German material technology company Merck said Friday it has developed a new lineup of green solvents for use in photolithographic processes in semiconductor manufacturing. The new solvent lineup is called AZ 910 Remover, which according to the firm is N-methylpyrrolidone-free solvent designed for faster dissolution of photoresist patterns in a cost-effective and greener way with its outstanding resist-dissolution performance. Semiconductor production facilities traditionally use negative

Samsung Electronics said Friday its sales of air conditioners have more than doubled so far this month, compared to a year ago, due to the sweltering heat. From July 1 to 22, the company saw its sales of air conditioners spike more than twice from the same period in 2020, the company said. Sales of Bespoke Wind-free Gallery, the company’s highest-end air conditioner, have jumped more than 95 percent in July compared to a year earlier. To further drive sales, Samsung is offering up to

Expectations are high that Samsung Electronics, which for months deliberated on a new, $17 billion US investment plan, may finally be ready to make an official announcement in August. According to industry sources on Friday, Samsung is accelerating the internal process for concluding its plan to construct a new chip fabrication line for foundry in the US. Some news reports said Thursday that the City of Austin in Texas, where the South Korean firm already has a chip plant up and running, is

Merck, the cutting-edge material developer from Germany, said Thursday the company has started mass production of hole transport materials for organic light-emitting diode displays used in smartphones. Better known as HTM, the material is applied to common layers of OLED panels, and helps improve the efficiency and lifespan of panels, the company said. Merck, which has been supplying the material for Korea’s largest OLED panel maker LG Display for large-size displays, will expand its

Samsung Electronics is considering Williamson County in Texas as a possible site for its new foundry plant in the United States, according to industry sources on Friday. The South Korean tech giant confirmed that it is looking at Williamson County in Texas as a potential candidate among various sites across the US. The sources said Samsung is considering several sites in the US, such as Arizona, New York, and Austin, Texas. Earlier, Reuters reported that Samsung has applied for tax incen

The legal battle between US-based streaming giant Netflix and South Korea’s internet service provider SK Broadband is likely to continue centering on the controversial topic of net neutrality. Netflix on Thursday appealed a Seoul court’s decision that sided with SK Broadband. Last month, the Seoul Central District Court dismissed a request from Netflix that the video streaming service operator is not liable to pay network usage fees to SK Broadband. The court also rejected Ne

KT on Thursday announced the launch of pure end-to-end 5G service, becoming the first mobile carrier in South Korea to commercialize a 5G standalone network. Starting from Thursday, users of Samsung Galaxy S20, S20+ and S20 Ultra phones who subscribe to KT’s 5G mobile plans will be able to access the 5G SA connection simply by updating their device software. Standalone refers to it being pure 5G from end to end, without occasional transitioning to 4G Long Term Evolution networks. S

South Korean mobile carrier SK Telecom on Wednesday launched a new metaverse platform dubbed “Ifland,” kick-starting its 5G virtual service business. The name signifies a virtual world where users can be anyone they wish, meet anyone they want to and make so many possibilities real. The platform is launched for Android devices first and will later be open to iOS and other virtual reality devices. With a goal of growing Ifland into a leading metaverse platform by drawing mille

More e-commerce platforms are rushing to offer early morning delivery outside of Seoul to win the nation-wide grocery delivery war that has been sparked by Market Kurly and Coupang. Shinsegae Group’s online retail channel SSG.com began expanding dawn delivery in several major cities in North and South Chungcheong Province this week, including Cheongju, Cheonan and Sejoing City. The company has said it plans to expand the service to the rest of the country in the future. Entering the regi

Samsung Electronics on Tuesday announced the launch of a new image sensor for automobiles, taking aim at a market segment controlled by Japanese rival Sony. The new Isocell Auto 4AC will be supplied to a global car brand this year, it said. “Starting with the Isocell Auto 4AC, we plan to expand our automotive sensor lineup to areas such as camera monitor systems, autonomous driving and in-cabin monitoring,” said Chang Duck-hyun, the executive vice president of Samsung’s s

