More Taiwan-based IC design houses have entered the supply chain for the booming touch module market, with Sitronix Technology landing touch panel IC orders for smartphones from J Touch, and Integrated Technology Express (ITE) winning orders from TPK Touch Solutions for tablet PC touch panel ICs, according to industry sources.

Sitronix and ITE have jumped into the touch panel IC bandwagon following the step of peer companies, such as Elan Microelectronics and Egalax-empia Technology (EETI), said the sources, noting Sitronix and ITE are expected to see their touch panel IC shipments grow by a factor of 10 in 2011.

Sitronix, which has recently expanded its product lines to include analog and touch-controlled ICs in addition to its core business of LCD driver ICs, confirmed that it has begun volume production of touch panel ICs but declined to comment on market reports citing confidentiality.

Shipment volume of touch panel ICs will not be significant initially but will expand in the second half of 2011, Sitronix said.

Touch panel modules built with ITE's touch panel ICs are for the production of tablet PCs to be launched by ViewSonic, indicated the industry sources. ITE also declined to comment but stated that its touch panel ICs have been verified and the company has also completed trial production.

Other IC design houses including Novatek Microelectronics, ILI Technology (Ilitek), Weltrend Semiconductor and Silicon Integrated Systems (SiS) are expected to venture into the touch panel IC segment soon, the sources asserted.