IMOS 20-F Report ended Dec. 31, 2017

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As filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on April 19, 2018

UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

FORM 20-F

OR

For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2017

OR

For the transition period from                  to

OR

Date of event requiring this shell company report

Commission file number 001–37928

(Exact Name of Registrant as Specified in Its Charter)

ChipMOS TECHNOLOGIES INC.

(Translation of Registrant’s Name into English)

Republic of China

(Jurisdiction of Incorporation or Organization)

No. 1, R&D Road 1, Hsinchu Science Park

Hsinchu, Taiwan

Republic of China

(Address of Principal Executive Offices)

Silvia Su

Senior Director, Finance and Accounting Management Center

ChipMOS TECHNOLOGIES INC.

No. 1, R&D Road 1, Hsinchu Science Park

Hsinchu, Taiwan

Republic of China

Telephone: (886) 3 577 0055

Facsimile: (886) 3 566 8981

(Name, Telephone, E-mail and/or Facsimile Number and Address of Company Contact Person)

Securities registered or to be registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:

Securities registered or to be registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act:

None

(Title of Class)

Securities for which there is a reporting obligation pursuant to Section 15(d) of the Act:

None

(Title of Class)

Indicate the number of outstanding shares of each of the issuer’s classes of capital or common stock as of the close of the period covered by the annual report.

As of December 31, 2017, 856,059,061 Common Shares, par value NT$10 each, were outstanding (not including 30,238,000 Common Shares held by the Company).

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act.    Yes  ☐    No  ☒

If this report is an annual or transition report, indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or (15)(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.    Yes  ☐    No  ☒

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant: (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days.    Yes  ☒    No  ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically and posted on its corporate Web site, if any, every Interactive Data File required to be submitted and posted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit and post such files).    Yes  ☒    No  ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, or an emerging growth company. See definition of “large accelerated filer”, “accelerated filer”, and “emerging growth company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act. (Check one):

Large Accelerated Filer  ☐        Accelerated Filer  ☒        Non-Accelerated Filer  ☐        Emerging growth company  ☐

If an emerging growth company that prepares its financial statements in accordance with U.S. GAAP, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act. ☐

Indicate by check mark which basis of accounting the registrant has used to prepare the financial statements included in this filing.

If this is an annual report, indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act).    Yes  ☐    No  ☒

* Not for trading, but only in connection with the listing on The NASDAQ Global Select Market of American Depositary Receipts evidencing American Depositary Shares (the “ADSs”), each representing twenty common shares of ChipMOS TECHNOLOGIES INC.

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ChipMOS TECHNOLOGIES INC.

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CAUTIONARY STATEMENT FOR PURPOSES OF THE “SAFE HARBOR” PROVISIONS OF

THE PRIVATE SECURITIES LITIGATION REFORM ACT OF 1995

Except for historical matters, the matters discussed in this Annual Report on Form 20-F are forward-looking statements that are subject to a number of significant risks and uncertainties and are based on information as of the date hereof. These statements are generally indicated by the use of forward-looking terminology such as the words “anticipate”, “believe”, “estimate”, “expect”, “intend”, “may”, “plan”, “project”, “will”, “could”, “might”, “should” and other words and phrases of similar import that express an indication of actions or results of actions that may or are expected to occur in the future. These statements appear in a number of places throughout this Annual Report on Form 20-F and include statements regarding our intentions, beliefs or current expectations concerning, among other things, our results of operations, financial condition, liquidity, prospects, growth, strategies and the industries in which we operate.

By their nature, forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties because they relate to events and depend on circumstances that may or may not occur in the future. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and our actual results of operations, financial condition and liquidity, and the development of the industries in which we operate may differ materially from those made in or suggested by the forward-looking statements contained in this Annual Report on Form 20-F. Important factors that could cause those differences include, but are not limited to:

The factors identified above are believed to be important factors (but not necessarily all of the important factors) that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in any forward-looking statement made by us. Other factors not discussed herein could also have material adverse effects on us. All forward-looking statements included in this Annual Report on Form 20-F are expressly qualified in their entirety by the foregoing cautionary statements. We undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statement (or its associated cautionary language), whether as a result of new information or future events.

Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding our strategy and future plans, future business condition and financial results, our capital expenditure plans, our capacity expansion plans, our investments in Mainland China, technological upgrades, investment in research and development, future market demand, future regulatory or other developments in our industry. Please see “Item 3. Key Information—Risk Factors” for a further discussion of certain factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated by our forward-looking statements.

This Annual Report on Form 20-F includes, refers to, or incorporates by reference, as applicable, financial statements and other financial information based on International Financial Reporting Standards (“IFRSs”).

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Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Selected Financial Data

The following tables set forth our selected consolidated financial data. As a result of the unprecedented transaction of the merger with ChipMOS TECHNOLOGIES (Bermuda) LTD. (“ChipMOS Bermuda”) accounted as capital reorganization and the joint-venture agreement which reclassified ChipMOS TECHNOLOGIES (Shanghai) LTD. (“ChipMOS Shanghai”) as discontinued operations (see “Item 5. Operating and Financial Review and Prospects—Recent Acquisitions”), the following financial data as of and for the years ended December 31, 2014 and 2015 were restated retrospectively. The selected consolidated statements of financial position data as of December 31, 2016 and 2017 and our consolidated income statements and cash flows data for the years ended December 31, 2015, 2016 and 2017 are derived from our audited consolidated financial statements included herein, and should be read in conjunction with, and are qualified in their entirety by reference to, these audited consolidated financial statements and related notes beginning on page F-1 of this Annual Report on Form 20-F. The selected consolidated statements of financial position data as of December 31, 2014 and 2015 are derived from our consolidated financial statements not included herein. However, the selected consolidated statements of financial position data as of December 31, 2013, and the consolidated income statements and cash flows data for the year ended December 31, 2013 are omitted from disclosure due to the Company cannot restate these financial data without unreasonable effort and expenses.

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Exchange Rates

References to “US$” and “US dollars” are to United States dollars and references to “NT$” and “NT dollars” are to New Taiwan dollars. This Annual Report on Form 20-F contains translations of certain NT dollar amounts into US dollars at specified rates solely for the convenience of the reader. Unless otherwise noted, all translations from NT dollars to US dollars and from US dollars to NT dollars were made at the noon buying rate in The City of New York for cable transfers in NT dollars per US dollar as certified for customs purposes by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York as of December 29, 2017, which was NT$29.64 to US$1.00. We make no representation that the NT dollar or US dollar amounts referred to in this Annual Report on Form 20-F could have been or could be converted into US dollars or NT dollars, as the case may be, at any particular rate or at all. On April 13, 2018, the noon buying rate was NT$29.32 to US$1.00.

The following table sets out, for the years and the months indicated, information concerning the number of NT dollars for which one US dollar could be exchanged based on the noon buying rate for cable transfers in NT dollars as certified for customs purposes by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Sources: Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

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Risk Factors

Risks Relating to Economic Conditions and the Financial Markets

Global credit and financial markets disruptions could materially and adversely affect our business and results of operations.

Disruptions in global credit and financial markets may occur that cause diminished liquidity and limited availability of credit, reduced consumer confidence, reduced economic growth, increased unemployment rates and uncertainty about economic stability. Limited availability of credit in financial markets may lead consumers and businesses to postpone spending. This in turn may cause our customers to cancel, decrease or delay their existing and future orders with us. Financial difficulties experienced by our customers or suppliers as a result of these conditions could lead to production delays and delays or defaults in payment of accounts receivable. Continuing credit markets disruption restricts our access to capital and limits our ability to fund operations or to refinance maturing obligations as they become due through additional borrowing or other sources of financing. We are not able to predict the occurrence, frequency, duration or extent of disruptions in global credit and financial markets. These conditions increase the difficulty of accurately forecasting and planning our business activities. If these conditions and uncertainties occur or continue, or if credit and financial markets and confidence in economic conditions deteriorate, our business and results of operations could be materially and adversely affected.

Risks Relating to Our Industry

Because we depend on the highly cyclical semiconductor industry, which is characterized by significant and sometimes prolonged downturns from time to time, our revenue and earnings may fluctuate significantly, which in turn could adversely affect our results of operations and could cause the market price of our common shares or of our ADSs to decline.

Because our business is, and will continue to be, dependent on the requirements of semiconductor companies for independent assembly and test services, any downturn in the highly cyclical semiconductor industry may reduce demand for our services and adversely affect our results of operations. All of our customers operate in this industry and variations in order levels and in service fee from our customers may result in volatility in our revenue and earnings. For instance, during periods of decreased demand for assembled semiconductors, some of our customers may simplify, delay or forego final testing of certain types of semiconductors, such as dynamic random access memory or DRAM, which in turn may result in reduced demand for our services, adversely affecting our results of operations. From time to time, the semiconductor industry has experienced significant, and sometimes prolonged, downturns which have adversely affected our results of operations. Reduced commodity DRAM demand for our services contributed to decreases in our revenue for 2016 and 2017. Our revenue for 2016 decreased 2.4% from 2015 levels. Our revenue for 2017 decreased by 2.4% from 2016 levels and generated a profit attributable to equity holders of the Company of NT$2,797 million (US$94 million) in 2017. We cannot give any assurances that there will not be any downturn in the future or that any future downturn will not materially and adversely affect our results of operations.

Any deterioration in the market for end-user applications for semiconductor products would reduce demand for our services and may result in a decrease in our earnings.

Market conditions in the semiconductor industry track, to a large degree, those for their end-user applications. Any deterioration in the market conditions for the end-user applications of semiconductors we test and assemble could reduce demand for our services and, in turn, could materially adversely affect our financial condition and results of operations. Our revenue is largely attributable to fees derived from testing and assembling semiconductors for use in personal computers, communications equipment, consumer electronic products and display applications. A significant decrease in demand for products in these markets could put pricing pressure on our assembly and test services and negatively affect our revenue and earnings. The LCD driver market often aligns with broader economic trend, we cannot give any assurances that there will not be any downturn in the future or that any future downturn will not affect our results of operations. Any significant decrease in demand for end-user applications of semiconductors will negatively affect our revenue and earnings.

A decline in average selling prices for our services could result in a decrease in our earnings.

Historically, prices for our assembly and test services in relation to any given semiconductor tend to decline over the course of its product and technology life cycle. See also “—A decrease in market demand for LCD and other flat-panel display driver semiconductors may adversely affect our capacity utilization rates and thereby negatively affect our profitability”. If we cannot reduce the cost of our assembly and test services, or introduce higher-margin assembly and test services for new package types, to offset the decrease in average selling prices for our services, our earnings could decrease.

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A reversal or slowdown in the outsourcing trend for semiconductor assembly and test services could reduce our profitability.

Integrated device manufacturers, or IDMs, continue to increasingly outsource stages of the semiconductor production process, including assembly and test, to independent companies like us to shorten production cycles. In addition, the availability of advanced independent semiconductor manufacturing services has also enabled the growth of so-called “fabless” semiconductor companies that focus exclusively on design and marketing and outsource their manufacturing, assembly and test requirements to independent companies. A substantial portion of our revenue is indirectly generated from providing semiconductor assembly and test services to these IDMs and fabless companies. We cannot assure you that these companies will continue to outsource their assembly and test requirements to independent companies like us. A reversal of, or a slowdown in, this outsourcing trend could result in reduced demand for our services, which in turn could reduce our profitability.

Risks Relating to Our Business

If we are unable to compete effectively in the highly competitive semiconductor assembly and test markets, we may lose customers and our income may decline.

The semiconductor assembly and test markets are very competitive. We face competition from a number of IDMs with in-house assembly and test capabilities and other independent semiconductor assembly and test companies. Our competitors may have access to more advanced technologies and greater financial and other resources than we do. Many of our competitors have shown a willingness to reduce prices quickly and sharply in the past to maintain capacity utilization in their facilities during periods of reduced demand. In addition, an increasing number of our competitors conduct their operations in lower cost centers in Asia such as Mainland China, Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines. Any renewed or continued erosion in the prices or demand for our assembly and test services as a result of increased competition could adversely affect our profits.

We are highly dependent on the market for memory products. A downturn in market prices for these products could significantly reduce our revenue and profit.

A significant portion of our revenue is derived from testing and assembling memory semiconductors. Our revenue derived from the assembly and test of memory semiconductors accounted for 48% and 46% of our revenue in 2016 and 2017, respectively. In the past, our service fees for testing and assembling memory semiconductors were sharply reduced in tandem with the decrease in the average selling price of DRAM in the semiconductor industry. Oversupply of DRAM products and weak demand in the DRAM market may result in significant reductions in the price of DRAM products, which in turn may drive down the average prices for our assembly and test services for DRAM products and further reduce our revenue and profit. We cannot assure you that there will not be further downturns in DRAM prices in the future.

A decrease in market demand for LCD and other flat-panel display driver semiconductors may adversely affect our capacity utilization rates and thereby negatively affect our profitability.

Our assembly and test services for LCD and other flat-panel display driver semiconductors generated revenue of NT$4,920 million and NT$4,790 million (US$162 million) in 2016 and 2017, respectively. We invested NT$910 million and NT$2,615 million (US$88 million) in 2016 and 2017, respectively, on equipment for tape carrier package, or TCP, chip-on-film, or COF and chip-on-glass, or COG, technologies, which are used in assembly and test services for LCD and other flat-panel display driver semiconductors. Most of this equipment may not be used for technologies other than TCP, COF or COG. The market demand for LCD and other flat-panel display driver semiconductors and related assembly and test services particularly TDDI and 12” COF increased in 2017. Any significant decrease in demand for these products and our related services would significantly impair our capacity utilization rates. That may result in our inability to generate sufficient revenue to cover the significant depreciation expenses for the equipment used in testing and assembling LCD and other flat-panel display driver semiconductors, thereby negatively affecting our profitability. See also “—Because of our high fixed costs, if we are unable to achieve relatively high capacity utilization rates, our earnings and profitability may be adversely affected”.

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Our significant amount of indebtedness and interest expense will limit our cash flow and could adversely affect our operations.

We have a significant level of debt and interest expense. As of December 31, 2017, we had approximately NT$9,642 million (US$325 million) and NT$969 million (US$33 million) outstanding long-term and short-term indebtedness, respectively. Our long-term indebtedness as of December 31, 2017, represented bank loans with an interest rate of 1.7895%. As of December 31, 2017, NT$7,175 million (US$242 million) of our indebtedness was secured by collateral comprised of our assets.

Our significant indebtedness poses risks to our business, including the risks that:

For additional information on our indebtedness, see “Item 5. Operating and Financial Review and Prospects—Liquidity and Capital Resources”.

Our results of operations may fluctuate significantly and may cause the market price of our common shares or of our ADSs to be volatile.

Our results of operations have varied significantly from period to period and may continue to vary in the future. Among the more important factors affecting our quarterly and annual results of operations are the following:

Because of the factors listed above, our future results of operations or growth rates may be below the expectations of research analysts and investors. If so, the market price of our common shares or of our ADSs, and the market value of your investment, may fall.

We depend on key customers for a substantial portion of our revenue and a loss of, or deterioration of the business from, or delayed payment by, any one of these customers could result in decreased revenue and materially adversely affect our results of operations and financial condition.

We depend on a small group of customers for a substantial portion of our business. In 2017, our top five customers collectively accounted for 61% of our revenue. As part of our strategy, we have been focusing on sales to key customers through long-term service agreements. We also focus on our business with smaller customers and customers who do not place orders on a regular basis. We expect that we will continue to depend on a relatively limited number of customers for a significant portion of our revenue. Any adverse development in our key customers’ operations, competitive position or customer base could materially reduce our revenue and materially adversely affect our business and profitability.

