In May 2017, Samsung formally dismantled the foundry business unit from the system LSI business unit and established Samsung Electronics Foundry Department.
Samsung's goal is to increase the foundry market share to 25% in 5 years and become the second largest wafer foundry in the world.
Previously, Samsung’s foundry business focused on embedded flash memory (eFlash), power supplies, display driver ICs, and image sensors.
However, such a strategy is obviously not sufficient to support Samsung’s global second goal. To further expand the market share of foundries, Samsung announced on Wednesday that it will expand the foundry business, and identify the Internet of Things (IoT), and fingerprint identification. Into its scope of OEM.
It is reported that Samsung's IOT and fingerprint identification foundry services will be mainly provided by Samsung's "Line6" 8-inch fab in Gyeonggi-do, South Korea. The factory can provide foundry services ranging from 65nm to 180nm. .
According to the previous estimation by Tiebang Industry Research Institute, a subsidiary of the state-level consultancy, after independence of the foundry, Samsung’s market share in the foundry industry will increase significantly from 8.8% to 19.8%.
This is only 5.2% worse than Samsung’s 25% target, which is not difficult for Samsung, the semiconductor manufacturer. In addition, the expansion of the foundry business will undoubtedly further help Samsung achieve this goal.