South Korean Company Develops 12-inch Sapphire Wafer, Aiming to Strengthen Domestic Material Supply

A Korean company announced that it has developed “12-inch sapphire wafer” with required quality which can help to support local demands of semiconductor materials, reported ETNEWS, a Korean media.

Japan imposed restriction on exportation of three semiconductor materials that are critical for display manufacture to South Korea due to disputes between the two countries. The Korea government and companies have thus been pushing the development of materials, components and equipment so that they will be less reliable on imposed products.


(Image: Samsung)

The achievement of 12-inch sapphire wafer demonstrated the effort of Korean companies. Daekyung Semco, a medium-sized South Korean company, adopted the technology based on Rubicon Technology, the world’s biggest sapphire ingot manufacturer, to develop the 12-inch sapphire wafer.

The wafer achieved a total thickness variation of only 0.5 mm, comparing to the current standard at 0.7 mm. The company said it will continue to move on to develop wafer with 0.3 mm total thickness variation. This product prototype was supplied to a Taiwanese company.

Korean industry players have been dedicating to develop materials and components to meet domestic demands, including Mini LED chips, by which Samsung is reportedly buying from Taiwanese and Chinese companies for its upcoming Mini LED backlit TVs. In addition, Korean business also import most of the bonding substrates for Mini LED display from Japanese companies.

The Korea government is investing its small- and middle-sized companies to focus on research and development of those technology supplies so that its businesses can be more independent. Building a Mini LED display supply chain, for example, would the one of the goals.

Disclaimers of Warranties
1. The website does not warrant the following:
1.1 The services from the website meets your requirement;
1.2 The accuracy, completeness, or timeliness of the service;
1.3 The accuracy, reliability of conclusions drawn from using the service;
1.4 The accuracy, completeness, or timeliness, or security of any information that you download from the website
2. The services provided by the website is intended for your reference only. The website shall be not be responsible for investment decisions, damages, or other losses resulting from use of the website or the information contained therein<
Proprietary Rights
You may not reproduce, modify, create derivative works from, display, perform, publish, distribute, disseminate, broadcast or circulate to any third party, any materials contained on the services without the express prior written consent of the website or its legal owner.
Display devices have been used for many years as a means of HMI (Human Machine Interface) to connect humans and machines interactively, and their usage are still expanding. Automotive interiors are no exception to this trend, with an increasing ... READ MORE
About LiDAR Automotive industry trends In recent years, many vehicles have been launched with ADAS (Advanced Driver Assistance Systems) as standard equipment. As the future evolves towards more automated driving, sensing around the vehicle i... READ MORE