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Since semiconductor companies generally rely on service providers with whom they have established relationships to meet their assembly and test needs for their applications and new customers usually require us to pass a lengthy and rigorous qualification process, if we lose any of our key customers, we may not be able to replace them in a timely manner. We cannot assure you that receivable collection difficulties experienced by us will not occur in the future. If any of our key customers reduces or cancels its orders or terminates existing contractual arrangements, and if we are unable to attract new customers and establish new contractual arrangements with existing or new customers, our revenue could be reduced and our business and results of operations may be materially adversely affected.

Because of our high fixed costs, if we are unable to achieve relatively high capacity utilization rates, our earnings and profitability may be adversely affected.

Our operations are characterized by a high proportion of fixed costs. For memory and logic/mixed-signal semiconductor testing services, our fixed costs represented 49% and 48% of our total cost of revenue in 2016 and 2017, respectively. For memory and logic/mixed-signal semiconductor assembly services, our fixed costs represented 23% and 25% of our total cost of revenue in 2016 and 2017, respectively. For LCD and other flat-panel display driver semiconductor assembly and test services, our fixed costs represented 47% and 46% of our total cost of revenue in 2016 and 2017, respectively. For bumping services, our fixed costs represented 28% and 27% of our total cost of revenue in 2016 and 2017, respectively. Our profitability depends in part not only on absolute pricing levels for our services, but also on the utilization rates for our assembly and test equipment, commonly referred to as “capacity utilization rates”. Increases or decreases in our capacity utilization rates can significantly affect our gross margins as unit costs generally decrease as the fixed costs are allocated over a larger number of units. In the past, our capacity utilization rates have fluctuated significantly as a result of the fluctuations in the market demand for semiconductors. If we fail to increase or maintain our capacity utilization rates, our earnings and profitability may be adversely affected. In addition, the long-term assembly and test services agreements we entered with certain customers may require us to incur significant capital expenditures. If we are unable to achieve high capacity utilization rates for the equipment purchased pursuant to these agreements, our gross margins may be materially and adversely affected.

The assembly and test process is complex and our production yields and customer relationships may suffer as a result of defects or malfunctions in our testing and assembly equipment and the introduction of new packages.

Semiconductor testing and assembly are complex processes that require significant technological and process expertise. Semiconductor testing involves sophisticated test equipment and computer software. We develop computer software to test our customers’ semiconductors. We also develop conversion software programs that enable us to test semiconductors on different types of testers. Similar to most software programs, these software programs are complex and may contain programming errors or “bugs”. In addition, the testing process is subject to human error by our employees who operate our test equipment and related software. Any significant defect in our testing or conversion software, malfunction in our test equipment or human error could reduce our production yields and damage our customer relationships.

The assembly process involves a number of steps, each of which must be completed with precision. Defective packages primarily result from:

These and other factors have, from time to time, contributed to lower production yields. They may do so in the future, particularly as we expand our capacity or change our processing steps. In addition, to be competitive, we must continue to expand our offering of packages. Our production yields on new packages typically are significantly lower than our production yields on our more established packages. Our failure to maintain high standards or acceptable production yields, if significant and prolonged, could result in a loss of customers, increased costs of production, delays, substantial amounts of returned goods and related claims by customers. Further, to the extent our customers have set target production yields, we may be required to compensate our customers in a pre-agreed manner. Any of these problems could materially adversely affect our business reputation and result in reduced revenue and profitability.

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Because of the highly cyclical nature of our industry, our capital requirements are difficult to plan. If we cannot obtain additional capital when we need it, we may not be able to maintain or increase our current growth rate and our profits will suffer.

As our industry is highly cyclical and rapidly changing, our capital requirements are difficult to plan. To remain competitive, we may need capital to fund the expansion of our facilities as well as to fund our equipment purchases and research and development activities. To meet our liquidity, capital spending and other capital needs, we have taken and plan to take certain measures to generate additional working capital and to save cash. See “Item 5. Operating and Financial Review and Prospects—Liquidity and Capital Resources”. We cannot assure you that these plans and measures will be implemented or will provide sufficient sources of capital.

In addition, future capacity expansions or market or other developments may require additional funding. Our ability to obtain external financing in the future depends on a number of factors, many of which are beyond our control. They include:

If we are unable to obtain funding in a timely manner or on acceptable terms, our growth prospects and potential future profitability will suffer.

Disputes over intellectual property rights could be costly, deprive us of technologies necessary for us to stay competitive, render us unable to provide some of our services and reduce our opportunities to generate revenue.

Our ability to compete successfully and achieve future growth will depend, in part, on our ability to protect our proprietary technologies and to secure, on commercially acceptable terms, critical technologies that we do not own. We cannot assure you that we will be able to independently develop, or secure from any third party, the technologies required for our assembly and test services. Our failure to successfully obtain these technologies may seriously harm our competitive position and render us unable to provide some of our services.

Our ability to compete successfully also depends on our ability to operate without infringing upon the proprietary rights of others. The semiconductor assembly and test industry is characterized by frequent litigation regarding patent and other intellectual property rights. We may incur legal liabilities if we infringe upon the intellectual property or other proprietary rights of others. We are not able to ascertain what patent applications have been filed in the United States or elsewhere, however, until they are granted. If any third party succeeds in its intellectual property infringement claims against us or our customers, we could be required to:

Any one of these developments could impose substantial financial and administrative burdens on us and hinder our business. We are, from time to time, involved in litigation in respect of intellectual property rights. Any litigation, whether as plaintiff or defendant, is costly and diverts our resources. If we fail to obtain necessary licenses on commercially reasonable terms or if litigation, regardless of the outcome, relating to patent infringement or other intellectual property matters occurs, our costs could be substantially increased to impact our margins. Any such litigation could also prevent us from testing and assembling particular products or using particular technologies, which could reduce our opportunities to generate revenue.

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If we are unable to obtain raw materials and other necessary inputs from our suppliers in a timely and cost-effective manner, our production schedules would be delayed and we may lose customers and growth opportunities and become less profitable.

Our operations require us to obtain sufficient quantities of raw materials at acceptable prices in a timely and cost-effective manner. We source most of our raw materials, including critical materials like leadframes, organic substrates, epoxy, gold wire and molding compound for assembly, and tapes for TCP/COF, from a limited group of suppliers. We purchase all of our materials on a purchase order basis and have no long-term contracts with any of our suppliers. From time to time, suppliers have extended lead times, increased the price or limited the supply of required materials to us because of market shortages. Consequently, we may, from time to time, experience difficulty in obtaining sufficient quantities of raw materials on a timely basis. In addition, from time to time, we may reject materials that do not meet our specifications, resulting in declines in output or yield. Although we typically maintain at least two suppliers for each key raw material, we cannot assure you that we will be able to obtain sufficient quantities of raw materials and other supplies of an acceptable quality in the future. It usually takes from three to six months to switch from one supplier to another, depending on the complexity of the raw material. If we are unable to obtain raw materials and other necessary inputs in a timely and cost-effective manner, we may need to delay our production and delivery schedules, which may result in the loss of business and growth opportunities and could reduce our profitability.

If we are unable to obtain additional assembly and test equipment or facilities in a timely manner and at a reasonable cost, we may be unable to fulfill our customers’ orders and may become less competitive and less profitable.

The semiconductor testing and assembly business is capital intensive and requires significant investment in expensive equipment manufactured by a limited number of suppliers. The market for semiconductor assembly and test equipment is characterized, from time to time, by intense demand, limited supply and long delivery cycles. Our operations and expansion plans depend on our ability to obtain equipment from a limited number of suppliers in a timely and cost-effective manner. We have no binding supply agreements with any of our suppliers and we acquire our assembly and test equipment on a purchase order basis, which exposes us to changing market conditions and other significant risks. Semiconductor assembly and test also requires us to operate sizeable facilities. If we are unable to obtain equipment or facilities in a timely manner, we may be unable to fulfill our customers’ orders, which could negatively impact our financial condition and results of operations as well as our growth prospects. Currently, we do not have any long-term service agreements that require our commitment to acquire additional assembly and test equipment or facilities. We cannot assure you, however, that such commitment will not be made in the future. See “Item 4. Information on the Company—Customers”.

If we are unable to manage the expansion of our operations and resources effectively, our growth prospects may be limited and our future profitability may be reduced.

We expect to continue to expand the operations and to increase the number of employees. Rapid expansion puts a strain on our managerial, technical, financial, operational and other resources. As a result of our expansion, we will need to implement additional operational and financial controls and hire and train additional personnel. We cannot assure you that we will be able to do so effectively in the future, and our failure to do so could jeopardize our expansion plans and seriously harm our operations.

Republic of China law may be less protective of shareholder rights than laws of the United States or other jurisdictions.

Our corporate affairs are governed by our articles of incorporation and laws governing corporations incorporated in the Republic of China (“ROC”). The rights of our shareholders to bring shareholders’ suits against us or our board of directors under ROC law are more limited than those of the shareholders of U.S. corporations. For example, the ROC Company Act requires that a shareholder continuously holds at least 3% of our issued and outstanding shares for at least a year may request our audit committee to institute an action against a director on the company’s behalf. In addition, the controlling shareholders of U.S. corporations owe fiduciary duties to minority shareholders, while controlling shareholders in ROC corporations do not. Therefore, our shareholders may be less able under ROC law than they would be under the laws of the United States or other jurisdictions to protect their interests in connection with actions by our management, members of our board of directors or our controlling shareholder.

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It may be difficult to bring and enforce suits against us in the United States.

We are incorporated in the ROC and a majority of our directors and most of our officers are not residents of the United States. A substantial portion of our assets is located outside the United States. As a result, it may be difficult for our shareholders to serve notice of a lawsuit on us or our directors and officers within the United States. Because most of our assets are located outside the United States, it may be difficult for our shareholders to enforce the United States judgments of United States courts. Any United States judgments obtained against us will not be enforced by ROC courts if any of the following situations shall apply to such final judgment:

Investor confidence and the market price of our common shares or ADSs may be adversely impacted if we are unable to maintain effective internal control over financial reporting in accordance with Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.

We are required to comply with the ROC and US securities laws and regulations in connection with internal controls. As a public company in the United States, our management is required to assess the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting using the criteria established in Internal Control – Integrated Framework (2013) issued by Committee of Sponsoring Organization of the Treadway Commission (COSO), as required by Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. We carried out an evaluation, under the supervision and with the participation of management, including our President, the principal executive officer and Senior Director of the Finance and Accounting Management Center, the principal financial officer of the effectiveness of the design and operation of our internal controls over financial reporting as of December 31, 2017, and concluded those internal controls over financial reporting were effective as of that date. See “Item 15. Controls and Procedures” for more information. Moreover, even if our management concludes that our internal controls over our financial reporting are effective, our independent public registered accounting firm may disagree. If our independent public registered accounting firm is not satisfied with our internal controls over our financial reporting or the level at which our controls are documented, designed, operated or reviewed, or if the independent public registered accounting firm interprets the requirements, rules or regulations differently from us, it may decline to attest to our management’s assessment or may issue an adverse opinion in the future. Any of these possible outcomes could result in an adverse reaction in the financial marketplace due to a loss of investor confidence in the reliability of our consolidated financial statements, which ultimately could negatively impact the market prices of our common shares or ADSs.

Any environmental claims or failure to comply with any present or future environmental regulations, or any new environmental regulations, may require us to spend additional funds, may impose significant liability on us for present, past or future actions, and may dramatically increase the cost of providing our services to our customers.

We are subject to various laws and regulations relating to the use, storage, discharge and disposal of chemical by-products of, and water used in, our assembly and gold bumping processes. Although we have not suffered material environmental claims in the past, a failure or a claim that we have failed to comply with any present or future regulations could result in the assessment of damages or imposition of fines against us, suspension of production or a cessation of our operations or negative publicity. New regulations could require us to acquire costly equipment or to incur other significant expenses. Any failure on our part to control the use of, or adequately restrict the discharge of, hazardous substances could subject us to future liabilities that may materially reduce our earnings.

On March 4, 2016, due to the malfunction of its wastewater treatment facility, a factory of the Company located in Chupei, Taiwan was found abnormally discharging wastewater. Upon notification, the Company was able to mitigate the environmental impact by immediately ceasing the abnormal discharge and collecting the wastewater that had been discharged. The wastewater treatment facility was also immediately repaired and the factory resumed its normal operations on the next day, March 5, 2016. On April 15, 2016, the Hsinchu County Government imposed an administrative fine of approximately NT$4 million on the Company for the violation of the statutory effluent standards and the fine was paid on April 22, 2016.

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Fluctuations in exchange rates could result in foreign exchange losses.

Currently, most of our revenue is denominated in NT dollars. Our cost of revenue and operating expenses, on the other hand, are incurred in several currencies, including NT dollars, Japanese yen, US dollars and Renminbi, or RMB. In addition, a substantial portion of our capital expenditures, primarily for the purchase of assembly and test equipment, has been, and is expected to continue to be, denominated in Japanese yen with much of the remainder in US dollars. We also have debt denominated in NT dollars, Japanese yen, US dollars and RMB. Fluctuations in exchange rates, primarily among the US dollar, the NT dollar and the Japanese yen, will affect our costs and operating margins in NT dollar terms. In addition, these fluctuations could result in exchange losses and increased costs in NT dollar terms. Despite selective hedging and other techniques implemented by us, fluctuations in exchange rates have affected, and may continue to affect, our financial condition and results of operations.

We may not be successful in our acquisitions, investments, joint ventures and dispositions, and may therefore be unable to implement fully our business strategy.

To implement our business strategy requires us to enter into acquisition, investment, joint venture and disposition transactions. These transactions may not be successful to maintain or grow our business. On December 11, 2015, the board of directors of the Company authorized and the Company and Tsinghua Unigroup Ltd. (“Tsinghua Unigroup”) executed a share subscription agreement (the “Tsinghua Share Subscription Agreement”), to issue and sell 299,252,000 common shares of the Company, par value NT$10 per share to Tsinghua Unigroup in a private placement (the “Private Placement”) at a price of NT$40.0 per common share of the Company representing an aggregate purchase price of approximately NT$12.0 billion. On November 30, 2016, the Company and Tsinghua Unigroup mutually agreed to terminate the Tsinghua Share Subscription Agreement and to form a joint-venture. Under the joint-venture, ChipMOS TECHNOLOGIES (BVI) LTD. (“ChipMOS BVI”), a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Company, would sell, for the aggregate purchase price of approximately RMB 484 million, 54.98% of the equity interests of its wholly-owned subsidiary, ChipMOS Shanghai, to strategic investors, including Tibet Unigroup Guowei Investment Co., Ltd. (“Unigroup Guowei”), a subsidiary of Tsinghua Unigroup, which would hold 48% equity interests of ChipMOS Shanghai, and the other strategic investors, including a limited partnership owned by ChipMOS Shanghai’s employees, would own 6.98% equity interest of ChipMOS Shanghai. The transaction was completed in March 2017. ChipMOS Shanghai is no longer the subsidiary of the Company following the completion of equity interest transfer. Please see “Item 4. Information on the Company—Agreements with Tsinghua Unigroup Ltd.” for additional information.

The success of our acquisitions, investments, joint ventures and dispositions depends on a number of factors, including:

If we are unsuccessful in our acquisitions, investments, joint ventures and dispositions, we may not be able to implement fully our business strategy to maintain or grow our business.

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We depend on key personnel, and our revenue could decrease and our costs could increase if we lose their services.

