“The role of system semiconductors mounted on display panels is growing. LX Semicon is concentrating on securing essential technologies so we would not become a bottleneck for the needs of the display market.”
Hyeon-gyu Jeon, head of LX Semicon research center, introduced the trend of the display system semiconductor market is changing in the keynote speech of the 'Global Tech Korea 2021' session held on the 7th.
In the past, display driving chips (driver ICs) focused on display interface, memory interface, and power management for panel compatibility and operation, but recently, image quality improvement technology is being emphasized.
Image quality is directly related to the unique competitiveness of display companies, so it has been treated like a 'blackbox'. It was not well exposed to even to the partners for technology protection. However, it is explained that the situation has changed with the development of displays.
Director Hyeon-gyu Jeon said, “As the resolution increases and the amount of data transmission increases, there is a need for more functions and to compensate for defects in the panel. Therefore, it has become important to secure IPs related to image processing that have been handled as‘blackboxes’, and LX Semicon is making a platform to respond quickly to market demands.”
LX Semicon is considered one of the world's three largest display driver IC companies along with Samsung Electronics and Novatech. Excluding Samsung Electronics, which is an integrated device company(IDC), it is the largest display system semiconductor company in Korea and ranks first among domestic semiconductor design companies (fabless).
They are supplying display semiconductors to TVs, smartphones, and watches, and its sales, which stood at 400 billion KRW in 2014, and growing so rapidly that it surpassed 1 trillion KRW last year. LX Semicon is expected to see rapid growth this year by supplying driving chips to popular smartphones scheduled to be released in the second half of the year.
LX Semicon is preparing for a new expansion beyond the display. Director Hyeon-gyu Jeon introduced that the company is preparing to expand its business to the fields of home appliances and automobile electronics following the display.
He said that there are semiconductors for home appliances have micro control units (MCUs) for main control, motor driving, and HMI, and semiconductors for electronics are developing for accelerator pedal sensors, brake pedal sensors and MCUs for wireless battery management.
Director Hyeon-gyu Jeon said, “Since the display semiconductor business is large, we are cultivating semiconductors for home appliances and automobiles as new businesses and soon the result will be visible.”
LX Semicon is receiving a lot of attention from the industry after the division of LG Group into LX Group. This is because Bon-joon Koo, chairman of LX Group, has a strong affection for the semiconductor business, and is a representative of the group's high-tech industry and a company that represents the domestic fabless industry. It is understood that LX Silicon has set the main target as automobiles and home appliances, where demand for semiconductors is rapidly increasing by combining 5G and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies.
By Staff Reporter Gun-il Yun (benyun@etnews.com)