Jusung aims to be No. 1 player in next-generation display equipment market

Jusung Engineering Co. Chairman Hwang Chul-joo speaks during the company‘s 30th anniversary event held in Seoul on April 13. [Photo provided by Jusung Engineering]

Jusung Engineering Co., a South Korean semiconductor equipment manufacturer, is entering into a partnership with American smartphone and tablet PC manufacturers for the next-generation display manufacturing.

The company aims to achieve a significant advantage by using its atomic layer deposition (ALD) method, which it claims gives it a unique competitiveness, in the production of flexible and transparent OLED displays, which have recently become the focus of global technological competition.

The company will also begin delivering deposition equipment for semiconductor process, its main business, to U.S. integrated device manufacturer (IDMs) and Taiwanese foundry companies. To compete with semiconductor pre-processing equipment leaders such as Applied Materials Inc., Lam Research Corp. and Tokyo Electron Ltd., Jusung Engineering is focusing on enhancing its technology and diversifying its customer base.

“Our development of equipment for next-generation displays based on ALD technology is almost complete and we expect to achieve tangible results, including product orders, from domestic display customers and global smartphone companies within this year,” Jusung Engineering Chairman Hwang Chul-joo told Maeil Business Newspaper in an interview on the occasion of the company’s 30th anniversary event held in Seoul on Thursday.

ALD is a technology that uniformly coats wafers with special materials in semiconductor manufacturing. ALD, which applies a thin and delicate layer with atomic thickness, enables thin and precise coating in semiconductor process. ALD, which was first commercialized in chip production, is expected to be introduced in mass display production.

ALD equipment is necessary for depositing thin film transistors (TFTs) when manufacturing display panels. As a U.S. smartphone and tablet maker plans to equip its tablets with foldable displays, major component manufacturers are also considering adopting the ALD process.

Jusung Engineering Co. Chairman Hwang Chul-joo speaks during the company‘s 30th anniversary event held in Seoul on April 13. [Photo provided by Jusung Engineering]

Next-generation displays are gradually expanding beyond OLEDs for smartphones. Earlier, Samsung Display Co. announced that it will invest 4.1 trillion won ($3.16 billion) by 2026 to build an 8.6th-generation IT OLED production line. LG Display Co., a major Apple supplier, is also introducing the ALD process as a strategy to differentiate itself from Samsung Display. LG Display is expected to introduce the equipment after determining the scale of future investment based on customer requests.

Jusung Engineering’s focus on ALD equipment for displays is due to the key role ALD technology will play in realizing high-quality thin films in the next generation of displays. While OLEDs currently use organic materials, the display industry is actively developing inorganic light-emitting displays (ILEDs) that use inorganic materials. ILEDs offer better brightness and lifetime compared to OLEDs.

“Our development of the technology for depositing these inorganic minerals through ALD is nearing completion,” said Hwang, stressing that Jusung Engineering is the first in the world to develop and commercialize ALD equipment that can be used for mass production of 8th and 8.5th generation displays.

“Displays that can be crumpled like a bill and remain intact even when washed in water will become the mainstream in the future,” said Hwang. “Since it has been proven that displays cannot progress further without ALD equipment, our equipment will almost certainly be included on the list of investments by domestic display companies with global smartphone manufacturers as customers.”

The company is also expected to secure new leads for semiconductor equipment in North America and Taiwan this year.

“Until now, it has been difficult to diversify customers even though we have the world’s only and best technology because we lacked trust. In the future, we will not grow through a specific company, but will actively cooperate with all companies,” said Hwang.