We depend on the continued service of our executive officers and skilled engineering, technical and other personnel. We will also be required to hire a substantially greater number of skilled employees in connection with our expansion plans. In particular, we depend on a number of skilled employees in connection with our LCD and other flat-panel display driver semiconductor assembly and test services, and the competition for such employees in Taiwan and Mainland China is intense. We may not be able to either retain our present personnel or attract additional qualified personnel as and when needed. Moreover, we do not carry key person insurance for any of our executive officers nor do we have employment contracts with any of our executive officers or employees, and, as a result, none of our executive officers or employees is bound by any non-competition agreement. If we lose any of our key personnel, it could be very difficult to find and integrate replacement personnel, which could affect our ability to provide our services, resulting in reduced revenue and earnings. In addition, we may need to increase employee compensation levels in order to retain our existing officers and employees and to attract additional personnel. As of March 31, 2018, 19% of the workforce at our facilities are foreign workers employed by us under work permits that are subject to government regulations on renewal and other terms. Consequently, if the regulations in Taiwan relating to the employment of foreign workers were to become significantly more restrictive or if we are otherwise unable to attract or retain these workers at reasonable cost, we may be unable to maintain or increase our level of services and may suffer reduced revenue and earnings.

If our security measures are breached and unauthorized access is obtained to our information technology systems, we may lose proprietary data.

Our security measures may be breached as a result of third-party action, including computer hackers, employees error, malfeasance or otherwise, and result in unauthorized access to our customers’ data or our data, including our intellectual property and other confidential business information, or our information technology systems. Because the techniques used to obtain unauthorized access, or to sabotage systems, change frequently, we may be unable to anticipate these techniques or to implement adequate preventative measures. Any security breach could result in disclosure of our trade secrets, confidential customer, supplier or employee data, which could result in legal liability, harm to our reputation and otherwise harm our business.

Risks Relating to Countries in Which We Conduct Operations

ROC laws and regulations limit or prohibit certain technology cooperation between ROC persons or entities with PRC persons or entities, and our current technology transfer arrangements between the Company and ChipMOS Shanghai may be found to be in violation of any such limitation or prohibition, which may result in a fine of between NT$50 thousand and NT$25 million and the termination of such technology transfer arrangements and therefore have a material adverse effect on the operations of ChipMOS Shanghai and our financial condition and results of operations.

ROC laws and regulations previously prohibited any transfer of semiconductor assembly and test technologies to any person or entity located in Mainland China, except for transfers involving certain low-end semiconductor assembly and test technologies, such as conventional wire bond assembly technology, if certain requirements are met. The ROC Ministry of Economic Affairs has the ultimate administrative authority in interpreting such laws and regulations. In February 2010, these restrictions have been relaxed, so that ROC entities may transfer semiconductor assembly and test technologies to any person or entity located in Mainland China after they have obtained approval from the Investment Commission of the ROC Ministry of Economic Affairs (“MOEAIC”). Under a technology transfer agreement, dated August 1, 2002, ChipMOS Bermuda, the parent company of the Company before its merger with and into the Company effective on October 31, 2016, licensed to ChipMOS Shanghai certain assembly and test-related technologies that were then controlled by ChipMOS Bermuda, which included technologies that were licensed to ChipMOS Bermuda by the Company. ChipMOS Bermuda continued to license such technologies to ChipMOS Shanghai pursuant to a technology transfer agreement dated October 3, 2011 with effective date of August 1, 2012. ChipMOS Bermuda also provided ChipMOS Shanghai with technical support and consulting services under this agreement. Following the merger of ChipMOS Bermuda and the Company which was effective on October 31, 2016 (the “Merger”), the Company is the surviving company to provide ChipMOS Shanghai with technical support and consulting services. On May 27, 2016, the Company and ChipMOS Shanghai executed another technology transfer and license agreement under which the Company licensed ChipMOS Shanghai certain technologies relating to LCD driver IC assembly and testing and wafer bumping. The Company and ChipMOS Shanghai further executed the first addendum and the second addendum to such technology transfer and license agreement on August 5, 2016 and January 19, 2017, respectively, to revise the term, and license fee and running royalty of such license arrangement.

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In the opinion of Lee and Li, our ROC special counsel, since our technology transfer arrangements as described above have been approved by the MOEAIC, they are in compliance with all applicable ROC laws and regulations. However, substantial uncertainties remain regarding the interpretation and application of those laws and regulations. Accordingly, we cannot assure you that ROC regulatory authorities will not take a view contrary to the opinion of our ROC special counsel. If we were determined to be in violation of applicable ROC laws and regulations governing technology cooperation with PRC persons and entities, we may be subject to a fine of between NT$50 thousand and NT$25 million and may be ordered by the MOEAIC to terminate or rectify such activity within a specified period of time. Any termination of our current technology transfer to ChipMOS Shanghai could materially adversely affect ChipMOS Shanghai’s operations and our financial condition, results of operations or prospects, as well as the market price of our common shares or ADSs.

Our ability to direct the operations we conduct through our affiliated companies that we do not fully own may be limited by legal duties owed to other shareholders of such companies.

Certain of our operations are conducted through companies that we do not fully own. For example, as of March 31, 2017, the Company owned 45.02% equity interests of ChipMOS Shanghai through its wholly-owned subsidiary ChipMOS BVI. On November 12, 2014, the Company made announcement for the contemplated merger with ThaiLin Semiconductor Corp. (“ThaiLin”). The merger was completed on June 17, 2015. We also conduct other activities through our affiliated entities. See also “—Risks Relating to Our Common Shares or ADSs—The Company’s ability to maintain its listing and trading status of common shares on the Taiwan Stock Exchange or ADSs on the NASDAQ Stock Market is dependent on factors outside of the Company’s control and satisfaction of stock exchange requirements. The Company may not be able to overcome such factors that disrupt its trading status of common shares on the Taiwan Stock Exchange or ADSs on the NASDAQ Stock Market or satisfy other eligibility requirements that may be required of it in the future” and “Item 7. Major Shareholders and Related Party Transactions—Related Party Transactions”.

In accordance with the various laws of the relevant jurisdictions in which our subsidiaries and affiliates are organized, each of our subsidiaries and affiliates and their respective directors owe various duties to their respective shareholders. As a result, the actions we wish our subsidiaries or affiliates to take could be in conflict with their or their directors’ legal duties owed to their other shareholders. When those conflicts arise, our ability to cause our subsidiaries or affiliates to take the action that we desire may be limited.

Any future outbreak of health epidemics and outbreaks of contagious diseases, including avian influenza, swine flu, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, or Ebola virus disease, may materially affect our operations and business.

Influenza viruses circulating in animals pose threats to human health. Humans can become ill when infected with viruses from animal sources, such as avian influenza virus subtypes H5N1, H9N2 and H7N9 and swine influenza virus subtypes H1N1 and H3N2. An outbreak of a contagious disease such as New Influenza A or more commonly known as the “bird flu” and “swine flu”, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), or avian influenza with virus subtype H7N9, for which there is inadequate treatment or no known cure or vaccine, may potentially result in a quarantine of infected employees and related persons, and adversely affect our operations at one or more of our facilities or the operations of our customers or suppliers. We cannot predict the impact that any further future outbreak of the aforementioned influenza viruses or other diseases could have on our business and results of operations.

Also, on July 2, 2017, the World Health Organization declared the end of the most recent outbreak of the largest and most complex Ebola virus disease (EVD) outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo since the Ebola virus was first discovered in 1976. There have been more cases and deaths in this outbreak than all others combined. It has also spread between countries starting in Guinea then spreading across land borders to Sierra Leone and Liberia, by air to Nigeria, and by land to Senegal. People remain infectious as long as their blood and body fluids, including semen and breast milk, contain the virus. Men who have recovered from the disease can still transmit the virus through their semen for up to 7 weeks after recovery from illness. There is as yet no proven treatment available for EVD. As such, we cannot predict the impact that any future outbreak of EVD could have on our business and results of operations.

If any of our employees is suspected of having contracted any contagious disease, we may, under certain circumstances, be required to quarantine such employees and the affected areas of our premises. As a result, we may have to suspend part or all of our operations temporarily. In addition, any future outbreak may restrict the level of economic activity in affected regions which may also adversely affect our businesses. As a result, there is no assurance that any future outbreak of contagious diseases would not have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

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We face substantial political risk associated with doing business in Taiwan, particularly due to the strained relations between the Republic of China and the People’s Republic of China, which could negatively affect our business and the market price of our common shares or ADSs.

Our principal executive offices and our assembly and test facilities are located in Taiwan. As a result, our business, financial condition and results of operations and the market price of our common shares or ADSs may be affected by changes in ROC governmental policies and the political relationship between the ROC and PRC, as well as social instability and diplomatic and social developments in or affecting Taiwan which are beyond our control. For example, the ROC has a unique international political status. The PRC government regards Taiwan as a renegade province and does not recognize the legitimacy of the ROC as an independent country. Although significant economic and cultural relations have been positively strengthened in recent years between the ROC and the PRC, relations have often been strained. In March 2005, the PRC government enacted the “Anti-Secession Law” codifying its policy of retaining the right to use military force to gain control over Taiwan, particularly under what it considers as highly provocative circumstances, such as a declaration of independence by Taiwan or the refusal by the ROC to accept the PRC’s stated “One China” policy. Between March 18 and April 10, 2014, students and certain civic groups initiated the Sunflower Student Movement as a protest movement and occupied the Legislative Yuan and protested the passing of the Cross-Strait Service Trade Agreement (“CSSTA”) proposed by the then-ruling party, the Kuomintang, at the legislature without a clause-by-clause review. The CSSTA has been put on hold ever since the Sunflower Student Movement.

In 2016, Tsai Ing-Wen of the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party (“DPP”) won Taiwan’s Presidential Election and the DPP gained the majority of the seats in Taiwan’s Legislative Yuan for the first time in its history. President Tsai and the DPP had stressed on how they are keen to maintain the status quo with China. In a statement issued after Tsai’s win, the Chinese Cabinet’s body for handling Taiwan affairs reaffirmed its opposition to Taiwan independence, but said it would work to maintain peace and stability between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait.

Past developments related to the interaction between the ROC and the PRC have on occasion depressed the market prices of the securities of Taiwanese or Taiwan-related companies, including our own. We cannot assure you any contentious situations between Taiwan and China will resolve in maintaining the current status quo or remain peaceful. Relations between the ROC and the PRC and other factors affecting military, political or economic stability in Taiwan could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations, as well as the market price and the liquidity of our common shares or ADSs.

The business and operations of our business associates and our own business operations are vulnerable to disruptions that may be caused by natural disasters and other events.

We currently provide most of our test services through our facilities in the Hsinchu Industrial Park and the Hsinchu Science Park in Taiwan, and all of our assembly services through our facility in the Southern Taiwan Science Park. We also have an affiliate provides test and assembly services through its facility in Shanghai Qingpu Industrial Zone. Significant damage or other impediments to these facilities as a result of natural disasters, industrial strikes or industrial accidents could significantly increase our operating costs.

Certain regions we operate in are particularly susceptible to earthquakes and associated natural disasters. For example, in late 1999, Taiwan suffered severe earthquakes which caused significant property damages and loss of life, particularly in the central part of Taiwan. The earthquakes damaged production facilities and adversely affected the operations of many companies involved in the semiconductor and other industries. We experienced an aggregate of NT$8 million in damages to our machinery and equipment, facilities, inventory and five days of delay in production schedule as a result of the event. In March 2011, Sendai of Japan registered an earthquake of 9.0 Mw (moment magnitude scale) off the coast of Japan (the “Sendai Earthquake”). The Sendai Earthquake was recorded as most powerful earthquake to hit Japan and the fourth most powerful earthquake in the world. The earthquake triggered tsunami warnings and evacuations along Japan’s Pacific coast and in at least 20 countries, including Taiwan and Mainland China. In April 2013, an earthquake registering a magnitude of approximately 6.6-7.0 Mw with epicenter located in Lushan County, Ya’an, Sichuan (the “Lushan Earthquake”). ReliefWeb, part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) released information on July 23, 2013 confirming 196 deaths and up to 2 persons missing and 14,785 injured victim reports. On February 6, 2016, Meinong District of Kaohsiung, Taiwan registered an earthquake of 6.4 Mw (the “Meinong Earthquake”). The Meinong Earthquake claimed 117 deaths and 551 injured victims. We had a very minor impact at our manufacturing operations in the Southern Taiwan Science Park primarily due to power interruption in the immediate wake of the earthquake.

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In January and February 2008, certain parts of Mainland China, particularly in the southern, central and eastern regions, experienced reportedly the most severe winter in the country in recent decades, which resulted in significant and extensive damages to factories, power lines, homes, automobiles, crops and other properties, blackouts, transportation and communications disruptions and other losses in the affected areas. In addition, in May 2008, certain semiconductor companies with facilities in eastern Mainland China experienced production disruption reportedly due to power outages caused by the failure of certain electricity supply system in the area where the plants are located. We cannot assure you that the facilities in the Shanghai Qingpu Industrial Zone will not be adversely affected by future snowstorms, power outages, earthquakes or other similar events.

Natural disasters and other events like aforementioned events cause severe property damages to townships, infrastructures and death and injuries to Civilians. In Sendai Earthquake, many electrical generators were disabled, and at least three nuclear power plant reactors partially melted down and experienced a chemical explosion extensively damaging surrounding buildings. We cannot assure you that our production facilities, operations and market located in Taiwan and Mainland China will not be adversely affected as result of the events that take place overseas like the Sendai Earthquake, including radiation emission from the damaged nuclear power plants or subsequent future earthquakes that may take place.

The production facilities of many of our suppliers, customers and providers of complementary semiconductor manufacturing services, including foundries, are located in Taiwan and Mainland China. If our customers are adversely affected by natural disasters or other events occurring in or affecting these geographic areas, it could result in a decline in the demand for our assembly and test services. If our suppliers and providers of complementary semiconductor manufacturing services are affected by such events, our production schedule could be halted or delayed. As a result, a major earthquake, snowstorm, other natural disaster, industrial strike, industrial accident or other disruptive event occurring in or affecting Taiwan or Mainland China could severely disrupt our normal operation of business and have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations.

Any future outbreak of radiation-related disease as a result of nuclear power plant reactors damage caused by the Sendai Earthquake may materially adversely affect our operations and business.

The Sendai Earthquake raises tremendous concerns about the possible effects of radiation emission from the damaged nuclear power plants. Japanese official authorities are working with experts in assessing the risk and determining the best courses of actions to implement to escape harmful radiation. The potential health effects due to exposure to harmful radiation may be temporary or permanent harmful effects in nature.

Multiple radioactive gases could possibly be emitted in a situation where uranium attains a “meltdown” state, which is a severe overheating of the core of a nuclear reactor, in which the core melts and radiation and heat are caused to escape. This would occur if the containment system partially or fully fails. The particles that are released with the gases due to the meltdown would be the spewed particles of iodine-131, strontium-90 and cesium-137. These might enter into a human by being swallowed, absorbed through the skin, or inhaled. Depending on the chemical characteristics of each of these and their predilection for certain body tissues, they could cause cancers of such organs as bones, soft tissues near bones, thyroid gland, and the bone marrow (typically known as leukemia).

Acute or very high level radiation exposure can cause a person to become very ill or to die quickly. Ionizing radiation, which is defined as high-energy particles or electromagnetic waves that can break chemical bonds, damage humans by disrupting cellular function, particularly in tissues with rapid growth and turnover of cells. Intense, high level and/or excessive radiation exposure may result in acute radiation syndrome whereby harmful effects to the human body may be evidenced by skin burns, internal organ deterioration, bleeding, vomiting, bone marrow distortion and deaths. If the radiation exposure is less intense and/or more prolonged at a lower level, then the central nervous system, kidneys, thyroid gland, and liver may be affected. Cancer is the most well-known effect, and may affect virtually any significantly exposed tissue.

