis is actually on our OTP technologies. In the worldwide, we have more than 400 technology OTP technologies. Because the PUF technology is a hard IP and PUF is a hard IP, and the PUF-based Root of Trust is a hard IP, and they are all based on our previous OTP technologies, and which create the Root of Trust hard IP. Because we are talking about the hardware security, the hard IP is very important. For any hard IP, you have to be verified in the foundry at every process the customer wants.
This will take a long time if you start from scratch. Since eMemory has been working in the industry for 20 years, and we have built more than 400 process platforms. In any of these platforms, we can implement the PUF-based security very easily. For this part, we don't think that even there's emerging competitors, we are not afraid of. I think for this PUF-based security, we do have a very big confidence that we will be the major player in the market in the future.
Question is, what is the advantage of your OTP-based PUF versus SRAM PUF?
We have been always asked by our customers because SRAM PUF has been in the market for more than 10 years. Unfortunately because SRAM PUF is not easy and not good to use, so that's why they switch to our PUF solutions. Because SRAM PUF is basically based on the SRAM's mismatch. I mean, because SRAM is actually the back-to-back inverters. If there's a mismatch in these back-to-back inverters, you will show up the random numbers. Because as the technology continue to scale down and the operating voltage also scales, right? When the voltage scale down to like a 0.8 V and the threshold voltage control has to be very tight. Very tight.
Because the threshold voltage will be very uniform and very tight, the mismatch in the SRAM will get very small. When the mismatch becomes very small, the random number created in SRAM will not be stable. This is very risky for the customer. If they are using the secret key which is created by SRAM, and it is not stable, that means you will lose your key. If the system lost the key, the system will crash. That's the reason that SRAM will not be a good PUF for the device to use. On the contrary, our PUF is based on our OTP technology, and our OTP has been proven so far. Every chip using our OTP has all been satisfied.
More than 10 years at that time, we have qualified our technologies. There's no issue on the stability of the number created in the PUF. Our PUF is much more stable, and that is the most advantage for our PUF. In order to be used as a public key, the number created in the PUF has to be very random, unique, and also most important is stable. I think that's our advantage.
It's regarding MRAM. What applications is it targeted for Chinese customers?
I think there's a big market in China in automotive. We all know that for the technology in 28 or below, the traditional embedded Flash is very high cost and also very difficult to be successful in the technology 28 and below. That's why the emerging memory, such as MRAM, is taking off to replace the traditional embedded Flash. One of the big advantage of MRAM is it is subject to the high temperature stress because the charge loss in MRAM is only affected because MRAM is a magnetic RAM, right?
Magnetic RAM, when the magnetic, the number in the magnetic RAM change, it will be subject to the magnetic field change. It's not. The temperature, even the temperature changing will not change the polarization of the magnetics. In China, they are targeting to use the embedded MRAM in the high-end MCU to replace the current embedded Flash. Because automotive need a chip to be operate at higher temperatures than consumer device. Thank you.
Our next question is, please comment on recruitment.
The question is many probably concerning about now the recruitment in Taiwan because a lot of because the shortage of talents so a lot of company is giving a very good deal for the engineers. I think there are a couple of things. One thing is basically now there are a lot of recruiting to recruit the digital designer. For example, like all the big company in Taiwan, MediaTek, Novatek, Realtek, they are basically SoC companies, and many require a lot of digital designer and also the software designer. For eMemory, we are the memory companies, okay, because particularly our memory is very special memories.
So far we have not suffered any engineering loss issues. Actually, our turnover rate is very low. One thing is we are very happy that some of the engineers they actually would like to change their original initial working environment to our environment. Because I think quite a few of engineers they after they work for some company and they are doing the routine job they would like to change their working environment to look for the environment which are more innovative. Everybody knows you need in order to have engineers to have more innovation you have to give them some more room to think.
I think that's our cultures. For the recruiting, actually, we have no problems to hire any new talents. Thank you.
In the interest of time, we will now begin the closing comments. Charles, please proceed.
Sorry, I didn't turn on the microphone just now. Thank you everyone once again for your patience and the support of eMemory. Also thank you for quite a few questions you ask. We will continue to work hard on our IP innovations and the security solutions for our customers, and bring a higher return for our shareholders. Thank you. Bye.
Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. Before we conclude today's conference, please be advised that the recording of the conference will be accessible within the next three hours. Thank you everyone for joining us today. We hope you will join us again next quarter. You may now disconnect. Goodbye, and have a good day.