  SK hynix, the world’s second-largest memory chip provider, said Monday it has started mass-production of the fourth-generation 8-gigabit low power double data rate 4 chips for mobile devices based on the 10-nanometer process using the extreme ultraviolet technology. The announcement puts SK hynix ahead of its bigger rival Samsung Electronics in the race to develop next-generation DRAM chips. And SK hynix has now become the world’s first firm to commercialize “1anm D

South Korea has been known as a tough market to crack for global compact car brands. But that’s not the case for BMW Group’s Mini. Since its debut in Korea in 2005, the premium compact car brand under BMW has posted steady growth rates each year. In 2019, sales volume hit 10,000 units -- a major milestone for foreign car brands here. Last year, the figure grew more than 10 percent from the previous year. Its latest lineup -- the New Mini Family -- consists of three models, the

Behind the surprise bid of Jungheung for the control of a much-larger rival, Daewoo Engineering & Construction, is a self-made entrepreneur little known outside the construction field: Jung Chang-sun, the chairman and founder of Jungheung Group. Jungheung, founded in the southern city of Gwangju, grabbed headlines on Tuesday after it was selected as the preferred bidder of Daewoo E&C, the nation’s sixth-largest builder with a proud but checkered history. Local media put Jungheung

Samsung Electronics will unveil a lineup of new mobile devices, including foldable phones, next month, according to industry sources on Monday. Industry watchers say that Samsung will be holding a Galaxy Unpacked event at 11 p.m. on Aug. 11, Korea time, which will be livestreamed from Seoul. Samsung, however, hasn’t yet sent out an official invitation to its partners and media worldwide. Regarding the schedule, Samsung said it is not yet fixed. The upcoming show will be the first th

A hefty fine given to four Samsung companies, including Samsung Electronics, by the Fair Trade Commission late last month has dealt another blow to South Korea’s top conglomerate in terms of compliance. On Friday Kim Ki-nam, chief of Samsung’s semiconductor business, currently the most powerful person at the company while de facto owner Lee Jae-yong is in jail, urged executives and employees to continue making “ceaseless efforts to maintain compliance rules” in a letter

LG Corp., the holding company of Korea’s fourth-biggest conglomerate, on Friday inked a 100 billion-won ($88 million) investment deal with Kakao Mobility as part of efforts to discover new opportunities in future mobility. Both sides did not reveal how much stake LG would acquire in the digital transportation service app operator with the latest deal. LG said the investment was made as part of considerations to develop potential synergy between the conglomerate’s affiliates and

South Korea’s business community expressed concerns Friday about a global move toward additional taxes on technology companies that would affect Korean tech giants such as Samsung Electronics and SK hynix. The Federation of Korean Industries, an organization that represents the interests of Korean businesses, said in a statement, “We express concerns about the side effects of an agreement on the digital tax announced by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

The chief of LG U+, the smallest of the three major mobile carriers in South Korea, on Wednesday expressed confidence that Disney would choose it as the local partner for its Disney+ streaming service launch, slated for September. “Disney puts its top priority on customer convenience and requires very high standards in terms of quality of content service,” said CEO Hwang Hyeon-sik, during his first press conference since taking office seven months ago. His remarks were embargoed un

Samsung Electro-Mechanics said Tuesday the company has developed a multi-layer ceramic capacitor with the largest storage capacity for 5G smartphones. Known as MLCC, the component enables stable supply and control of electric charge within electronic devices. It is as thin as human hair. At least 1,000 capacitors are needed for today’s smartphones per unit. The Samsung unit said the latest MLCC is 1.0 millimeter by 0.5 millimeter and is capable of storing 27 microfarads of electric c

South Korea will offer additional frequency bands for further 5G deployment and non-telecom companies are eligible to join the bid, the Ministry of Science and ICT announced Tuesday. 　 The wireless spectrums to be provided are a 600 megahertz block of a 28 Gigahertz frequency band and another 100MHz block of 4.7GHz. According to the ministry plan, the government will divide the 28GHz band into 12 blocks, and the 4.7GHz band into 10 blocks for the frequency rollout and companies or institution