Certain health effects due to exposure to harmful radiation does not have adequate treatment or known cure or vaccine, consequently, may potentially result in a quarantine of infected employees and related persons, and adversely affect our operations at one or more of our facilities or the operations of our customers or suppliers. We cannot predict the probability of any future outbreak of radiation related diseases as a possible result of nuclear power plants damage caused by the Sendai Earthquake or the extent of the material adverse impact that this could have on our business and results of operations.

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Risks Relating to Our Common Shares or ADSs

The Company’s ability to maintain its listing and trading status of common shares on the Taiwan Stock Exchange or ADSs on the NASDAQ Stock Market is dependent on factors outside of the Company’s control and satisfaction of stock exchange requirements. The Company may not be able to overcome such factors that disrupt its trading status of common shares on the Taiwan Stock Exchange or ADSs on the NASDAQ Stock Market or satisfy other eligibility requirements that may be required of it in the future.

The Company became listed and commenced trading its common shares on the main board of Taiwan Stock Exchange (“TWSE”) on April 11, 2014 and its ADSs on the NASDAQ Stock Market (“NASDAQ”) on November 1, 2016. For a TWSE-listed and NASDAQ-listed company to continue trading on the main board of TWSE and NASDAQ depends in part on market conditions and other factors that may not within the control of the Company. For these reasons there can be no assurance that the Company’s shares will continue to be listed or traded on the TWSE or ADSs will continue to be listed or traded on the NASDAQ.

Volatility in the price of our common shares or ADSs may result in shareholder litigation that could in turn result in substantial costs and a diversion of our management’s attention and resources.

The financial markets in the United States and other countries have experienced significant price and volume fluctuations, and market prices of technology companies have been and continue to be extremely volatile. Volatility in the price of our common shares or ADSs may be caused by factors outside of our control and may be unrelated or disproportionate to our results of operations. Shareholders of public companies such as the Company frequently institute securities class action litigations against companies following periods of volatility in the market price of a public company securities including common shares and ADSs. Litigation of this kind against the Company could result in substantial costs and a diversion of our management’s attention and resources.

Certain provisions in our constitutive documents and in our severance agreements with our executive officers make the acquisition of us by another company more difficult and costly and therefore may delay, defer or prevent a change of control.

We entered into change in control severance agreements with certain management pursuant to which we agreed to pay certain severance payments if a change in control event (as defined in the change in control severance agreements) occurs and the employment of such executive officer is terminated by our company other than for cause or by such executive officer for good reasons within two years following the occurrence of the change in control event. These agreements may increase the cost of a party seeking to effect a change in control of our company.

Future sales, pledge or issuance of common shares or ADSs by us or our current shareholders could depress our share price or ADSs price and you may suffer dilution.

Sales of substantial amounts of shares or ADSs in the public market, the perception that future sales may occur, or the pledge of a substantial portion of our common shares or ADSs could depress the prevailing market price of our shares or ADSs. See “Item 7. Major Shareholders and Related Party Transactions—Major Shareholders” for further information about our major shareholders.

The Company was listed and commenced trading of common shares on the main board of TWSE on April 11, 2014. See “—Risks Relating to Our Common Shares or ADSs—The Company’s ability to maintain its listing and trading status of common shares on the Taiwan Stock Exchange or ADSs on the NASDAQ Stock Market is dependent on factors outside of the Company’s control and satisfaction of stock exchange requirements. The Company may not be able to overcome such factors that disrupt its trading status of common shares on the Taiwan Stock Exchange or ADSs on the NASDAQ Stock Market or satisfy other eligibility requirements that may be required of it in the future” for additional information on the Company’s listing on the main board of TWSE. We plan to issue, from time to time, additional shares in connection with employee compensation and to finance possible future capital expenditures, investments or acquisitions. See “Item 6. Directors, Senior Management and Employees—Restricted Shares” for a discussion of the plan of the Restricted Shares that we have adopted for the benefit of our employees. The issuance of additional shares may have a dilutive effect on other shareholders and may cause the price of our common shares or ADSs to decrease.

On December 11, 2015, the Board of the Company authorized and the Company and Tsinghua Unigroup executed the Tsinghua Share Subscription Agreement, to sell and issue 299,252,000 shares of the Company to Tsinghua Unigroup through the Private Placement at a price of NT$40.0 per common share representing an aggregate purchase price of approximately NT$12.0 billion. On November 30, 2016, the Company and Tsinghua Unigroup mutually agreed to terminate the Tsinghua Share Subscription Agreement and to form a joint-venture. Under the joint-venture, ChipMOS BVI, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Company, would sell 54.98% of the equity interests of its wholly-owned subsidiary, ChipMOS Shanghai, to strategic investors, including Unigroup Guowei, a subsidiary of Tsinghua Unigroup, which will hold 48% equity interests of ChipMOS Shanghai. The transaction was completed in March 2017 and ChipMOS Shanghai is no longer the subsidiary of the Company.

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Holders of Our ADSs do not have the same voting rights as holders of our common shares.

Under the ROC Company Act, except under limited circumstances, shareholders have one vote for each common share held. See “Item 10. Additional Information—Voting Rights” for a discussion of voting rights of holders of our common shares. Holders of our ADSs do not have the same voting rights as holders of our common shares. Instead, the voting rights of a holder of our ADSs are governed by the Deposit Agreement and are able to exercise voting rights on an individual basis as follows: if a holder of our ADSs outstanding at the relevant record date instructs the depositary to vote in a particular manner for or against a resolution, including the election of directors, the depositary will cause all the Company shares represented by such holder’s ADSs to be voted in that manner. If the depositary does not receive timely instructions from a holder of our ADSs outstanding at the relevant record date to vote in a particular manner for or against any resolution, including the election of directors, such holders of our ADSs will be deemed to have instructed the depositary or its nominee to give a discretionary proxy to a person designated by the Company to vote all the Company shares represented by such holder’s ADSs at the discretion of such person, which may not be in the interest of holders of our ADSs.

If a non-ROC holder of our ADSs withdraws and holds our shares, such holder of our ADSs will be required to appoint a tax guarantor, local agent and custodian in the ROC and register with the TWSE in order to buy and sell securities on the TWSE.

When a non-ROC holder of our ADSs elects to withdraw and hold our shares represented by our ADSs, such holder of our ADSs will be required to appoint an agent for filing tax returns and making tax payments in the ROC. Such agent will be required to meet the qualifications set by the ROC Ministry of Finance and, upon appointment, will become the guarantor of the withdrawing holder’s tax payment obligations. Evidence of the appointment of a tax guarantor, the approval of such appointment by the ROC tax authorities and tax clearance certificates or evidentiary documents issued by such tax guarantor may be required as conditions to such holder repatriating the profits derived from the sale of our shares. We cannot assure you that a withdrawing holder will be able to appoint, and obtain approval for, a tax guarantor in a timely manner.

In addition, under current ROC law, such withdrawing holder is required to register with the TWSE and appoint a local agent in the ROC to, among other things, open a bank account and open a securities trading account with a local securities brokerage firm, pay taxes, remit funds and exercise such holder’s rights as a shareholder. Furthermore, such withdrawing holder must appoint a local bank or local securities firm to act as custodian for confirmation and settlement of trades, safekeeping of securities and cash proceeds and reporting and declaration of information. Without satisfying these requirements, non-ROC withdrawing holders of our ADSs would not be able to hold or otherwise subsequently sell our shares on TWSE or otherwise. Appointment of an agent or a tax guarantor might also occur additional costs.

Pursuant to Mainland Investors Regulations, only qualified domestic institutional investors (the “QDIIs”, each a “QDII”) or persons that have otherwise obtained the approval from the MOEAIC and registered with the TWSE are permitted to withdraw and hold our shares from a depositary receipt facility. In order to hold our shares, such QDIIs are required to appoint an agent and custodian as required by the Mainland Investors Regulations. If the aggregate amount of our shares held by any QDII or shares received by any QDII upon a single withdrawal accounts for 10.0% of our total issued and outstanding shares, such QDII must obtain the prior approval from the MOEAIC. We cannot assure you that such approval would be granted.

Restriction on the ability to deposit our shares into our ADR facility may adversely affect the liquidity and price of our ADSs.

The ability to deposit our shares into our ADR facility is restricted by ROC law. Under current ROC law, no person or entity, including you and the Company, may deposit our shares into our ADR facility without specific approval of the Financial Supervisory Commission of the ROC, or the FSC, unless:

With respect to item (4) above, the depositary may issue our ADSs against the deposit of our shares only if the total number of our ADSs outstanding following the deposit will not exceed the number of our ADSs previously approved by the FSC, plus any our ADSs issued pursuant to the events described in items (1), (2) and (3) above.

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In addition, in the case of a deposit of our shares requested under item (4) above, the depositary will refuse to accept deposit of such our shares if such deposit is not permitted under any legal, regulatory or other restrictions notified by the Company to the depositary from time to time, which restrictions may include blackout periods during which deposits may not be made, minimum and maximum amounts and frequency of deposits.

The depositary will not offer holders of our ADSs preemptive rights unless the distribution of both the rights and the underlying our shares to our ADS holders are either registered under the Securities Act or exempt from registration under the Securities Act.

The rights of holders of our ADSs to participate in our rights offerings is limited, which could cause dilution to your holdings.

The Company may from time to time distribute rights to its shareholders, including rights to acquire its securities. Under the Deposit Agreement, the depositary will not offer holders of our ADSs those rights unless both the distribution of the rights and the underlying securities to all our ADS holders are either registered under the Securities Act or exempt from the registration under the Securities Act. Although the Company may be eligible to take advantage of certain exemptions under the Securities Act available to certain foreign issuers for rights offering, the Company can give no assurances that it will be able to establish an exemption from registration under the Securities Act, and it is under no obligation to file a registration statement for any of these rights. Accordingly, holders of our ADSs may be unable to participate in our rights offerings and may experience dilution of their holdings.

If the depositary is unable to sell rights that are not exercised or not distributed or if the sale is not lawful or reasonably practicable, it will allow the rights to lapse, in which case holders of our ADSs will receive no value for these rights.

Changes in exchanges controls which restrict your ability to convert proceeds received from your ownership of our ADSs may have an adverse effect on the value of your investment.

Under current ROC law, the depositary, even without obtaining approvals from the Central Bank of the Republic of China (Taiwan) or any other governmental authority or agency of the ROC, may still convert NT dollars into other currencies, including US dollars, for:

In addition, the depositary may also convert into NT dollars incoming payments for purchase of common shares for deposit in ADR facility against the creation of additional ADSs. However, the depositary may be required to obtain foreign exchange approval from the Central Bank of the Republic of China (Taiwan) on a payment-by-payment basis for conversion from NT dollars into foreign currencies of the proceeds from the sale of subscription rights for new common shares. Although it is expected that the Central Bank of the Republic of China (Taiwan) will grant this approval as a routine manner, we cannot assure you that in the future any approval will be obtained in a timely manner, or at all.

Under the ROC Foreign Exchange Control Law, the Executive Yuan of the ROC government may, without prior notice but subject to subsequent legislative approval, impose foreign exchange controls in the event of, among other things, a material change in international economic conditions. We cannot assure you that foreign exchange controls or other restrictions will not be introduced in the future.

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Overview of the Company

We are one of the leading independent providers of semiconductor assembly and test services. Specifically, we are one of the leading independent providers of testing and assembly services for LCD and other flat-panel display driver semiconductors and advanced memory and logic/mixed-signal products in Taiwan. The depth of our engineering expertise and the breadth of our assembly and test technologies enable us to provide our customers with advanced and comprehensive assembly and test services. In addition, our geographic presence in Taiwan is attractive to customers wishing to take advantage of the logistical and cost efficiencies stemming from our close proximity to foundries and producers of consumer electronic products in Taiwan. Our production facilities are located in Hsinchu and Tainan, Taiwan.

Our Structure and History

We are a company limited by shares, incorporated on July 28, 1997, under the ROC Company Act, under the name “ChipMOS TECHNOLOGIES INC.” (“ChipMOS Taiwan”), as a joint venture company between Mosel Vitelic Inc. (“Mosel”) and Siliconware Precision Industries Co., Ltd. (“Siliconware Precision”) and with the participation of other investors. Our operations consist of the assembly and test of semiconductors as well as gold bumping and memory module manufacturing. Our principal place of business is located at No. 1, R&D Road 1, Hsinchu Science Park, Hsinchu, Taiwan, ROC and its phone number is (886) 3 577 0055 and our Internet website address is “http://www.chipmos.com.”

In January 2001, ChipMOS Bermuda acquired an equity interest in the Company issuing its shares to the Company’s shareholders in exchange for their 70.3% shareholding in the Company. In October 2001, the Company issued 6,911,732 common shares as employee bonuses. In December 2002, ChipMOS Bermuda issued 132,793 shares in exchange for 5,633,442 shares of the Company held by these employees. On September 14, 2007, the Company completed a share exchange transaction with ChipMOS Bermuda pursuant to which ChipMOS Bermuda exchanged one common share for every 8.4 common shares of the Company. Following the completion of the share exchange transaction, the Company became ChipMOS Bermuda’s wholly-owned subsidiary. In February 2010, ChipMOS Bermuda agreed to sell 15.8% of the Company’s outstanding shares to Siliconware Precision. The share purchase transaction was completed in January 2011.

As part of the Company’s listing plan on the TWSE, on April 16, 2013, ChipMOS Bermuda completed the sale of 6.5 million common shares of the Company, at the price of NT$15.0 per share to the Company’s underwriters and certain others, including non-US employees of the Company. From September 2, 2013 to October 3, 2013, ChipMOS Bermuda sold 180 million common shares of the Company, at the price of NT$20.0 per shares to investors. The Company became listed and commenced trading on the main board of TWSE on April 11, 2014.

According to the merger agreement, entered between the Company and ChipMOS Bermuda dated January 21, 2016 (the “Merger Agreement”), ChipMOS Bermuda merged with and into the Company, with the Company being the surviving company after the Merger. The transaction was accounted as capital reorganization within the Company and its subsidiaries (the “Group”), please see “Item 5. Operating and Financial Review and Prospects—Recent Acquisitions”. Any common shares of ChipMOS Bermuda issued and outstanding immediately prior to the effective time of the Merger was cancelled and, in exchange, each former holder of such cancelled common shares of ChipMOS Bermuda was entitled to receive, with respect to each such share (i) US$3.71 in cash, without interest, and (ii) 0.9355 ADSs representing 18.71 shares of the Company (each ADS representing 20 new common shares, par value of NT$10 each, to be issued by the Company) in exchange for each of ChipMOS Bermuda’s common share held (the US$3.71 in cash and together with the ADSs, the “Merger Consideration”). The Merger was completed and effective on October 31, 2016. The Company issued 512,405,340 common shares represented by the ADSs and the ADSs were listed on the NASDAQ on November 1, 2016.

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The following chart illustrates our corporate structure and our equity interest in each of our principal subsidiaries as of the date of this Annual Report on Form 20-F.

Note:

Agreements with Tsinghua Unigroup Ltd.

On December 11, 2015, the board of the Company authorized and the Company signed the Tsinghua Share Subscription Agreement, which is included as Exhibit 4.3, to sell the Company’s 299,252,000 shares to Tsinghua Unigroup through a private placement at a price of NT$40.0 per common share of the Company representing an aggregate purchase price of approximately NT$12.0 billion.

On December 11, 2015, the Company and Tsinghua Unigroup also executed the Strategic Alliance Agreement, which is included as Exhibit 4.4, designed to strengthen the long-term cooperation relationship between the two companies. Under the terms of the Strategic Alliance Agreement, Tsinghua Unigroup would assist the Company in expanding and strengthening the relationship between the Company and companies relating to the assembly and test services of LCD drivers and wafer bumping services in the PRC, and would introduce other potential suppliers, customers and business partners in the PRC to the Company.

