Chip and display furnace firm YEST has acquired a majority stake in optical lens company JTWay.
YEST said on Thursday that it has acquired an 80.8% stake in JTWay for 4.9 billion won.
The lens firm recorded 2.3 billion won in sales and 900 million won in net loss last year.
JTWay was the first South Korean firm to manufacture aspherical glass lens with a diameter of 1mm.
The lens is used in optical transceivers used to send signals within data centers. Japan dominates the market.
A YEST spokesperson said most camera smartphones used plastic lens but Apple began applying some glass lens recently.
The company was expecting more glass lens to be used in smartphones, they said. Glass lens are also used in cameras of self-driving cars, the spokesperson added.
YEST’s subsidiary Yes Power Technix also manufactures silicon carbide power management ICs used in electric cars, and this will pair well with JTWay’s glass lens business, they said.
JTWay was also making optical lens and modules for lidar, fab equipment and medical devices, they added.
