Ntrium, a startup in the semiconductor materials sector, which was established 2 years ago, will begin to make inroads into the Japanese materials market. It is a startup, but will begin to compete squarely with Japanese companies, traditional power players in the materials market. Its biggest weapon is its advanced technology.
Ntrium (CEO Jeong Se-yeong) announced on January 25 that it is preparing to make inroads into the domestic market and overseas markets with the conductive particles for anisotropic conductive film (ACF), which it developed on its own. The company already received an order from a large corporation in Korea and generated first sales.
Conductive particles are materials mostly used for the ACF that connects the touch screen panel (TSP) and Flexible Printed Circuit Board (FPCB). The ACF is mostly produced by Japan’s Hitachi and Dexerials, and 99% of conductive particles are produced by Japan’s Sekisui Chemical Co. and Nihon Chemical. Japanese companies are dominating related markets.
Ntrium will try and supply conductive particles to Japanese ACF makers. The company penetrated the smartphone marker where the technical entry barrier is not that high as the particle size is 10μ, and is attempting to enter the market for large TVs. As the particle size is as small as 3μ for large TVs and one TV has several ACFs, the quantities are high.
“To penetrate the ACF market, we cannot but acquire Japanese companies, power players in the market, as customers and compete with local companies,” said Mr. Jeong Se-yeong. “Ntrium’s technology and price competitiveness are good enough to sufficiently compete with Japanese companies.”
He also said, “The global conductive particles market is worth KRW200 billion–KRW300 billion, and Ntrium aims at 10–15% market share.”
Ntrium expects the first harvest in the Thermal Interface Material (TIM) business this year. TIM is a special material for bonding the mobile application processor (AP) chip and heat sink. It is discussing supplies with Taiwanese and Chinese companies. The company drastically improved the problem of the existing TIM: i.e. as it has low thermal conductivity, it cannot release the heat of the AP properly.
“The key is the patented technology that uses thermally conductive particles to increase conductivity,” said Jeong Se-yeong. “As its functions are better than those of existing products, it will perform very well.”
Ntrium received KRW3.5 billion in investments from the Korea Development Bank at the end of last year. It is anticipated that the company would reach the break-even point as late as next year.