On February 25, 2016, the Company and Tsinghua Unigroup executed the Subscriber Joinder Agreement, which is included as Exhibit 4.6, under which Tsinghua Unigroup assigned its obligations and liabilities under the Tsinghua Share Subscription Agreement to Tibet MaoYeChaungXin INVESTMENT CO., LIMITED (“Tibet MaoYe”), which is a subsidiary controlled by Tsinghua Unigroup. From the execution of the Subscriber Joinder Agreement, Tibet MaoYe became the “Subscriber” defined in the Tsinghua Share Subscription Agreement and assumed all the rights, benefits, liabilities and obligations incurred from the Tsinghua Share Subscription Agreement. On the same date, the Company and Tibet MaoYe executed the Tibet MaoYe Share Subscription Agreement (included as Exhibit 4.7), the substantive content of which is consistent with the Tsinghua Share Subscription Agreement.

On November 30, 2016, the Company and Tsinghua Unigroup mutually agreed to terminate the Tsinghua Share Subscription Agreement and to form a joint-venture. Under the joint-venture, the Equity Interest Transfer Agreements among ChipMOS BVI, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Company, and some strategic investors which including Unigroup Guowei, a subsidiary of Tsinghua Unigroup, were executed. Pursuant to the Equity Interest Transfer Agreements, ChipMOS BVI would sell 54.98% equity interests of its wholly-owned subsidiary, ChipMOS Shanghai, to the strategic investors, and Unigroup Guowei would hold 48% equity interests of ChipMOS Shanghai, and the other strategic investors, including a limited partnership owned by ChipMOS Shanghai’s employees, would own approximately 6.98% equity interest of ChipMOS Shanghai. The transaction was completed in March 2017. ChipMOS Shanghai is no longer the subsidiary of the Company following the completion of equity interests transfer. Also pursuant to the agreement, ChipMOS BVI and the strategic investors agreed to further invest RMB 1,074 million into ChipMOS Shanghai. The further investment was completed in two tranches, one in July 2017 at RMB 687 million and one in February 2018 at RMB 387 million.

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Our Principal Consolidated Subsidiaries

Below is a description of our principal consolidated subsidiaries:

ChipMOS TECHNOLOGIES (BVI) LTD., or formerly known as MODERN MIND TECHNOLOGY LIMITED and ChipMOS TECHNOLOGIES (Shanghai) LTD. ChipMOS BVI was incorporated in the British Virgin Islands in January 2002. Before the transfer of 54.98% equity interests of ChipMOS Shanghai which was completed in March 2017, ChipMOS BVI conducted its operations through ChipMOS Shanghai, a wholly-owned subsidiary incorporated in Mainland China. See “—Our Structure and History—Agreements with Tsinghua Unigroup Ltd.” for more details. ChipMOS Shanghai is engaged in wafer testing and semiconductor assembly and test. ChipMOS Bermuda acquired a 100% equity interest in ChipMOS BVI on December 12, 2002, and then transferred it to Jesper Limited (“Jesper”) on December 31, 2002. In 2003, ChipMOS Bermuda acquired from Jesper a convertible note in the amount of US$37.5 million issued by ChipMOS BVI that may be converted into a controlling equity interest in ChipMOS BVI at a conversion rate of one ordinary share of ChipMOS BVI for every US$1.00 if the repayment is not made when due. In 2004, ChipMOS Bermuda restructured its control of ChipMOS Shanghai and its Mainland China operations. On July 29, 2004, ChipMOS Bermuda replaced the US$37.5 million convertible note previously issued by ChipMOS BVI in its entirety with a US$62.8 million demand note issued by ChipMOS BVI, with the difference representing a US$25 million loan that ChipMOS Bermuda extended to ChipMOS BVI from the net proceeds of its July 2004 offering of common shares. In addition, ChipMOS Bermuda extended a loan in the aggregate amount of US$50 million to ChipMOS BVI from the net proceeds of its November 2004 convertible debt offering in exchange for demand notes issued by ChipMOS BVI in the same aggregate amount (the “MMT Notes”). The MMT Notes were convertible at any time into common shares representing, immediately after the conversion, almost 100% of the then outstanding common shares of ChipMOS BVI at a conversion rate of US$1.00 for each common share of ChipMOS BVI. Payment under the MMT Notes were fully and unconditionally guaranteed by Jesper and secured by a pledge agreement in respect of the entire equity interest in ChipMOS BVI and ChipMOS Shanghai. ChipMOS Bermuda obtained from Jesper an irrevocable option to acquire at any time the common shares of ChipMOS BVI then owned by Jesper. Under an assignment and assumption agreement signed on April 22, 2011 (the “MMT Assignment Agreement”), ChipMOS Bermuda agreed to sell the MMT Notes to ThaiLin for a purchase price of approximately US$40 million subject to certain closing conditions. Post completion of MMT Assignment Agreement transaction, ThaiLin immediately converted the MMT Notes into common shares of ChipMOS BVI and purchased all of the remaining common shares of ChipMOS BVI from Jesper, with ChipMOS BVI becoming a wholly-owned subsidiary of ThaiLin. The MMT Assignment Agreement was completed on October 3, 2011. In November 2015, ChipMOS BVI’s shareholder approved the change of name to ChipMOS TECHNOLOGIES (BVI) LTD. and was completed on November 18, 2015.

On November 30, 2016, ChipMOS BVI entered into the Equity Interest Transfer Agreements with Unigroup Guowei and other strategic investors. Under the agreements, ChipMOS BVI would sell 54.98% of the equity interests of ChipMOS Shanghai, to the strategic investors. Following the transaction which was completed in March 2017, Unigroup Guowei holds 48% equity interests of ChipMOS Shanghai, the other strategic investors, including a limited partnership owned by ChipMOS Shanghai’s employees, own approximately 6.98% equity interest of ChipMOS Shanghai, and ChipMOS BVI holds 45.02% equity interests of ChipMOS Shanghai. ChipMOS Shanghai is no longer the subsidiary of the Company. ChipMOS BVI and the strategic investors agreed to further invest RMB 1,074 million into ChipMOS Shanghai. The further investment was completed in two tranches, one in July 2017 at RMB 687 million and one in February 2018 at RMB 387 million.

ThaiLin Semiconductor Corp. ThaiLin was incorporated in Taiwan in May 1996, and was listed on the Taipei Exchange in Taiwan. It is engaged in the provision of semiconductor testing services. The Company acquired a 41.8% interest in ThaiLin in December 2002. Under applicable accounting principles, ThaiLin was consolidated into our consolidated financial statements in 2003 because the Company was deemed to exert significant control over ThaiLin through common directors and management. ThaiLin was merged with and into the Company on June 17, 2015.

ChipMOS U.S.A., Inc. ChipMOS USA was incorporated in the United States of America in October 1999. It engages in sales and customer services and all the expenses incurred from these activities are charged to current income. ChipMOS USA began generating revenue in 2001. As of December 31, 2017, ChipMOS Taiwan owned 100% of the outstanding shares of ChipMOS USA.

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Industry Background

We provide a broad range of back-end assembly and test services. Test services include engineering test, wafer probing and final test of memory and logic/mixed-signal semiconductors. We also offer a broad selection of leadframe- and organic substrate-based package assembly services for memory and logic/mixed-signal semiconductors. Our advanced leadframe-based packages include thin small outline packages, or TSOPs, and our advanced organic substrate-based packages include fine-pitch ball grid array packages (“fine-pitch BGA”). In addition, we provide gold bumping, reel to reel assembly and test services for LCD and other flat-panel display driver semiconductors by employing TCP, COF and COG technologies.

Semiconductors tested and assembled by us are used in personal computers, graphics applications such as game consoles communications equipment mobile products such as cellular handsets, tablets, consumer electronic products automotive/industry and display applications such as flat-panel displays. In 2017, 26.9% of our revenue was derived from testing services for memory and logic/mixed-signal semiconductors, 29.4% from assembly services for memory and logic/mixed-signal semiconductors, 26.7% from LCD and other flat-panel display driver semiconductor assembly and test services and 17.0% from bumping services for semiconductors, respectively.

Semiconductor Industry Trends

Growth in the semiconductor industry is largely driven by end-user demand for consumer electronics, communications equipment and computers, for which semiconductors are critical components. The worldwide semiconductor industry has experienced peaks and troughs over the last decade, with a severe downturn at the end of 2000 that was followed by a modest recovery in late 2002. Beginning in the fourth quarter of 2008, the semiconductor industry commenced another downturn that increased in unprecedented severity into the first quarter of 2009. The overall semiconductor industry commenced to recover from the downturn in the second quarter of 2009 and is in a steady growth mode.

Selected Key Semiconductor Markets

While a recovery trend in end-user demand for new and improved electronic products and applications continues, various sectors of the semiconductor industry are in turn expected to benefit from a resumption in growth. These sectors include the memory semiconductor market for industrial, mobile and automotive applications, and the LCD and other flat-panel display driver semiconductor market.

Memory Semiconductor Market

The potential for memory market growth is linked to anticipated memory content increases in consumer electronics, industrial, and PC applications (after such time as a recovery occurs in end-user demand for these) due to increasing operating system requirements, increasing use of graphics in gaming and other applications, continued growth of broadband content and a transition to 64-bit PC architecture. The memory market is dominated by two segments-DRAM and flash memory. Potential growth in the DRAM market is expected to be driven by continued growth in both the commodity and niche DRAM market, as well as growth opportunities in mobile DRAM as memory requirements significantly increase for mobile applications. Flash memory market potential growth is expected to be driven by increasing memory requirements for cellular handsets, digital cameras, digital audio/video, server and other mobile applications, and new application demand of NOR flash for automotive/industry, OLED panel and touch with display driver integration (TDDI).

LCD and Other Flat-Panel Display Driver Semiconductor Market

Flat-panel displays are used in applications such as PC monitors, notebook computers, tables, television sets, cellular handsets and digital cameras. The end-user demand for LCD and other flat-panel display driver semiconductors experienced a downturn in 2007 and 2008. The LCD driver market started to recover in the second quarter of 2009. During second half of 2015, we were experiencing inventory corrections of certain market segments. Driven by demand from mobile devices, high resolution (4K/UHD) TVs, TDDI, 12” fine pitch COF for full screen/18:9 screen of new smartphone and OLED implementation, market growth continues.

Logic/Mixed-Signal Semiconductor Market

The communications market is one of the main drivers of potential growth in the semiconductor industry. Logic/mixed-signal semiconductors, which are chips with analog functionality covering more than half of the chip area, are largely used in the communications market. The increasing use of digital technology in communications equipment requires chips with both digital and analog functionality for applications such as modems, network routers, switches, cable set-top boxes and cellular handsets. As the size and cost of cellular handsets and other communications-related devices have decreased, components have increased in complexity. Logic/mixed-signal semiconductors, such as LCD controller, power devices, fingerprint sensors and MEMS products, TV scaler and DVD controllers, are also used in consumer electronic products.

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Overview of the Semiconductor Manufacturing Process

The manufacturing of semiconductors is a complex process that requires increasingly sophisticated engineering and manufacturing expertise. The manufacturing process may be broadly divided into the following stages:

Outsourcing Trends in Semiconductor Manufacturing

Historically, integrated device manufacturers (“IDMs”), designed, manufactured, tested and assembled semiconductors primarily at their own facilities. In recent years, there has been a trend in the industry to outsource various segments of stages in the manufacturing process to reduce the high fixed costs resulting from the increasingly complex manufacturing process. Virtually every significant stage of the manufacturing process can be outsourced. The independent semiconductor manufacturing services market currently consists of wafer fabrication and probing services and semiconductor assembly and test services. Most of the world’s major IDMs now use some independent semiconductor manufacturing services to maintain a strategic mix of internal and external manufacturing capacity. Many of these IDMs are continuously significantly reducing their investments in new semiconductor assembly and test facilities.

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The availability of technologically advanced independent semiconductor manufacturing services has also enabled the growth of “fabless” semiconductor companies that focus exclusively on semiconductor design and marketing and outsource their fabrication, assembly and test requirements to independent companies.

We believe the outsourcing of semiconductor manufacturing services, and in particular of assembly and test services, will increase for many reasons, including the following:

Significant Capital Expenditure Requirements. Driven by increasingly sophisticated technological requirements, wafer fabrication, assembly and test processes have become highly complex, requiring substantial investment in specialized equipment and facilities and sophisticated engineering and manufacturing expertise. In addition, product life cycles have been shortened magnifying the need to continuously upgrade or replace manufacturing, assembly and test equipment to accommodate new products. As a result, new investments in in-house fabrication, assembly and test facilities are becoming less desirable for IDMs because of the high investment costs, as well as difficulties in achieving sufficient economies of scale and utilization rates to be competitive with the independent service providers. On the contrary, independent foundry, assembly and test companies are able to realize the benefits of specialization and achieve economies of scale by providing services to a large customer base across a wide range of products. This enables them to reduce costs and shorten production cycles through high capacity utilization and process expertise.

Increasing Focus on Core Competencies. As the costs of semiconductor manufacturing facilities increase, semiconductor companies are expected to further outsource their wafer fabrication, assembly and test requirements to focus their resources on core competencies, such as semiconductor design and marketing.

Time-to-Market Pressure. Increasingly short product life cycles have amplified time-to-market pressure for semiconductor companies, leading them to rely increasingly on independent companies as a key source for effective wafer fabrication, assembly and test services.

Semiconductor Assembly and Test Services Industry

Growth in the semiconductor assembly and test services industry is driven by increased outsourcing of the various stages of the semiconductor manufacturing process by IDMs and fabless semiconductor companies.

The Semiconductor Industry and Conditions of Outsourcing in Taiwan and Mainland China

Taiwan is one of the world’s leading locations for outsourced semiconductor manufacturing. The semiconductor industry supply chain in Taiwan has developed such that the various stages of the semiconductor manufacturing process have been disaggregated, thus allowing for specialization. The disaggregation of the semiconductor manufacturing process in Taiwan permits these semiconductor manufacturing service providers to focus on particular parts of the production process, develop economies of scale, maintain higher capacity utilization rates and remain flexible in responding to customer needs by lowering time-to-market pressure faced by semiconductor companies. There are several leading service providers in Taiwan, each of which offers substantial capacity, high-quality manufacturing, leading semiconductor wafer fabrication, test, assembly and process technologies, and a full range of services. These service providers have access to an educated labor pool and a large number of engineers suitable for sophisticated manufacturing industries. As a result, many of the world’s leading semiconductor companies outsource some or all of their semiconductor manufacturing needs to Taiwan’s semiconductor manufacturing service providers and take advantage of the close proximity among facilities in the supply chain. In addition, companies located in Taiwan are very active in the design and manufacture of electronic systems, which has created significant local demand for semiconductor devices.

Recently, Mainland China has emerged as an attractive location for outsourced semiconductor manufacturing based on the fact. Companies can take advantage of strongly supports by Mainland China government to accelerate the development of the semiconductor industry and a large domestic market. These factors have driven increased relocation of much of the electronics industry manufacturing and supply chain to Mainland China. An increasing number of global electronic systems manufacturers and contract manufacturers are relocating or have relocated production facilities to Mainland China. We believe that these electronic product manufacturers and contract manufacturers will source an increasing portion of their demand for semiconductors from semiconductor suppliers located in Mainland China in order to reduce production cycle times, decrease costs, simplify supply chain logistics and meet local content requirements. In line with this trend, we have in recent years invested in Mainland China.

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Our Strategy

Our goal is to reinforce our position as a leading independent provider of semiconductor assembly and test services, concentrating principally on memory, logic/mixed-signal and LCD and other flat-panel display driver semiconductors. The principal components of our business strategy are set forth below.

