Magnachip is planning to downsize its workforce by 5% due to last year’s poor earnings and the overall downturn of the global chip market.The chipmaker was offering voluntary retirement to up to 5% of its workforce, sources said, out of its total workforce of 900.This is likely a precursor before a

DB Hitek will for the first time supply its OLED display driver ICs aimed at smartphone panels to Samsung Display, TheElec has learned.DB Hitek will begin supplying the 40-nanometer (nm) DDIs to Samsung Display during the second half of 2023, for use in OLED panels in Samsung smartphones.The company

Samsung will be designing and manufacturing the logic chips that Hyundai Motor plans to use for advanced driver assistance (ADAS) and infotainment in its future vehicles, TheElec has learned.This is the first such deal between Samsung and Hyundai Motor, the two largest conglomerates in South Korea.S

SemiFive has secured Doosan Group as an investor in its Series C funding round, TheElec has learned.The system chip design house had aimed to secure 60 billion won in funding during the round but expected secure a total of 70 billion won from investors including Doosan Group.LB Investment and SV Inv

SK Hynix was in talks with equipment maker YEST to procure high-pressure hydrogen annealing equipment, TheElec has learned.The pair were in the alpha test phase of their collaboration, sources said. If the equipment passes it will enter the beta test phase, the final stages before supply, they said.

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

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

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

Dry vacuum pump firm Lot Vacuum is conducting quality tests for its equipment with two global chip companies, TheElec has learned.One is an overseas foundry company and another is a memory chipmaker.These quality tests started last year and Lot Vacuum is expected to win the companies and customers t

Samsung’s chip business barely avoided posting a profit loss in the fourth quarter of 2022 as the memory chip market reeled from price drops caused by weak demand.The South Korean tech giant said it recorded 70.46 trillion won in revenue and 4.31 trillion won in operating income during the quarter.

Contract chip manufacturer DB Hitek said on Tuesday that it has secured global shutter and single-photon avalanche diode (SPAD) technologies for the production of high-end image sensors.The South Korean foundry said it will expand into industrial machine vision, autonomous driving, augmented reality

South Korean chip foundries are continuing to record lower operation rates in their production facilities, a trend that is expected to continue up to at least the second quarter.South Korea is home to foundries, or contract chip makers, such as Samsung, DB Hitek, Key Foundry, Magnachip, and SK Hynix

Samsung Foundry, the contract chip-producing business unit of Samsung, has built a system that allows its key partners to have sales and maintenance rights of the chip giant’s IPs.The company has previously done this on its own but it seems it is now making a middleman distribution system for its IP

Samsung is planning to build pilot lines by the end of the year for its planned new fabs in South Korea and the US, TheElec has learned.The pilot lines will be built at P4 in Pyeongtaek, South Korea, and another one in Taylor, Texas. Samsung recently shared these plans with its suppliers for the fab

Samsung is expecting its annual operating profit from semiconductor sales in 2023 to be around 13.1 trillion won, TheElec has learned.This figure was shared with its employees in a note sent to employees on Wednesday explaining their expected bonus payment amounts to be paid in January from their pe

Samsung has begun construction of its new chip foundry fab in Taylor, Texas, TheElec has learned.The tech giant has placed orders for the equipment it needs to build the cleanroom.Samsung has placed orders for the system ceiling material, outdoor air conditioning, and other equipment that it will in

South Korean chip foundries are seeing the operation rate of their fabs drop steeply, TheElec has learned.With the exception of Samsung, which is still seeing high demand from advanced nodes, local foundry companies such as DB Hitek, Key Foundry, Magnachip, and SK Hynix System IC are seeing their op

Fab equipment coating and cleaning solution firm Komico is planning to spend at least US$30 million to expand its factory in Austin, Texas, TheElec has learned.The move is done to better react to customer Samsung’s demand there as the tech giant is building a new foundry fab in Taylor.It provides Sa

Qualcomm will continue using multiple foundries to manufacture its chips, one of its executives said on Tuesday.The US chip giant was continuing to collaborate with Samsung Foundry and will use multiple foundries, from the South Korean company, TSMC to GlobalFoundries, depending on their technologic