MagnaChip developing next-gen display features for consumer electronics

Editor: Lisa Lucke

MagnaChip Semiconductor Corporation, a designer and manufacturer of analog and mixed-signal semiconductor products, has created an initiative to partner with companies in the development of next-generation display features of smartphones and other mobile or handheld consumer electronics devices.

In a press release, the company described individual strategic partnerships that are in development with manufacturers of touch, stylus, fingerprint technologies, and associated OLED display technologies. The goal of the collaboration will be to develop and standardize innovative human-interface solutions based upon smart touch, stylus and fingerprint technologies suitable for MagnaChip's OLED display driver integrated circuits (DDIC). Goals include improved functionality of OLED displays on end-user devices. Additional specific collaboration in shared intellectual property will expand to new applications, such as within IoT and automotive sectors. MagnaChip CEO YJ Kim said, "The series of strategic ecosystem partnerships will create a new de facto OLED display ecosystem that can help us better identify customer needs and develop best-in-class products. Further, by working together, we can achieve innovative and high-performance OLED platform solutions, shorten the OLED platform validation cycle, hence reduce "design-in" costs for smartphone and other mobile solutions." Currently, more than a dozen smartphone OEMs use MagnaChip's OLED DDICs in their smartphone lineups. The company has shipped more than 400 million OLED DDICs and developed a broad portfolio of patents related to the design and manufacturing of OLED display drivers. Various market forecasts predict OLED smartphones to account for more than 50% of all smartphones by 2021, which means the initiative could potentially expand market-related business opportunities for each member, benefit consumers by offering "best-of-class" display features, and position OLED as the display technology of choice for screens in a wide range of consumer electronics products.

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