MagnaChip Semiconductor Corporation (“MagnaChip”) (NYSE: MX), a designer and manufacturer of analog and mixed-signal semiconductor platform solutions, today announced that volume production of a new Display Driver IC (DDIC) for automotive panel displays has begun.
MagnaChip is planning to expand its business to various automotive display applications in the market, starting with the design-win of new product at a leading Japanese panel maker of automotive CSD (Center Stack Display) panels. The application of this LCD-based display driver product will be further extended to a wide range of automotive applications such as instrument cluster, GPS navigation and car entertainment displays in the future. Over time, it is widely anticipated that OLED display drivers also will be adopted for use in automotive applications.
The new automotive DDIC, S8311, has a maximum of 1440 channel outputs and an mLVDS (Mini Low-Voltage Differential Signaling) interface and supports all types of TFT-LCD such as a-Si (Amorphous silicon), LTPS (Low Temperature Poly Silicon) and IGZO (Indium Gallium Zinc Oxide) for various automotive applications. MagnaChip fabricates the product in-house using the 150nm process, which is a cost-effective method the company has successfully used for many different products in recent years.
According to market research firm IHS, automotive display shipments keep growing with three primary automotive display systems: instrument cluster, center stack and heads-up display system. Based on current trends, IHS forecasts that global shipments of automotive display panels will rise to 165Mpcs in 2018 and increase to 200Mpcs in 2022.
“As the global automotive display market continues to expand, demand for high quality display driver products is expected to grow,” said YJ Kim, CEO of MagnaChip. “With our know-how and long track record of success in the Display market, we will continue to cooperate with major automotive display panel makers to extend our automotive DDIC business from a-Si TFT-LCD to LTPS, IGZO TFT-LCD and further to OLED panel-type displays.”