SK Enpulse, the chip material subsidiary of SK Hynix affiliate SKC, succeeded in developing a blank mask last year and has given samples to potential customers, TheElec has learned.S&S Tech has been the sole vendor of blank masks within South Korea. SK Enpluse has aimed to develop a high-end blank m

Samsung Foundry has been manufacturing Infineon’s MOSFET (metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistor) since last year, TheElec has learned.Samsung had been knocking at the German chip giant’s doorstep for a long time and this effort finally bore fruit last year, sources said. Infineon is the

DB Hitek is planning to split off its fabless chip business to better focus on its main chip foundry business, the company said on Tuesday,This is a reversion of its statements made six months ago where the company said it will not split off its fabless chip business unit after small shareholders vo

South Korean chip startup Morumi is aiming to develop a CPU that can process data in complete parallel.Theoretically, this means the processor can infinitely increase the number of cores, increasing its performance substantially.Morumi CEO JB Lee told TheElec said this makes the company a “first mov

It seems Japan’s trade restriction against South Korea for certain key materials used in advanced tech production that lasted four years is about to end.The South Korean government has agreed to pay compensation to its own citizens who were forced to work in Japanese factories during World Word Two.

Telechips is developing an AI SoC aimed at autonomous driving applications using IP from Sapeon, the AI chip subsidiary of SK Group, TheElec has learned.The chip supports an advanced driver assistance system and will use Sapeon’s AI accelerator IP, sources said.The chip will be manufactured using Sa

Chip and display equipment maker Global Zeus is aiming to expand its robotics business this year, a company executive told TheElec Global Zeus Factory Automation Business ABD BU head Hwang Jae-ik said the company is planning to double the revenue from its robotics business this year.The company is a

South Korea’s import of silicon wafers from China reached US$74.882 million in January, close to the US$77.704 million worth imported from Japan in the same month.The country’s import of silicon wafers from China has continued to increase over the years at a paid pace.In 2020, a total of US$424 mill

South Korean outsourced semiconductor assembly and test (OSAT) companies are seeing the operation rate in their factories drop steeply from the recent downturn of the global chip market.The downturn has caused customer orders to plummet and these companies have operation rates below 50%, sources sai

Registering clock driver chip developer One Semiconductor will begin production of RCD for server DDR5 DRAM during the second half of the year.Company CEO Kim Chang-hyun told TheElec that One Semiconductor was already manufacturing DDR4 RCD as of last year after passing all required quality tests.It

South Korea is the largest producer of memory chips. Samsung and SK Hynix combined has a 70% market share in the DRAM market and around 50% in NAND flash.However, they don’t dominate all technologies related to memory chips. For instance, for controllers used in NAND, the pair rely heavily on compan

Chipmaker Magnachip is planning to suspend production at its factory in Gumi, South Korea for a week starting on Saturday.This is unprecedented for a chipmaker as fabs are usually run 24/7 for the full year.Sources said Magnachip was doing so from its high inventory and low demand.Power will still b

Chip component maker KNJ has become a director vendor of silicon carbide (SiC) focus ring to chipmaker SK Hynix, TheElec has learned.Prior to being selected as a direct vendor, KNJ was below in the value chain and supplied unfinished SiC rings to SiC ring suppliers of the chipmaker.SiC rings are use

South Korean blank mask maker S&S Tech is seeing high demand for its blank mask thanks to the high interest and development of AI chips spurred by ChatGPT.Blank masks are used to make photo masks, which are used during the lithography process in chip production where the pattern of the chips is prin

Samsung’s design partners for its chip foundry business saw their operating profits halved in 2022.Samsung Foundry’s Design Solution Partners ADTechnology, Gaonchips, and Coasia saw their revenue and operating margin rate impacted heavily by the global economic downturn.ADTechnology, Samsung’s large

SK Hynix faced problems this month during DRAM production due to the high-k material having a quality issue, TheElec has learned.The zirconium (Zr) high-k material that was supplied by SK Trichem had impurities in them, sources said.This caused some of SK Hynix’s production equipment at its DRAM fab

DB Hitek said on Wednesday that it recorded 1.67 trillion won in revenue and 768.7 billion won in operating profit for the entire year of 2022.Revenue and operating profit jumped 38% and 93%, respectively, from the previous year.Operating margin rate stood at an impressive 46% __ close to foundry ma

South Korean AI startup FuriosaAI is planning to launch an AI chip that will support ChatGPT next year, its CEO told TheElecFuriosaAI CEO June Paik claimed that this second-generation AI chip of the company will be the most powerful chip available for the operation of ChatGPT.The particular chip boa

Meta will be collaborating with South Korean component makers SK Hynix and LG Display to develop MicroOLED, TheElec has learned.LG Display, along with Samsung Display, is a leading OLED display panel maker.It has recently signed a collaboration agreement with South Korean memory chipmaker SK Hynix f

Atomic force microscopy (AFM) company Park Systems is aiming to increase its revenue by 30% this year.Park Systems director Cho Sang-joon told TheElec that the company expects the goal will be met despite the downturn of the chip market.Last year the company recorded 122.1 billion won in revenue and