Focus on Providing Our Services to Potential Growth Segments of the Semiconductor Industry.

We intend to continue our focus on developing and providing advanced assembly and test services for potential growth segments of the semiconductor industry, such as memory, logic/mixed-signal, MEMS, LCD and other flat-panel display driver semiconductors and bumping services. We believe that our investments in equipment and research and development in some of these areas allow us to offer a service differentiated from that of our competition. In order to benefit from the expected resumption of growth in these segments, we intend to continue to invest in capacity to meet the assembly and test requirements of these key semiconductor market segments.

Continue to Invest in the Research and Development of Advanced Assembly and Test Technologies.

Critical to our business growth is the continuation to expand our capabilities in testing and assembly and integrate wafer bumping and assembly core technologies to provide turn-key total solution service to our customers. We typically focus on advanced technologies that consist of greater potentials to generate higher margins. For example, we conducted new product introductions and on an on-going basis continue to expand our capabilities in fine-pitch wafer bumping, multi-chip package (“MCP”), flip chip package, and high speed assembly and test of fine-pitch COFs. We have also introduced low cost metal composite bump (“MCB”) products based on our proprietary Cu plating technology to service flat-panel display market and expand offerings to other business regions. We continue to maintain close working relationships with local and overseas research institutions and universities to keep abreast with leading edge technologies and broaden the scope of applications.

In 2018, we expect to focus our research and development efforts in the following areas:

In 2017, we spent approximately 5.5% of our revenue on research and development. We will continue to invest our resources to recruit and retain experienced research and development personnel. As of March 31, 2018, our research and development team comprised 668 persons.

Build on Our Strong Presence in Taiwan and Strong Industrial Position Outside Taiwan.

We intend to build on our strong presence in key centers of semiconductor and electronics manufacturing to grow our business. Currently, most of our operations are in Taiwan, one of the world’s leading locations for outsourced semiconductor manufacturing. This presence provides us with several advantages. Firstly, our proximity to other semiconductor companies is attractive to customers who wish to outsource various stages of the semiconductor manufacturing process. Secondly, our proximity to many of our suppliers, customers and the end-users of our customers’ products enables us to be involved in the early stages of the semiconductor design process, enhances our ability to quickly respond to our customers’ changing requirements and shortens our customers’ time-to-market. Thirdly, we have access to an educated labor pool and a large number of engineers who are able to work closely with our customers and other providers of semiconductor manufacturing services.

We believe that we are strategically positioned to capture the growth opportunities of the semiconductor market in Mainland China by joint venture with Tsinghua Unigroup to ChipMOS Shanghai.

Depending on customer’s demands, market conditions and other relevant considerations, we may from time to time look into other opportunities to expand our operations outside of Taiwan.

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Expand Our Offering of Vertically Integrated Services.

We believe that one of our competitive strengths is our ability to provide vertically integrated services to our customers. Vertically integrated services consist of the integrated testing, assembly and direct shipment of semiconductors to end-users designated by our customers. Providing vertically integrated services enables us to shorten lead times for our customers. As time-to-market and cost increasingly become sources of competitive advantage for our customers, they increasingly value our ability to provide them with comprehensive back-end services.

We are able to offer vertically integrated services for a broad range of products, including memory, logic/mixed-signal and LCD and other flat-panel display driver semiconductors. These services offerings include complementary technologies, products and services as well as additional capacity. We believe that these will continue to enhance our own development and expansion efforts into new and potential growth markets. We intend to establish new alliances with leading companies and, if suitable opportunities arise, engage in merger and acquisition activities that will further expand the services we can provide.

Focus on Increasing Sales through Long-Term Agreements with Key Customers as well as Business with Smaller Customers.

From time to time, we strategically agree to commit a portion of our assembly and test capacity to certain of our customers. We intend to continue focus on increasing sales to key customers through long-term capacity agreements. The customers with which we entered long-term agreements include a reputable memory customer based in the US. See “—Customers” below for a more detailed discussion of these long-term agreements.

Global market and economic conditions have been unprecedented and challenging with tight credit conditions and recession in most major economies since 2008 continuing into 2011. Beginning in 2008, we also resumed our focus on our business with smaller customers or customers who do not place orders on a regular basis. We believe that the dual focused strategy will assist us to be better prepared for the current economic volatility and ensure maximum utilization rate of our capacity and help us to develop closer relationships with all types of our customers.

Principal Products and Services

The following table presents, for the periods shown, revenue by service segment as a percentage of our revenue.

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Memory and Logic/Mixed-Signal Semiconductors

Testing

We provide testing services for memory and logic/mixed-signal semiconductors:

Memory. We provide testing services for a variety of memory semiconductors, such as SRAM, DRAM and Flash memory. To speed up the time-consuming process of memory product testing, we provide parallel test, which includes to complete wafer test in one touchdown (up to 1,000 plus devices simultaneously). The memory semiconductors we test are used primarily in desktop computers, laptop, tablet computers, handheld consumer electronic, devices and wireless communication devices.

Logic/Mixed-Signal. We conduct tests on a wide variety of logic/mixed-signal semiconductors, with lead counts ranging from the single digits to over 1024 and data rate of up to 9GHz. The semiconductors we test include audio/video codec, networking/communications, MCU, LCD related, and MEMS used for home entertainment/media center, personal computer applications, network/communication and mobile smart devices. We also test a variety of application specific integrated circuits (“ASICs”), for applications such as FHD/UHD LCD TV, Tablet PC, etc.

The following is a description of our pre-assembly testing services:

Engineering Testing. We provide engineering testing services, including software program development, electrical design validation, reliability and failure analysis.

Wafer Probing. Wafer probing is the process stage immediately before the assembly of semiconductors and involves visual inspection and the electrical testing of the processed wafer to ensure that it meets our customers’ specifications. Wafer probing employs sophisticated design and manufacturing technologies to connect the terminals of each chip for testing. Defective chips are marked on the surface or memorized in an electronic file, known as a mapping file, to facilitate subsequent process.

Laser Repairing. This is a unique process in testing operation for special SOC memory products. In laser repairing, specific poly or metal fuses are blown after wafer probing to enable a spare row or column of a memory unit in SOC to replace a defective memory cell.

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After assembly, we perform the following testing services:

Burn-In Testing. This process screens out unreliable products using high temperature, high voltage and prolonged stresses environment to ensure that finished products will survive a long period of end-user service. This process is used only for memory products. This process needs customized Burn-In board.

Top Marking . By using either a laser marker or an ink marker, we mark products without heat slug according to our customers’ specification, including the logo, part number, date code and lot number.

Final Testing. Assembled semiconductors are tested to ensure that the devices meet performance specifications. Tests are conducted using specialized equipment with software customized for each application in different temperature conditions ranging from 25 degrees Celsius to 125 degrees Celsius.

Final Inspection and Packing. Final inspection involves visual or auto-inspection of the devices to check any bent leads, ball damage, inaccurate markings or other package defects. Packing involves dry packing, package-in-tray, package-in-tube and tape and reel. According to package level, Dry packing involves heating semiconductors in a tray at 125 to 150 degrees Celsius for about eight to twelve hours to remove the moisture before the semiconductors are vacuum-sealed in an aluminum bag. Package-in-tube involves packing the semiconductors in anti-static tubes for shipment. Tape and reel pack involves transferring semiconductors from a tray or tube onto an anti-static embossed tape and rolling the tape onto a reel for shipment to customers.

Assembly

Our assembly services generally involve the following steps:

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We offer a broad range of package formats designed to provide our customers with a broad array of assembly services. The assembly services we offer customers are leadframe-based packages, which include thin small outline packages, and organic substrate-based packages, including fine-pitch BGA.

The differentiating characteristics of these packages include:

As new applications for semiconductor devices require smaller components, the size of packages has also decreased. In leading-edge packages, the size of the package is reduced to just slightly larger than the size of the individual chip itself in a process known as chip scale packaging.

As semiconductor devices increase in complexity, the number of electrical connections required also increases. Leadframe-based products have electrical connections from the semiconductor device to the electronic product through leads on the perimeter of the package. Organic substrate-based products have solder balls on the bottom of the package, which create the electrical connections with the product and can support large numbers of electrical connections.

Leadframe-Based Packages. These are generally considered the most widely used package category. Each package consists of a semiconductor chip encapsulated in a plastic molding compound with metal leads on the perimeter. This design has evolved from a design plugging the leads into holes on the circuit board to a design soldering the leads to the surface of the circuit board.

The following diagram presents the basic components of a standard leadframe-based package for memory semiconductors:

To address the market for miniaturization of portable electronic products, we are currently developing and will continue to develop increasingly smaller versions of leadframe-based packages to keep pace with continually shrinking semiconductor device sizes. Our advanced leadframe-based packages generally are thinner and smaller, have more leads and have advanced thermal and electrical characteristics when compared to traditional packages. As a result of our continual product development, we offer leadframe-based packages with a wide range of lead counts and sizes to satisfy our customers’ requirements.

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The following table presents our principal leadframe-based packages, including the number of leads in each package, commonly known as lead-count, a description of each package and the end-user applications of each package.

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Organic Substrate-based Packages. As the number of leads surrounding a traditional leadframe-based package increases, the leads must be placed closer together to reduce the size of the package. The close proximity of one lead to another can create electrical shorting problems and requires the development of increasingly sophisticated and expensive techniques to accommodate the high number of leads on the circuit boards.

The BGA format solves this problem by effectively creating external terminals on the bottom of the package in the form of small bumps or balls. These balls are evenly distributed across the entire bottom surface of the package, allowing greater pitch between the individual terminals. The ball grid array configuration enables high-pin count devices to be manufactured less expensively with less delicate handling at installation.

Our organic substrate-based packages employ a fine-pitch BGA design, which uses a plastic or tape laminate rather than a leadframe and places the electrical connections, or leads, on the bottom of the package rather than around the perimeter. The fine-pitch BGA format was developed to address the need for the smaller footprints required by advanced memory devices. Benefits of ball grid array assembly over leadframe-based assembly include:

The following diagram presents the basic component parts of a fine-pitch BGA package:

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The following table presents the ball-count, description and end-user applications of organic substrate-based packages we currently assemble:

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Wafer Level CSP

Wafer-level CSP (WLCSP) is the technology of packaging an integrated circuit at wafer level. WLCSP is essentially a true chip scale package (CSP) technology, since the resulting package is practically of the same size as the die. WLCSP has the ability to enable true integration of wafer fab, packaging, test, and burn-in at wafer level in order to streamline the manufacturing process undergone by a device start from silicon wafer to customer shipment.

Most other kinds of packaging does wafer dicing first, and then puts the individual die in a plastic package and attaches the solder bumps. WLCSP involves the RDL, wafer solder bumping, while still in the wafer, and then wafer dicing. Benefits of WLCSP compare to general CSP package assembly include:

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FC CSP

Flip-chip chip scale package (FC CSP) construction utilizes the flip chip bumping (with solder bump or Cu pillar bump) interconnection technology to replace the standard wire-bond interconnect. It allows for a smaller form factor due to wire loop reduction and area array bumping. FC CSP includes the substrate or leadframe type solution making an attractive option for advanced CSP application when electrical performance is a critical factor.

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Display Driver Semiconductors and Gold Bumping

We also offer assembly and test services for display driver semiconductors. We employ TCP, COF and COG technologies for testing and assembling display driver semiconductors. In addition, we offer gold bumping services to our customers.

Tape Carrier Package (TCP) Technology

TCPs offer a high number of inputs and outputs, a thin package profile and a smaller footprint on the circuit board, without compromising performance. Key package features include surface mount technology design, fine-pitch tape format and slide carrier handling. Because of their flexibility and high number of inputs and outputs, TCPs are primarily employed either for STN-LCD or TFT-LCD driver semiconductors.

Testing of TCPs. We conduct full function testing of LCD and other flat-panel display driver semiconductors with a specially designed probe handler to ensure reliable contact to the test pads on the TCP tape. We can test STN-LCD or TFT-LCD driver semiconductors with frequencies of up to 750 MHz and at voltages up to 40V. The test is performed in a temperature-controlled environment with the device in tape form. The assembled and tested LCD and other flat-panel display driver semiconductors in tape form are packed between spacer tapes together with a desiccant in an aluminum bag to avoid contact during shipment.

Assembly of TCPs. TCPs use a tape-automated bonding process to connect die and tape. The printed circuit tape is shipped with a reel. The reel is then placed onto an inner lead bonder, where the LCD or other flat-panel display driver semiconductor is configured onto the printed circuit tape. The resulting TCP component consists of the device interconnected to a three-layer tape, which includes a polyimide carrier film, an epoxy-based adhesive layer and a metal layer. The tape metallization area of the interconnections is tin plated over a metal layer. The silicon chip and inner lead area is encapsulated with a high temperature thermosetting polymer after inner lead bonding. The back face of the chip is left un-sealed for thermal connection to the printed circuit board.

For the limitation of inner lead pitch (>41um) with this kind of package, the volume of TCP nowadays has been trending down to ~1% of total demand.

The following diagram presents the basic components of a TCP:

Chip-on-Film (COF) Technology

In 2001, we commenced assembly and test services using COF technology. We have developed this proprietary technology from our existing TCP technology, and it has been widely accepted by our customers. The primary use of the COF module is to replace TCP in certain applications.

COF technology provides several additional advantages. For example, COF is able to meet the size, weight and higher resolution requirements in electronic products, such as flat-panel displays. This is because of its structural design, including an adhesive-free two-layer tape that is highly flexible, bending strength and its capacity to receive finer patterning pitch.

COF package has been using for large-size and high-resolution panel display, especially on TFT-LCD and OLED TV set. In recent years, there has been an observable trend with which the average inner lead pitch of COF package went down to 23um with about 50% of market share. High thermal dissipation packaging technology is available for mass production. And dual IC with high thermal dissipation COF packaging technology is in development for 8K TV market. 18um inner lead pitch of 1-metal layer and 20um inner lead pitch 2-metal layer COF package has been released to mass production for the coming market trend of narrow frame smartphone requirement. And we can test display driver semiconductors with frequencies of up to 4 Gbps to fulfill high speed data rate requirement of semiconductor.

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The following diagram presents the basic components of 1-metal layer COF and 2-metal layer COF:

The TCP and COF processes involve the following steps:

Chip-on-Glass (COG) Technology

COG technology is an electronic assembly technology that is used in assembling display driver semiconductors including TV/monitor and mobile products. Compared to the traditional bonding process for TCP or COF, the new COG technology requires lower bonding temperature. In addition, the COG technology reduces assembly cost as it does not use tapes for interconnection between the LCD panel and the printed circuit board. The major application of COG products is on TFT-LCD and AMOLED display of smart phone market, it integrates source, gate driver of display driver IC (DDIC) and TDDI or timing Controller IC into one chip, so the output channel is larger than TCP or COF products. For the market trend of thinner smartphone, 150um in IC thickness is released for mass production and more thinner IC thickness is in development.

The COG assembly technology involves the following steps:

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Bumping

We also offer bumping services to our customers.

Based on the major product portfolio (judged by internal metal composition), we provide:

Gold bumping technology, which can be used in TCP, COF and other specific. Au wire assembly process is a necessary interconnection technology for LCD and other flat-panel display driver semiconductors. Most gold bumping services are performed on eight or twelve-inches wafers. Gold bumping technology provides the best solution for fine-pitch chips and is able to meet the highly efficient production requirement for LCD and other flat-panel display (for example, LED and OLED) driver semiconductors or other chips that require thin packaging profiles.

Lots of logical device have applied Cu RDL, WLCSP, Solder and Cu Pillar service for their FC CSP and/or QFN package and other wafer level package (Fan-in, Fan-out, 2.5D & 3DIC). The product scope includes but is not limited to flash, power devices and MEMS.

