Dongbu HiTek today announced that it has begun volume production of Ambient Light Proximity Sensor (ALPS) chips for Clairpixel Co., Ltd., a Korean company specializing in single-chip image and motion sensor solutions for mobile, automotive, medical and security applications. Leveraging Dongbu HiTek’s specialized mixed-signal process, Clairpixel’s advanced ALPS chip is expected to target the growing Chinese smartphone market.

“Clairpixel’s ALPS chip highlights the system-on-chip attributes of our specialized 0.18um mixed-signal process,” said Jae Song, Dongbu HiTek EVP of marketing. “We look forward to expanding our collaboration before year end to add a color sensor function to this highly integrated chip design.” He credited the rapidly rising adoption rate of ALPS chips to their ability to extend battery life by optimizing screen brightness against ambient light. “With the addition of a color sensor, ALPS will also be able to automatically optimize color on large mobile screens while conserving battery power.”

According to recent market research from Gartner, Inc., worldwide smartphone shipments are expected to more than double from about 718 million units last year to more than1.6 billion units in 2016. Over this same period, Chinese smartphone shipments are forecast to rise from 25 percent to 33 percent of the total. Smart phone manufacturers such as Huawei and ZTE Corporation are expected to lead the expanding share of Chinese shipments. During the fourth quarter of 2012, some estimates report that Huawei shipped nearly 5 percent the worldwide total giving them the third largest market share worldwide

Dongbu HiTek Co., Ltd. specializes in developing s analog and mixed-signal processing technologies. The company processing portfolio encompasses Analog CMOS, BCDMOS, High Voltage CMOS, CMOS RF, CMOS Image Sensor (CIS), Display Driver IC (DDI), Touch Screen Controller IC and NOR Flash technologies.