Korean Companies Allocate More Resources to CIS Business

BusinessKorea: As memory prices go down, CIS business becomes more important in Korean companies:

• Samsung has selected image sensors as its next-generation growth engine.
• Samsung establishes a new business team to strengthen its sales of sensors for autonomous vehicles.
• Samsung signed a contract with Tesla to supply image sensors for vehicles. Although the immediate sales impact is not significant, it will make it easier for Samsung to expand with other companies in automotive space.
• Samsung CIS activity has been re-organized so that the process development is now done by the foundry section of the Device Solution Division (DS), while the sensor business team focuses on product planning and sales.
• Samsung is converting some of its 11-line DRAM production in Hwaseong plant into image sensor lines.
• LG and SK Hynix invested in LiDAR startup Aeye
• SK Hynix aims to achieve 1 trillion won (US$900 million) in image sensor sales.
• SK Hynix focuses on mid-end products and increase its market share in China.
• SK Hynix leverages its DRAM strength in image sensor marketing by offering a deal on CIS purchase to a company that buys large amount of DRAM products.