Both of above two portfolios which fabrication process uses thin film metal deposition, photolighography for both pattern transfer of Photoresist and PI/PBO and electrical plating technologies (WLCSP have extra ball drop procee). A series of barrier and seed metal layers are deposited over the surface of the wafer. A layer of thick photoresist material is spin-coated over these barrier and seed layers. A photomask is used to pattern the locations over each of the bond pads that will be bumped. Broadband spectrum exposure and developing processes open the photoresist material, same as permanent layers (PI/PBO) which defines the bump shape, PI/PBO open size & shape. Both portfolios are then electroplated over the pad and the deposited barrier metal layers. Once the plating is complete, a series of etching steps are used to remove the photoresist material and the metal layers that are covering the rest of the wafer. All of plating structure (Au, Au metal composite bump, RDL, Solder & Cu Pillar) protects the underlying materials from being etched. The gold bumped wafers will go through an annealing furnace to soften the gold bumps to fit the hardness requirement of TCP, COF and COG assembly processes. Other PI/PBO included process need specific thermal process for better dielectric layer cross-linking to strength the film.

Other Services

Drop Shipment

We offer drop shipment of semiconductors directly to end-users designated by our customers. We provide drop shipment services, including assembly in customer-approved and branded boxes, to a majority of our assembly and test customers. Since drop shipment eliminates the additional step of inspection by the customer prior to shipment to end-users, quality of service is a key to successful drop shipment service. We believe that our ability to successfully execute our full range of services, including drop shipment services, is an important factor in maintaining existing customers as well as attracting new customers.

Software Development, Conversion and Optimization Program

We work closely with our customers to provide sophisticated software engineering services, including test program development, conversion and optimization, and related hardware design. Generally, testing requires customized testing software and related hardware to be developed for each particular product. Software is often initially provided by the customer and then converted by us at our facilities for use on one or more of our testing machines and contains varying functionality depending on the specified testing procedures. Once a conversion test program has been developed, we perform correlation and trial tests on the semiconductors.

Customer feedback on the test results enables us to adjust the conversion test programs prior to actual testing. We also typically assist our customers in collecting and analyzing the test results and recommends engineering solutions to improve their design and production process.

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Customers

We believe that the following factors have been, and will continue to be, important factors in attracting and retaining customers:

The number of our customers as of March 31 of 2016, 2017 and 2018, respectively, was 77, 74 and 78. Our top 15 customers in terms of revenue in 2017 were (in alphabetical order):

Asahi Kasei Microdevices Corporation

Elite Semiconductor Memory Technology Inc.

Etron Technology, Inc.

FocalTech Systems Co., Ltd.

Himax Technologies, Inc.

LAPIS Semiconductor Co., Ltd.

Integrated Circuit Solution Inc.

Mstar Semiconductor, Inc.

Macronix International Co., Ltd.

Micron Technology, Inc.

Novatek Microelectronics Corp.

Raydium Semiconductor Corporation

Synaptics Display Devices GK

Winbond Electronics Corporation

Zentel Electronics Corp.

In 2016, our top three customers accounted for approximately 18%, 17% and 14% of our revenue, respectively. In 2017, our top three customers accounted for approximately 19%, 15% and 10% of our revenue, respectively.

The majority of our customers purchase our services through purchase orders and provide us three-month non-binding rolling forecasts on a monthly basis. The price for our services is typically agreed upon at the time when a purchase order is placed.

Since 2008, we have also focused on our business with smaller customers and customers who do not place orders on a regular basis.

The following table sets forth, for the periods indicated, the percentage breakdown of our revenue, categorized by geographic region based on the jurisdiction in which each customer is headquartered.

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Qualification and Correlation by Customers

Our customers generally require that our facilities undergo a stringent “qualification” process during which the customer evaluates our operations, production processes and product reliability, including engineering, delivery control and testing capabilities. The qualification process typically takes up to eight weeks, or longer, depending on the requirements of the customer. For test qualification, after we have been qualified by a customer and before the customer delivers semiconductors to us for testing in volume, a process known as “correlation” is undertaken. During the correlation process, the customer provides us with test criteria; information regarding process flow and sample semiconductors to be tested and either provides us with the test program or requests that we develop a new or conversion program. In some cases, the customer also provides us with a data log of results of any testing of the semiconductor that the customer may have conducted previously. The correlation process typically takes up to two weeks, but can take longer depending on the requirements of the customer.

Sales and Marketing

We maintain sales and marketing offices in Taiwan and the United States. Our sales and marketing strategy is to focus on memory semiconductors in Taiwan, Japan, Korea and the United States, logic/mixed-signal semiconductors in Taiwan, Japan and the United States, LCD and other flat-panel display driver semiconductors in Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Mainland China. As of March 31, 2018, our sales and marketing efforts were primarily carried out by teams of sales professionals, application engineers and technicians, totaling 29 staff members. Each of these teams focuses on specific customers and/or geographic regions. As part of our emphasis on customer service, these teams:

We conduct marketing research through our in-house customer service personnel and through our relationships with our customers and suppliers to keep abreast of market trends and developments. Furthermore, we do product and system bench marking analysis to understand the application and assembly technology evolution, such as analysis on mobile handsets and Tablet, PC, handfree products. In addition, we regularly collect data from different segments of the semiconductor industry and, when possible, we work closely with our customers to design and develop assembly and test services for their new products. These “co-development” or “sponsorship” projects can be critical when customers seek large-scale, early market entry with a significant new product.

We have appointed a non-exclusive sales agent for promoting our services for memory semiconductors in Korea. Our sales agent helps us promote and market our services, maintain relations with our existing and potential customers and communicate with our customers on quality, specific requirements and delivery issues. We generally pay our sales agent a commission of 3.5% of our revenue from services for memory semiconductors in Korea. In 2016 and 2017, we paid approximately NT$4 million and NT$5 million (US$169 thousand), respectively, in commissions to our sales agent.

Research and Development

To maintain our competitive edge for continued business growth, we continue our focus of our investment in new technology research and development. In 2016 and 2017, we spent approximately NT$839 million, or 4.5% and NT$986 million (US$33 million), or 5.5%, respectively, of our revenue on research and development. We intend to sustain these efforts.

Our research and development efforts have been focused primarily on new technology instruction, improving efficiency and production yields of our assembly and test services. From time to time, we jointly develop new technologies with local and international research institutions and universities. In testing area, our research and development efforts focused particularly on high speed probing, fine pitch probing capability and wafer level burn-in technology. Our projects include:

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In bumping and assembly areas, our research and development efforts were directed to:

For new product and product enhancement work in 2017, our work concentrates on three key development programs: 3D WLCSP, biometric sensor package solutions, and flip chip technology. In the bumping area, we completed customer qualification of 300mm wafer Au bumping process in 2012 and started volume production in Q4, 2012. Development of Cu plating enables the entry of WLCSP, RDL and flip chip market and Cu RDL applied on DRAM wafer for SiP product is qualified in 2016. Turnkey services of WLCSP and flip chip QFN have been implemented for mass production in 2013 based on the successful technology developments. In 2012, we also initiated both 200mm and 300mm Cu pillar bumping engineering work and, related packaging technologies are being developed for mixed-signal and memory products in 2013. It is also qualified on power management IC product in 2016. By integrating WLCSP bumping, copper pillar bumping and flip chip assembly capability, an integrated WLCSP (CoW or 3D WLCSP) is developing in 2015, and qualified the structure & process verification in 2016. CoW not only provides the cost effective package solution by stacking the different wafer node technology chip, but also could meet integrated function and smallest package footprint. Meanwhile, fingerprint sensor (FPS) packaging solution by LGA was also developed for smartphone demand in 2015. More and more integrated function of DDIC and TDIC, TDDI, is requested for smartphone application, therefore 2-metal layers COF solution and COF SMT are developed to provide the package solution and TDDI since 2016.

In 2013, in-process engineering advancement allowed us to extend our wirebond technology to service MEMS products. To further achieve cost reduction, alloy wire and 0.6 mil Au wirebond processes were also developed. In 2017, we will continue to work on improvements of wafer thinning and polishing operations facilitate the expansion of multi-chip NAND packages offerings. Capability of handling miniature molded packages has been extended to 1x1 mm size and various improvements will also be made in production equipment to enhance throughput and efficiency.

As of March 31, 2018 we employed 668 employees in our research and development activities. In addition, other management and operational personnel are also involved in research and development activities but are not separately identified as research and development professionals.

We maintain laboratory facilities capable for materials and electrical characterizations to support production and new product development. Computer simulation is used to validate both mechanical and electrical models in comparison to measurement results. Enhancement of Shadow Moiré and Micro Moiré equipment was carried out to support MCP and flip chip package warpage and residue stress characterization. In Advanced Packaging Lab, rheology measurement capability and high frequency electric simulation capability were established, aimed at expanding capability for material selection and inspection to support flip chip introduction and various resin characterizations. An analytical laboratory has been built out in our bumping line providing timely support to manufacturing operations.

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Quality Control

We believe that our reputation for high quality and reliable services have been an important factor in attracting and retaining leading international semiconductor companies as customers for our assembly and test services. We are committed to delivering semiconductors that meet or exceed our customers’ specifications on time and at a competitive cost. We maintain quality control staff at each of our facilities.

As of March 31, 2018, we employed 337 personnel for our quality control activities. Our quality control staff typically includes engineers, technicians and other employees who monitor assembly and test processes in order to ensure high quality. We employ quality control procedures in the following critical areas:

All of our facilities have obtained IATF 16949 quality system certification in December 2017. In addition, our facilities in Hsinchu and Tainan have been ISO 9002 certified in September 1997 and December 1998, respectively, and recertified with ISO 9001 for substantial revision since 2015.

IATF 16949 certification system seeks to integrate quality management standards into the operation of a company, and emphasizes the supervision and measurement of process and performance. An ISO 9001 certification is required by many countries for sales of industrial products.

In addition to the quality management system, we also earned the 1998 QC Group Award from The Chinese Society of Quality, which is equivalent to the similar award from the American Society of Quality. In 2003, ChipMOS passed SONY Green Partner (Tier 2) certification through its ProMOS channel, and in 2009, ChipMOS obtained SONY Green Partner (Tier 1) certification due to its direct business relationship with SONY. Our laboratories have also been awarded Chinese National Laboratory accreditation under the categories of reliability test, electricity and temperature calibration.

Our assembly and test operations are carried out in clean rooms where air purity, temperature and humidity are controlled. To ensure the stability and integrity of our operations, we maintain clean rooms at our facilities that meet U.S. federal 209E class 100, 1,000, 10,000 and 100,000 standards. A class 1,000 clean room means a room containing less than 1,000 particles of contaminants per cubic foot.

We have established manufacturing quality control systems that are designed to ensure high-quality services to our customers and maintain reliability and high production yields at our facilities. We employ specialized equipment for manufacturing quality and reliability control, including:

In addition, to enhance our performance and our research and development capabilities, we also installed a series of high-cost equipment, such as temperature humidity bias testers, low temperature storage-life testers and highly accelerated stress testers. We believe that many of our competitors do not own this equipment.

As a result of our ongoing focus on quality, in 2017, we achieved monthly assembly yields of an average of 99.93% for our memory and logic/mixed-signal assembly packages, 99.97% for our COF packages, 99.95% for our COG packages and 99.95% for our bumping products. The assembly yield, which is the industry standard for measuring production yield, is equal to the number of integrated circuit packages that are shipped back to customers divided by the number of individual integrated circuits that are attached to leadframes or organic substrate.

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Raw Materials

Semiconductor testing requires minimal raw materials. Substantially all of the raw materials used in our memory and logic/mixed-signal semiconductor assembly processes are interconnect materials such as leadframes, organic substrates, gold wire and molding compound. Raw materials used in the LCD and other flat-panel display driver semiconductor assembly and test process include carrier tape, resin, spacer tape, plastic reel, aluminum bags, and inner and outer boxes. Cost of raw materials represented 18% and 17% of our revenue in 2016 and 2017, respectively.

We do not maintain large inventories of leadframes, organic substrates, gold wire or molding compound, but generally maintain sufficient stock of each principal raw material for approximately one month’s production based on blanket orders and rolling forecasts of near-term requirements received from customers. In addition, since the commencement of economic downturn in second quarter of 2008, due to the volatility of the semiconductor market, several of our principal suppliers have also ceased to stock inventories to be reserved to meet its customers’ production requirements. Instead, our suppliers now require longer lead time for delivery of our supply orders. Shortage in the supply of materials experienced by the semiconductor industry have in the past resulted in price adjustments. Our principal raw material supplies have not been impacted by the Japan earthquake and tsunami catastrophe. See “Item 3. Key Information—Risk Factors—Risks Relating to Our Business—If we are unable to obtain raw materials and other necessary inputs from our suppliers in a timely and cost-effective manner, our production schedules would be delayed and we may lose customers and growth opportunities and become less profitable” for a discussion of the risks associated with our raw materials purchasing methods. For example, with the exception of aluminum bags and inner and outer boxes, which we acquire from local sources, the raw materials used in our TCP/COF process and for modules are obtained from a limited number of Japanese suppliers.

Competition

The independent assembly and test markets are very competitive. Our competitors include large IDMs with in-house testing and assembly capabilities and other independent semiconductor assembly and test companies, especially those offering vertically integrated assembly and test services, such as Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc., Amkor Technology, Inc., Chipbond Technology Corporation, King Yuan Electronics Co., Ltd., Powertech Technology, Siliconware Precision, Jiangsu Changjiang Electronics Technology Co., Ltd. and United Test and Assembly Center Ltd. We believe that the principal measures of competitiveness in the independent semiconductor testing industry are:

In assembly services, we compete primarily on the basis of:

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IDMs that use our services continually evaluate our performance against their own in-house assembly and test capabilities. These IDMs may have access to more advanced technologies and greater financial and other resources than we do. We believe, however, that we can offer greater efficiency and lower costs while maintaining an equivalent or higher level of quality for three reasons:

Intellectual Property

As of March 31, 2018, we held 504 patents in Taiwan, 178 patents in the United States, 258 patents in the People’s Republic of China and 1 patent in the United Kingdom, France, and Germany, respectively, and 2 patents in Korea and Japan, respectively, relating to various semiconductor assembly and test technologies. These patents will expire at various dates through to 2037. As of March 31, 2018, we also had a total of 6 pending patent applications in the United States, 19 in Taiwan, 77 in the People’s Republic of China, and 1 in Europe. In addition, we have registered “ChipMOS” and its logo and “InPack” as trademarks in Taiwan, and “ChipMOS” and its logo as trademarks in the United States, the People’s Republic of China, Singapore, Hong Kong, Korea, Japan and the European Community.

We expect to continue to file patent applications where appropriate to protect our proprietary technologies. We may need to enforce our patents or other intellectual property rights or to defend ourselves against claimed infringement of the rights of others through litigation, which could result in substantial costs and a diversion of our resources. See “Item 3. Key Information—Risk Factors—Risks Relating to Our Business—Disputes over intellectual property rights could be costly, deprive us of technologies necessary for us to stay competitive, render us unable to provide some of our services and reduce our opportunities to generate revenue”.

Government Regulations

As discussed above under “—Intellectual Property”, governmental regulation of our intellectual property may materially affect our business. The failure to protect our property rights would deprive us of our ability to stay competitive in the semiconductor industry. Our intellectual property rights are protected by the relevant patent and intellectual property agencies of the European Community, United States, the People’s Republic of China, Singapore, Hong Kong, Korea, Japan and Taiwan.

