Samsung bolsters foundry business by adding IoT and fingerprint sensors

Samsung decided to spin its foundry business into a separate division in May last year as it seeks to further increase revenues from this crucial business that has already proven to be a veritable cash cow for the company. The division is solely responsible for manufacturing mobile processors and other non-memory chips for Samsung’s clients which include the likes of NVIDIA and Qualcomm.

The company has decided to bolster its foundry division by adding new RF/IoT and fingerprint technology solutions to its 8-inch or 200-millimeter wafer foundry service. Many of Samsung’s customers are already closely working with the company to utilize its 8-inch technology offerings in various applications.

Leveraging its technology to sell more chips

Samsung’s foundry business has grown considerably over the past few years. An estimate by market research firm IHS last year suggested that the company’s revenue from this part of the business surged a whopping 86 percent to $4.7 billion when compared to 2016.

Therefore, it comes as no surprise that Samsung is expanding the technology solutions that are now available to customers through its 8-inch foundry services. It will enable the company to leverage this technology to sell more chips to customers.

Samsung will now offer RF/IoT and fingerprint sensor technology solutions on the 8-inch service over and above the exiting eFlash, Power, display driver IC and CMOS image sensor solutions. All 8-inch offers that range from 180nm to 65nm are produced at Samsung’s highly automated Line 6 facility in Giheung, South Korea.

“Customers’ interests are very high given the industry’s needs for alternative 8-inch solutions,” said Samsung’s VP of Foundry Marketing Ryan Lee, adding that by expanding its technology offerings the company will enable its customers to take full advantage of Samsung’s 8-inch solutions in a broader range of applications.