[Asia Economy Reporter Hyungsoo Park] Above Semiconductor's stock price is on the rise. As claims emerge that the core of the artificial intelligence (AI) era is semiconductor technology that reduces power consumption, Above Semiconductor's ultra-low power technology is gaining attention. Above Semiconductor spares no effort in research and investment to secure high-performance DSP technology and artificial neural network technology in addition to its accumulated ultra-low power microcontroller unit (MCU) platform technology and RF technology. It is expanding its high value-added business through diversification of production and advancement of products to respond to the global semiconductor shortage.
At 11:05 a.m. on the 14th, Above Semiconductor was trading at 10,200 KRW, up 7.37% from the previous day.
Lee Jong-ho, Minister of Science and ICT, explained in an interview with Dong-A Ilbo, "The core of AI semiconductor technology is to process large-scale computations quickly with low power consumption," adding, "The government will continue to support so that Korean companies can gain competitiveness."
Minister Lee said, "AI is an unstoppable trend in the digital world," and added, "It causes enormous power consumption, and Korea must take the lead in figuring out how to solve this."
Minister Lee, who served as the director of the Seoul National University Semiconductor Joint Research Center, has been leading the Ministry of Science and ICT since May last year and is considered one of the world's top scholars in the semiconductor field.
Above Semiconductor mainly designs microcontroller units (MCUs), system semiconductors that act as the brain to implement various functions of home appliances and electrical products. MCUs, known as ultra-small computers acting as the brain, are embedded in home appliances such as refrigerators, electric rice cookers, and TVs. They control various characteristics of electronic products, from simple time scheduling to adjusting rice taste, refrigerator temperature control, and TV video recording. The principle is to embed software that performs specific functions into the semiconductor chip to enable multiple functions.
Above Semiconductor is focusing on developing new products such as ultra-low power MCU products through securing low power technology, precise measurement MCU products for firefighting and disaster prevention devices through securing high-performance analog IP, and semi-permanent ultra-low power MCUs powered by energy harvesters. They are developing smart MCUs that integrate all technologies by using RF connectivity, ultra-low power design technology operating at threshold voltage, sensing technology using high-performance analog IP, improved product performance and stability, and algorithms specialized for customer applications developed or secured directly.
To secure core technologies through government projects, they are promoting industry-academia cooperation and are currently striving to secure a lightweight AI software platform to enter the TinyML (Tiny Machine Learning) market, a trend of machine learning using low-spec MCUs.
Among their main products, the high-in SAR sensor is an electromagnetic wave absorption prevention sensor that minimizes human exposure to electromagnetic waves. It was supplied to Samsung Electronics' wireless earphone Galaxy Buds series. Above Semiconductor supplies products to domestic home appliance companies such as Samsung Electronics, LG Electronics, Winia, and Winix, as well as to leading companies in China including Midea, Xiaomi, Lenovo, and in Japan, Europe, and the United States.
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