SK Powertech has begun mass production of silicon carbide (SiC) wafers at its new factory in Busan, parent company SK Corporation said on Tuesday.The factory began trial production in March and has turned to mass production with the addition of ion injectors, SK Corporation said.The company is aimin

BOE chairman Chen Yanshun didn’t make a visit to Samsung, a key customer of the Chinese display panel maker, during his visit to South Korea in April, TheElec has learned.It is extremely rare for a high-level company executive of a component maker to not make a visit to a customer during a foreign t

A cloud hangs over the profitability of Gen 8 OLED. This is because Apple’s revenues from MacBooks are dropping, a key product that would use the OLED panels made by display panel maker’s Gen 8 OLED production lines.The iPhone maker’s revenue from MacBooks was US$7.168 billion during its fiscal seco

TCK is expected to widen its patent lawsuit over silicon carbide (SiC) rings to multiple companies.Park Gwang-jae, an executive vice president at TCK, or Tokai Carbon Korea, told an audience during a local conference held at Yeouido on Wednesday that there were companies that were high likely to be

Hana Technology is expected to win orders for battery production equipment from SK On for the expansion of its battery facility at Seosan, South Korea, TheElec has learned.Hana Technology formed close ties with SK On when it became the vendor for tab welding and packaging equipment in 2021 to be use

Chinese display panel makers monopolizing the liquid crystal display (LCD) market will in the long run threaten the TV businesses of Samsung and LG, according to UBI Research CEO Choong Hoon Yi.Yi told TheElec in an interview on Tuesday that while many see the dominance of Chinese companies in the L

Chip probe card maker Micro2Nano is aiming to launch new probe cards for DRAM and NAND for its future growth, the company CEO said on Monday.Micro2Nano CEO Hwang Kyu-ho told a press conference in Seoul its aim was to reduce its reliance on probe cards for NAND for revenue.The electrical die sort (ED

Earnings of Semes, the fab equipment-making subsidiary of Samsung, show that the South Korean tech giant is drastically reducing its spending in China.The development is likely due to restrictions being imposed on China by the US.Semes recorded 2.88 trillion won in revenue and 219.3 billion won in o

EcoPro said on Thursday during its shareholders meeting that it plans to invest in mining companies to be involved directly with procuring materials used in battery production.In the long term, the company said it wants to invest in the mines themselves.This means that EcoPro, which manufactures cat

Chinese battery equipment maker Zhejiang Hangke will be forming a joint venture in South Korea, TheElec has learned.The company will form HK Power with a local company. Hangke will spend US$30 million in the venture.The move is likely to supply more equipment to main customer SK On. Hangke recently

Executive and employees of display and battery production equipment maker Toptec have been found guilty of leaking the technologies of customer Samsung Display to Chinese competitors.The Suwon High Court, the appeals court, overturned a ruling of not guilty from the district court on Tuesday and fou

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

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

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

Chip production equipment maker Nextin is aiming to double its share in the global market for dark field inspection equipment.Nextin CEO Park Tae-hoon told TheElec on Wednesday that it was aiming to increase its share to 10% this year from last year’s 5%.This is despite the current downturn of the g

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

Dry vacuum pump company Lot Vacuum is aiming for an annual revenue of 250 billion won this year from its solar panel business.Company vice chairman Kim Ho-sik told TheElec that it is expecting double the sales from 2022 from the business, which is showing high growth.Kim, an expert in production equ

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