Samsung Electronics has changed one of its suppliers for digitizers that will go into its Galaxy Note series, TheElec confirmed on Thursday.
SI Flex has failed to meet the cut while BH has been chosen as a new supplier. BH will be the secondary supplier of digitizer along with main supplier Interflex, people familiar with the matter said.
Interflex will be supplying digitizers for the Galaxy Note 20 Plus and BH will provide its goods for the standard Galaxy Note 20, they said.
Digitizer is a double sided flexible printed circuit board (RFPCB) used to recognize the stylus that comes with the Note. It is attached behind the display panel.
More and more complicated circuit design has been required for them as stylus sensitivity continues to increase.
SI Flex failed to make the cut due to the prevalence of defects, the people said.
New supplier BH has previously provided the stylus for the Galaxy A71 and is expected to ship millions of digitizers for Samsung for the Note series, they said.
Meanwhile, Interflex has been supplying its digitizers for Samsung since the first Galaxy Note back in 2011.
The company is expected to turn a profit in the third quarter of 2020 thanks to its supply deal for the Note 20. It has posted a profit in the third quarters of 2018 and 2019, with that quarter’s revenue being two to three times higher than other quarters.
Interflex is also expected to see more orders from Samsung as the tech giant applies the stylus to more products such as notebooks (Galaxy Pen S) and tablets (Galaxy Tab S and Tab A) going forward. The orders for these are volume-wise smaller compared to smartphones but have a pricier per unit price as displays are larger on these devices.
Samsung is also planning to eventually apply the stylus to its foldable phone which will be another boon for Interflex going forward.
