[Exclusive] "2.6 Trillion Won Power Semiconductor Market Opens"... Samsung Establishes Dedicated Business Team

LED Business Team Renamed to Promote New Business
Linking LED and Next-Generation Power Semiconductor Technology
TF Launched Early in the Year...Organizational Restructuring to Accelerate Business

Samsung Electronics has established the 'CSS (Compound Semiconductor Solutions) Business Team' to expand its next-generation power semiconductor business with high growth potential. This move adds next-generation power semiconductors, which have technological relevance to the existing LED business, to broaden its revenue sources.

On the 6th, Samsung Electronics announced that it recently reorganized its structure by transforming the LED Business Team into the CSS Business Team and restructuring the internal personnel and sub-organizations. Vice President Choi Yoon-jun, who was the head of the LED Business Team, was appointed as the inaugural head of the CSS Business Team. Within the CSS Business Team, Senior Executive Director Yoon Seok-ho, who was in charge of the LED Technology Center under Global Infrastructure, took on the role of LED Development Team Leader.

LED (Light Emitting Diode) is a semiconductor device that emits light when an electric current is applied. The LED Business Team has been developing, producing, and selling LED technologies applied to lighting, automotive electronics, IT, and display devices. With the recent reorganization into the CSS Business Team, detailed organizations related to power semiconductors, such as the Power Device Team, were newly established to expand the business scale.

Power semiconductors are system semiconductors that perform power conversion, current distribution, and control functions in electronic devices such as smartphones and home appliances. Recently, next-generation power semiconductors made from compound materials like gallium nitride (GaN) and silicon carbide (SiC), which overcome the limitations of traditional silicon (Si) materials, have been gaining attention.

Compound semiconductors are semiconductors made by combining two or more materials, unlike single-material semiconductors like silicon. LEDs also belong to compound semiconductors. This is the background that allows technological and process linkage between LEDs and next-generation power semiconductors. It is known that semiconductor equipment used in LED production can also be used for manufacturing next-generation power semiconductors.

Samsung Electronics Pyeongtaek Campus View / Photo by Samsung Electronics

The semiconductor industry is paying attention not only to Samsung Electronics exploring the potential of the next-generation power semiconductor business but also to the fact that the company has now formed a dedicated organization to concretize the business. Earlier, Samsung Electronics had formed and operated a power semiconductor task force at the beginning of the year by selecting employees from various divisions such as the LED Development Team, Foundry Division, and System LSI Division.

In June, at the 'Samsung Foundry Forum 2023' held in Silicon Valley, USA, the company also announced its entry into the 8-inch GaN power semiconductor foundry (semiconductor contract manufacturing) business. The company stated, "We plan to start the business in 2025 targeting consumer, data center, and automotive sectors."

The semiconductor industry expects the utilization of next-generation power semiconductors to increase in various fields such as telecommunications, renewable energy, and electric vehicles. Market research firm Yole D?veloppement projected that the global GaN power semiconductor market size will grow from $126 million in 2021 to $2 billion in 2027, with an average annual growth rate of 59%.