Vicor Korea to focus on automobile market in 2021

Power module firm Vicor Korea will focus its sales on the local automobile industry this year, country manager Kichun Jung said, with a special focus on electric cars.

The Korean unit of Vicor recently formed an automotive division. It also hired YS Jun, a veteran in the automotive chip industry with over 15 years of experience, as APAC automotive director. 

Jung said Vicor Korea plans to offer customized power modules that meets demand for automobile companies this year. It will also continue to focus on its prior mainstay areas __ telecom, robotics and industrial, the country manager said.

The company is aiming to provide power modules in three areas related to electric cars: battery charging stations, conversion and delivery.

Vicor packages chips made by foundries and its own controller at its fab in the US and makes them into modules. 

As the finished product is made in the US, they are considered highly reliable and are supplied to defense, aerospace and industrial sectors, Jung said.

Based on this track record, the company expects high demand from the automobile market as well, he said.

Vicor’s key technology was factorized power architecture, which minimizes power loss and increases efficiency.

Jung also touted the company’s technology in power delivery network (PDN) as one of its strengths, which it offers in modular form.

Vicor Korea saw sales increase 20% in 2020 compared to 2019, the country manager said. Despite predictions that the COVID-19 pandemic will contract demand, the opposite happened, Jung said. As power consumption in data centers, servers, factory automation and artificial intelligence processors are surging, the importance of high-performance solution has also increased, he said.

Jung said the Korean unit also saw earnings increase in the telecom sector. This was from new base station, antenna, small cell and repeater being developed for 5G. Demand from chips and displays are also on the rise, he said. This was from equipment for burning test, wafer cleaning and wafer transport being in increased demand from final customers such as Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix.

Vicor Korea also supplied core power solution for an AI chip firm last year for the first time.

Jung worked at Vicor Korea since its founding in 2013. He previously worked at LG Electronics.