Japan’s Idemitsu Kosan said on Tuesday that its new research center in Osan, South Korea won’t be affected by diplomatic or security issues.
Idemitsu is a supplier of blue OLED material and electron transport layer to Samsung Display and LG Display for OLED panels.
The Japanese company formed the research center, dubbed Idemitsu Advanced Materials Korea, last month. It is a wholly-owned subsidiary with 200 million yen in capital.
Idemitsu previously supplied OLED materials to local customers through its manufacturing subsidiary, Idemitsu Electronics Material Korea, at Paju formed in 2010.
The new research center at Osan will handle advanced material research and marketing. The Paju subsidiary will now only act as a manufacturing base for OLED materials and research will be done at Osan.
Its research areas will include lithium battery materials, crystalline oxide semiconductors, organic EL materials, and new agrochemicals, Idemitsu explained.
These areas are closely related to 12 technology categories that South Korea has defined as strategic technologies, the company noted.
The center is being formed to meet local customer demand, collaborate with local companies and research groups as well as for a business entity that isn’t affected by diplomatic or security issues between counties.
The pandemic has caused communication, trips, and support between South Korea and Japan to be difficult and there were also customer requests for faster responses, Idemitsu said. Many co-projects with customers were put on hold because of these issues, the company explained.
It has recently held co-evaluations of oxide semiconductor materials with customers, the Japanese firm said, though a precise timeline for production is yet to be set.