Environmental Matters

Semiconductor testing does not generate significant pollutants. The semiconductor assembly and gold bumping process generate stationary acid, alkali and VOC pollutions, principally at the plating and etching stages. Water waste is produced when silicon wafers are ground thinner, diced into chips with the aid of diamond saws and cleaned with running water. In addition, excess materials, either on lead-frames or molding process, are removed from assembled semiconductors in the trimming and de-junking processes, respectively. We have various treatment equipments for wastewater and air pollutants at our assembly and bumping facilities. Since 2001, we have adopted certain environmentally-friendly production management systems, and have implemented certain measures intended to bring our all processes in compliance with the Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive 2002/95/EC issued by the European Union and our customers. We believe that we have adequate and effective environmental protection measures that are consistent with semiconductor industry practices in Taiwan. In addition, we believe we are in compliance in all material respects with current environmental laws and regulations applicable to our operations and facilities.

All of our facilities in Taiwan have been certified as meeting the ISO 14001 environmental standards of the International Organization for Standardization, and all of our facilities in Taiwan have been certified as meeting the OHSAS 18001 standards of the International Organization for Standardization. Our facilities at Hsinchu Science Park, Chupei and Southern Taiwan Science Park have won numerous awards including “Green Factory Label”, “Enterprises Environmental Protection Award” and “Occupational Safety and Health Excellent Award”, “Green Building Label” and “Health Promotion Awards” from 2012 to 2017. We continue to encourage our employees to participate in community environmental campaigns and better environmental friendly practices.

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We will continue to enhance related management to reduce industrial waste, save energy and control pollution. For products in conformity with Green Product Requirement, the Company obtained Green Partner certification from Sony Corporation of Japan. Furthermore we passed QC 080000 certification and “Greenhouse Gas Verification Statement” (ISO 14064) from 2013 until now. We further confirmed many product’s CFP “Carbon Footprint Verification Statement” (ISO 14067) and WFN “Water Footprint Verification Statement”. At the same time, Tainan and Hsinchu plants passed the certification of energy management program (“ISO 50001”) since 2015. We plan to arrange all of ChipMOS plants to pass the certification of ISO 50001 in the near future. Our policy is to pay attention to the environment issues by standardizing on green, environmental-friendly products, cleaner process and enhance supplier chain management to meet ChipMOS’ Corporate Social Responsibilities.

Insurance

We maintain insurance policies on our buildings, equipment and inventories. These insurance policies cover property damages due to all risks, including but not limited to, fire, lightning and earthquakes. The maximum coverage of property insurance for the Company is approximately NT$74,364 million.

Insurance coverage on facilities under construction is maintained by us and our contractors, who are obligated to procure necessary insurance policies and bear the relevant expenses of which we are the beneficiary. We also maintain insurance on the wafers delivered to us while these wafers are in our possession and during transportation from suppliers to us and from us to our customers.

Employees

See “Item 6. Directors, Senior Management and Employees—Employees” for certain information relating to our employees.

Taxation

See “Item 5. Operating and Financial Review and Prospects—Taxation” for certain information regarding the effect of ROC tax regulations on our operations.

Facilities

We provide testing services through our facilities in Taiwan at following locations: Chupei, the Hsinchu Industrial Park, the Hsinchu Science Park, and the Southern Taiwan Science Park. We provide assembly services through our facility at the Southern Taiwan Science Park. We own the land for our Hsinchu Industrial Park testing facility and Chupei facility and we lease two parcels of land for our Hsinchu Science Park testing facility with lease expiration in year 2027 and 2034, respectively, and two parcels of land for our Southern Taiwan Science Park facility with lease expiration in year 2024 and 2032.

The following table shows the location, primary use and size of each of our facilities, and the principal equipment installed at each facility, as of March 31, 2018.

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Equipment

Testing of Memory and Logic/Mixed-Signal Semiconductors

Test equipment is the most capital-intensive component of the memory and logic/mixed-signal semiconductors test business. Upon the acquisition of new test equipment, we install, configure, calibrate and perform burn-in diagnostic tests on the equipment. We also establish parameters for the test equipment based on anticipated requirements of existing and potential customers and considerations relating to market trends. As of March 31, 2018, we operated 521 testers for testing memory and logic/mixed-signal semiconductors. We generally seek to purchase testers with similar functionality that are able to test a variety of different semiconductors. We purchase testers from international manufacturer, Advantest Corporation.

In general, particular semiconductors can be tested using a limited number of specially designed testers. As part of the qualification process, customers will specify the machines on which their semiconductors may be tested. We often develop test program conversion tools that enable us to test semiconductors on multiple equipment platforms. This portability among testers enables us to allocate semiconductor testing across our available testing capacity and thereby improve capacity utilization rates. If a customer requires the testing of a semiconductor that is not yet fully developed, the customer consigns its testing software programs to us to test specific functions. If a customer specifies test equipment that is not widely applicable to other semiconductors we test, we require the customer to furnish the equipment on a consignment basis.

We will continue to acquire additional test equipment in the future to the extent market conditions, cash generated from operations, the availability of financing and other factors make it desirable to do so. Some of the equipment and related spare parts that we require have been in short supply in recent years. Moreover, the equipment is only available from a limited number of vendors or is manufactured in relatively limited quantities and may have lead time from order to delivery in excess of six months.

Assembly of Memory and Logic/Mixed-Signal Semiconductors

The number of wire bonders at a given facility is commonly used as a measure of the assembly capacity of the facility. Typically, wire bonders may be used, with minor modifications, for the assembly of different products. We purchase wire bonders principally from Shinkawa Co., Ltd. and Kulicke & Soffa Industries Inc. As of March 31, 2018, we operated 800 wire bonders. In addition to wire bonders, we maintain a variety of other types of assembly equipment, such as wafer grinders, wafer mounters, wafer saws, die bonders, automated molding machines, laser markers, solder platers, pad printers, dejunkers, trimmers, formers, substrate saws and lead scanners.

Gold Bumping, Assembly and Test of LCD and Other Flat-Panel Display Driver Semiconductors

We acquired TCP-related equipment from Sharp to begin our TCP-related services. We subsequently purchased additional TCP-related testers from Yokogawa Electric Corp. and Advantest Corporation and assembly equipment from Shibaura Mechatronics Corp., SETEC CORPORATION and GMM Corp. As of March 31, 2018, we operated 9 steppers and 18 sputters for gold bumping, 101 inner-lead bonders for assembly and 488 testers for LCD and other flat-panel display driver semiconductors. We are currently in the process of purchasing additional test equipment. The test equipment can be used for the TCP, COF and COG processes, while the inner-lead bonders are only used in the TCP and COF processes. The same types of wafer grinding, auto wafer mount and die saw equipment is used for the TCP, COF and COG processes. In addition, auto inspection machines and manual work are used in the COG process, which is more labor-intensive than the TCP and COF processes.

Not applicable.

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This discussion and analysis should be read in conjunction with our consolidated financial statements and related notes contained in this Annual Report on Form 20-F.

Overview

We provide a broad range of back-end assembly and test services. Test services include wafer probing and final testing of memory and logic/mixed-signal semiconductors. We also offer a broad selection of leadframe and organic substrate-based package assembly services for memory and logic/mixed-signal semiconductors. Our advanced leadframe-based packages include thin small outline packages, or TSOPs, and our advanced organic substrate-based packages include fine-pitch ball grid array, or fine-pitch BGA, packages. We also offer WLCSP products and turn-key flip chip assembly and test services using variety of leadframe and organic substrate carries. In addition, we provide gold bumping, reel to reel assembly and test services for LCD, OLED and other flat-panel display driver semiconductors by employing TCP, COF and COG technologies. Our copper bumping technology supports non-driver type of products, such as RDL, copper pillar, WLCSP etc. In 2017, our consolidated revenue was NT$17,941 million (US$605 million) and our profit for the year attributable to equity holders of the Company was NT$2,797 million (US$94 million).

We are a company limited by shares, incorporated in ROC on July 28, 1997 as a joint venture company of Mosel and Siliconware Precision and with the participation of other investors. We provide our services through our subsidiaries and affiliates.

Following the completion of the share exchange transaction between ChipMOS Bermuda and the Company on September 14, 2007, the Company became a wholly-owned subsidiary of ChipMOS Bermuda. In February 2010, ChipMOS Bermuda agreed to sell 15.8% of the Company’s outstanding shares to Siliconware Precision. The share purchase transaction was completed in January 2011. As part of the Company’s listing plan on the TWSE, on April 16, 2013, ChipMOS Bermuda completed the sale of 6.5 million outstanding shares or 0.8% of the total number of outstanding shares of the Company, at the price of NT$15.0 per share to the Company’s underwriters and to certain others, including non-US employees of the Company. Also, from September 2, 2013 to October 3, 2013, ChipMOS Bermuda completed another sale of 180 million outstanding shares or 21.4% of the total number of outstanding shares of the Company, at the price of NT$20.0 per share to investors. On April 9, 2014, ChipMOS Bermuda sold approximately 1.3 million shares of the Company as “green shoe” option to market investors. The Company became listed and commenced trading on the main board of TWSE on April 11, 2014. See “Item 3. Key Information—Risk Factors—Risks Relating to Our Common Shares or ADSs—The Company’s ability to maintain its listing and trading status of common shares on the Taiwan Stock Exchange or ADSs on the NASDAQ Stock Market is dependent on factors outside of the Company’s control and satisfaction of stock exchange requirements. The Company may not be able to overcome such factors that disrupt its trading status of common shares on the Taiwan Stock Exchange or ADSs on the NASDAQ Stock Market or satisfy other eligibility requirements that may be required of it in the future” for additional information.

In April 2011, ChipMOS Bermuda entered into the MMT Assignment Agreement with ThaiLin to sell the MMT Notes to ThaiLin for a purchase price of approximately US$40 million. The MMT Assignment Agreement transaction was completed on October 3, 2011 and ChipMOS BVI, then became the wholly-owned subsidiary of ThaiLin. On November 12, 2014, the Company made announcement for the contemplated merger with ThaiLin. The merger completed on June 17, 2015 and the Company continues as the surviving merged entity. ChipMOS BVI then became the wholly-owned subsidiary of the Company.

On December 11, 2015, the board of the Company authorized and the Company and Tsinghua Unigroup executed the Tsinghua Share Subscription Agreement, which is included as Exhibit 4.3, to sell and issue 299,252,000 shares of the Company to Tsinghua Unigroup through the Private Placement at a price of NT$40.0 per common share of the Company representing an aggregate purchase price of approximately NT$12.0 billion. The Company and Tsinghua Unigroup and its subsidiary also have entered into other agreements related to the Tsinghua Share Subscription Agreement. On November 30, 2016, the Company and Tsinghua Unigroup mutually agreed to terminate the Tsinghua Share Subscription Agreement and to form a joint-venture. Under the joint-venture, ChipMOS BVI, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Company, would sell 54.98% of the equity interests of its wholly-owned subsidiary, ChipMOS Shanghai, to strategic investors, including Unigroup Guowei, a subsidiary of Tsinghua Unigroup, which will hold 48% equity interests of ChipMOS Shanghai, and the other strategic investors, including a limited partnership owned by ChipMOS Shanghai’s employees, will own 6.98% equity interest of ChipMOS Shanghai. In March 2017, ChipMOS BVI completed the sale of 54.98% equity interests of ChipMOS Shanghai to Unigroup Guowei and other strategic investors. ChipMOS Shanghai was no longer the subsidiary of ChipMOS BVI. On June 30, 2017, we completed the first stage capital injection of ChipMOS Shanghai, and on January 19, 2018, completed the second stage capital injection of ChipMOS Shanghai. See “Item 4. Information on the Company—Our Structure and History” for more details.

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On January 21, 2016, ChipMOS Bermuda and the Company entered into the Merger Agreement, pursuant to which ChipMOS Bermuda merged with and into the Company, with the latter being the surviving company after the Merger. Pursuant to the Merger Agreement, at the effective time, each ChipMOS Bermuda share issued and outstanding immediately prior to the effective time was cancelled and, in exchange, each former holder of such cancelled ChipMOS Bermuda shares was entitled to receive, with respect to each such ChipMOS Bermuda share, (i) 0.9355 ADS, representing 18.71 the Company share, each ADS representing 20 common shares of the Company, and (ii) US$3.71 in cash, without interest, net of any applicable withholding tax. Upon completion of the Merger, the Company and its subsidiaries owned continued to conduct the business that they conducted in substantially the same manner. For additional information regarding the Merger see “Item 4. Information on the Company”.

We conduct testing operations in our facilities at the Hsinchu Science Park, the Hsinchu Industrial Park and Chupei, gold bumping and wafer testing in our facility at Chupei, and assembly and testing operations in our facility at the Southern Taiwan Science Park. We also conduct operations in Mainland China through ChipMOS Shanghai, a 45.02%-owned affiliate of ChipMOS BVI. ChipMOS Shanghai operates an assembly and test facility at the Qingpu Industrial Zone in Shanghai.

The following key trends are important to understanding our business:

Capital Intensive Nature of Our Business. Our operations, in particular our testing operations, are characterized by relatively high fixed costs. We expect to continue to incur substantial depreciation and other expenses as a result of our previous acquisitions of assembly and test equipment and facilities. Our profitability depends in part not only on absolute pricing levels for our services, but also on capacity utilization rates for our assembly and test equipment. In particular, increases or decreases in our capacity utilization rates could significantly affect our gross margins since the unit cost of assembly and test services generally decreases as fixed costs are allocated over a larger number of units.

The current generation of advanced testers typically cost between US$1 million and US$5 million each, while wire bonders used in assembly typically cost approximately US$68 thousand each and inner-lead bonders for TCP and COF assembly cost approximately US$360 thousand each and COG chip sorters cost approximately US$220 thousand each. We begin depreciating our equipment when it is placed into commercial operation. There may be a time lag between the time when our equipment is placed into commercial operation and when it achieves high levels of utilization. In periods of depressed semiconductor industry conditions, we may experience lower than expected demand from our customers and a sharp decline in the average selling prices of our assembly and test services, resulting in an increase in depreciation expenses relative to revenue. In particular, the capacity utilization rates for our test equipment may be severely adversely affected during a semiconductor industry downturn as a result of the decrease in outsourcing demand from integrated device manufacturers, or IDMs, which typically maintain larger in-house testing capacity than in-house assembly capacity.

Highly Cyclical Nature of the Semiconductor Industry . The worldwide semiconductor industry has experienced peaks and troughs over the last decade, with a severe downturn beginning in the fourth quarter of 2000 that was followed by a recovery in early 2003. The significant decrease in market demand for semiconductors that began in 2000 adversely affected our results of operations for 2001 and 2002. Beginning in the fourth quarter of 2008, the semiconductor industry commenced another significant downturn which continued in 2009 and in 2010. Market demand for semiconductors significantly decreased across our industry during these periods, which adversely affected average selling prices for our services and our results of operations for 2008, 2009 and 2010. The impact on our results of operations caused by the decrease in market demand during these periods was partly offset by increases in our 2009 and 2010 revenue from assembly services for logic/mixed-signal semiconductors due to higher customer demand for these services in 2009 and 2010. The overall outsourced assembly and test services for memory and logic/mixed-signal semiconductors increased gradually each year since 2016. In spite of increased demand for assembled semiconductors, such as DRAM and flash product, which may further increase the demand but average selling prices declined in our services, that also intensify our difficulties related to realizing pricing levels, capacity utilization rates and gross margin.

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Declining Average Selling Prices of Our Assembly and Test Services. The semiconductor industry is characterized by a general decrease in prices for products and services over the course of their product and technology life cycles. The rate of decline is particularly steep during periods of intense competition and adverse market conditions. The average selling prices of our assembly and test services experienced sharp declines during such periods as a result of intense price competition from other independent assembly and test companies that attempt to maintain high capacity utilization levels in the face of reduced demand.

To offset the effects of decreasing average selling prices, we will continue to seek to: