TechLuver.com

Seoul, S Korea — Dec 31, `07 — LG.Philips LCD announced today that it will showcase its newest line-up of public displays at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2008 in Las Vegas.

LG.Philips LCD’s innovative new technologies for public displays center on increasing interactivity and viewability.

Multi-touch interface capabilities create a never-before-seen level of interactivity by allowing users to manipulate objects on screen, using both hands at once and even offering the precision necessary to recognize handwriting.

Another technology, transflective backlights, tackles one of the key challenges in developing public displays: readability in all lighting conditions, including direct sunlight.

LG.Philips LCD’s public display products featured at CES 2008 include:

52-inch Multi-touch Screen – World’s Largest Multi-touch Display
LG.Philips LCD’s 52-inch multi-touch panel for public and interactive displays is not only the world’s largest, it is also one of the most responsive, able to recognize input from either a touch of a finger or more precise writing instruments. It uses an infrared image sensor that gives it the ability to recognize two separate touch points as well as gestures. It boasts some of the industry’s highest specifications, with a 90 Hz touch response time, 1920 x 1080 Full HD resolution and a light transmission rate of 95 to 100 percent.

47-Inch Triple View LCD – World’s Largest and Highest Resolution Triple View Display
LG.Philips LCD’s 47-inch Triple View LCD features Full HD 1920 x 1080 resolution, can reproduce 1.07 billion colors and has a brightness of 250 nits. This display is an ideal solution for applications such as store directories and advertising at shopping malls. By splitting the light from the panel into separate paths, it is able to show three completely different images to people standing at different angles relative to the display.

47-inch Double-sided LCD for Public Displays
LG.Philips LCD’s 47-inch Double-sided LCD is two-sided display that uses a single backlight. At only 70 mm thick, it is 30 percent thinner than conventional models, but its luminance of 500 nits equals that of regular panels.

42-inch Transflective LCD for Outdoor Use
LG.Philips LCD’s 42-inch transflective display for outdoor use boasts an impressive 1,500 cd/m2 luminance in outdoor light, greatly improving daytime readability. The display is equally effective at night, relying on the power of its backlight. By adopting a special transflective technology, LG.Philips LCD has developed a backlight that greatly enhances the viewability of an LCD panel during all times of the day.

84-inch Multi-vision Multi-touch LCD for Interactive Public Displays
LG.Philips LCD’s flagship multi-touch display is an 84-inch model created by conjoining four 42-inch panels in a two-by-two array. This acts as a single enormous display with multi-touch capabilities across its entire surface. A screen bezel width of only 15mm, which is 40 percent smaller than the average bezel, adds to the panel’s seamless look and feel. The display also has Full HD 1920 x 1080 resolution, an omni-directional 180-degree viewing angle and impressive 500 cd/m2 brightness. More at LG.Philips LCD.

ETNews of Korea reports on Shinhan Card rolling out Korea’s first ever USB type credit card on Thursday, December 27.

ETNews further writes, “The USB credit card provides the online and contactless payment function and works the post-paid transportation card as well. The built-in IC chip includes the public authorization and the internet credit payment programs.

During the online payment, users do not need to insert the credit card number. Rather, they can pay by connecting the USB to the slot. At the franchise stores with the IC card reader, it enables the no-touch payment.

The card also supports the information inquiry and the automatic log-in service using the public authorization and the built-in internet payment programs. However, it is limited for users to delete or save data so that the USB itself cannot be used as a portable storage device.” More at ETNews.

Seoul, S Korea — Dec 21, `07 — South Korean prosecutors probing corruption accusations against the giant Samsung Group said on Friday they had narrowed their focus down to around 400 accounts that might be linked to an alleged slush fund, Reuters reported.

A former top legal executive with the country’s biggest conglomerate last month accused Samsung of running a 200 billion won ($212.7 million) fund to bribe public officials to avoid investigation into its operations.

“The list of accounts has become a lot shorter,” a prosecution official said by telephone. “It’s roughly about 300 or 400.” Media reports have said the number of accounts searched by prosecutors was well in excess of 1,000.

The former Samsung employee, Kim Yong-cheol, said the firm hid the illicit funds in scores of deposit accounts in the names of current and former executives.

The company, whose group sales are equivalent to about a sixth of the entire economic output of the world’s 13th largest economy, has denied any wrongdoing. More at Reuters.

Seoul, S Korea — On Dec 11, Seoul Semiconductor announced that it has launched the world’s thinnest chip-LED at 0.17mm, capable of producing more than two times the brightness of existing chip-LEDs. Seoul Semiconductor has applied for a patent for its new chip.

Seoul Semiconductor’s new chip-LED, WH108, measures 1.6mm in width, 0.8mm in length and 0.17mm in height, and represents a significant reduction in thickness. The WH108 is 15% thinner than the industry’s exiting thin chip-LED, which measures 0.2mm. The WH108 also delivers superior performance at a luminous intensity of 240 mcd, more than two times brighter than the existing chip-LED at a current of 5 mA.

WH108’s ultra-thin package and high brightness make it ideal for use in applications for cell phone keypad modules or touch pads, which will ultimately lead to thinner cell phones.

In addition, the WH108 is capable of producing the same brightness at a lower power, which helps extend the battery life of portable devices such as cell phones, digital cameras and laptops.

The WH108 has enhanced thermal characteristic, meaning it can withstand and perform reliably in demanding environments such as:
- Small lights: inner lighting of refrigerator, reading lamp of automobile
- Special illumination devices: endoscope illumination
- Automobile dashboard lighting

Prototype models of the WH108 in white, blue and green will be available to cell phone companies in Korea and globally in December 2007. Seoul Semiconductor will begin mass-production of the WH108 on a scale of more than 10 million LEDs per month in the first quarter of 2008. More at Seoul Semiconductor.

Seoul — Dec 13, `07 –Korea Newswire– Samsung Electronics announced today the development of a new digital TV receiver chip (S5H1432) using 65nm process technology for terrestrial digital video broadcasting (DVB-T), the digital broadcasting standard in Europe, Southeast Asia, and Australia.

Samsung’s new DVB-T receiver chip is designed for use in digital TVs, set-top boxes, TV receiver cards for PCs, USB interfaced plug-and play dongle or boxes, and DVD recorders.

Fabricated using Samsung’s advanced 65nm process technology on 300mm wafers, this new DVB-T receiver chip fully supports Europe’s NorDig unified standard for digital broadcasting. The power consumption level for this chip is at an industry low of 80mW, less than one third of the conventional 250mW average power consumption of existing solutions on the market.

By using a proprietary processing algorithm, Samsung’s new DVB-T receiver chip enables high performance even in single frequency network environments, reducing the channel scanning interval by half, to less than 0.1-second, from the conventional 0.2-second.

The new DVB-T receiver chip is expected to be available in the first quarter of 2008. This DVB-T receiver chip, together with other Samsung logic devices and solutions, will be on display at CES 2008.

On Wednesday, Dec 12, Sharp Corporation filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Samsung Electronics in the Seoul Central District Court in South Korea.

The complaint alleges that (1) liquid crystal display (LCD) modules manufactured and/or sold by Samsung in South Korea and (2) LCD TVs manufactured and/or sold by Samsung in South Korea that incorporate these LCD modules infringe upon three LCD-related Korean patents that are owned by Sharp.

In the complaint, Sharp requests that the Court award it compensatory damages and prohibit the manufacturing and sale of the infringing products in South Korea.

The three patents named in the lawsuit are Korean Patent Numbers 371,939, 740,570 and 776,988. These patents relate to LCD technologies that achieve high brightness and high-speed response, as well as a wide viewing angle by regulating and stabilizing the alignment of the LCD molecules.

On August 6, 2007, Sharp filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Samsung and its US subsidiaries Samsung Electronics America, Inc. (SEA) and Samsung Telecommunications America (STA) in the US. That lawsuit is now pending. More at Sharp.

Nanotubes may have high-tech applications, study involving UCR engineers reports.

RIVERSIDE, Calif — Dec 07, ‘07 — Two engineers at the University of California, Riverside are part of a binational team that has found semiconducting nanotubes produced by living bacteria – a discovery that could help in the creation of a new generation of nanoelectronic devices.

The research team believes this is the first time nanotubes have been shown to be produced by biological rather than chemical means. It opens the door to the possibility of cheaper and more environmentally friendly manufacture of electronic materials.

Study results appear in today’s issue of the early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The team, including Nosang V. Myung, associate professor of chemical and environmental engineering in the Bourns College of Engineering, and his postdoctoral researcher Bongyoung Yoo, found the bacterium Shewanella facilitates the formation of arsenic-sulfide nanotubes that have unique physical and chemical properties not produced by chemical agents.

“We have shown that a jar with a bug in it can create potentially useful nanostructures,” Myung said. “Nanotubes are of particular interest in materials science because the useful properties of a substance can be finely tuned according to the diameter and the thickness of the tubes.”

The whole realm of electronic devices which power our world, from computers to solar cells, today depend on chemical manufacturing processes which use tremendous energy, and leave behind toxic metals and chemicals. Myung said a growing movement in science and engineering is looking for ways to produce semiconductors in more ecologically friendly ways.

Two members of the research team, Hor-Gil Hur and Ji-Hoon Lee from Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST), Korea, first discovered something unexpected happening when they attempted to remediate arsenic contamination using the metal-reducing bacterium Shewanella. Myung, who specializes in electro-chemical material synthesis and device fabrication, was able to characterize the resulting nano-material.

The photoactive arsenic-sulfide nanotubes produced by the bacteria behave as metals with electrical and photoconductive properties. The researchers report that these properties may also provide novel functionality for the next generation of semiconductors in nano- and opto-electronic devices.

In a process that is not yet fully understood, the Shewanella bacterium secretes polysacarides that seem to produce the template for the arsenic sulfide nanotubes, Myung explained. The practical significance of this technique would be much greater if a bacterial species were identified that could produce nanotubes of cadmium sulfide or other superior semiconductor materials, he added.

“This is just a first step that points the way to future investigation,” he said. “Each species of Shewanella might have individual implications for manufacturing properties.” More at University of California, Riverside.

Seoul, South Korea & Tokyo, Japan –BUSINESS WIRE– Dec 03, ‘07 — Samsung Electronics and Toshiba today announced that they have licensed to one another the rights to produce, market and sell memory with the specifications and trademarks of Samsung’s OneNAND and Toshiba’s LBA-NAND memory chips.

As a result of the reciprocal arrangement, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) will have a broader choice of suppliers for each premium memory chip, thereby reducing any potential risk of over-dependence on a single supplier for any of the selected chips. The arrangement is expected to result in increased availability of premium-performance OneNAND and LBA-NAND flash devices worldwide.

Under terms of the agreement, Samsung will license product specifications of its integrated OneNAND and Flex-OneNAND “fusion” memory chips to Toshiba, while Toshiba will license product specifications of its single-package LBA-NAND and mobileLBA-NAND flash chips to Samsung. Both companies will develop and market products that are compatible with the respective original-source technology. Samsung and Toshiba each plan to release products next year based on the respectively licensed product specifications. More here.

Seoul, S Korea — Universal Parks & Resorts and South Korea’s Gyeonggi province said Tuesday, Nov 27, that they had agreed on plans for a $3.1-billion theme park to be built south of Seoul, its largest project in terms of investment size, as it seeks to expand in Asia’s burgeoning entertainment market.

The park, in Hwaseong City in Gyeonggi province, about 18.5 miles (30 km) southwest of the capital Seoul, set to open in 2012 and will lead to the creation of more than 58,000 jobs, is expected to draw 10 million people annually from South Korea, China and Southeast Asia, said Kim Moon-soo, governor of Gyeonggi province.

The theme park, spanning 4.7 million square meters (50.59 million sq ft) and featuring hotels, golf courses and rides based on popular movies and TV shows, would be similar in scale to the Universal Orlando Resort in Florida in the United States.

“This is certainly going to be much larger than the other projects that have been announced,” Frank Stanek, who spearheaded the development of Tokyo Disneyland and is in charge of developing Universal Studios Korea, told a news conference.

Universal Parks & Resorts is also developing two other parks Singapore’s Sentosa Island and the Gulf emirate of Dubai.

Universal Studios, operated by NBC Universal Inc., a unit of General Electric Co., is joining forces with POSCO Engineering and Construction, a unit of South Korean steel giant POSCO, and state-run Korea Development Bank, among other partners.

Shinhan Bank, a unit of Shinhan Financial Group, and Korea Investment & Securities, a unit of Korea Investment Holdings are also part of the consortium.

Seoul, S Korea — Nov 27, ‘07 — South Korean President Roh Moo Hyun said he will appoint an independent investigator to probe bribery allegations against Samsung Group, escalating a corruption scandal that has engulfed the nation’s largest industrial group.

The country’s national assembly last week voted for legislation forcing the investigation to take place.

Mr Roh, who has previously resisted calls for an independent investigation, said that he would now back one because the bill had been passed. Samsung denies the accusations which include bribing police and politicians to stop probes into its management. It is also alleged that the manufacturing firm used a slush fund to finance the bribes.

Seventeen traded units of Samsung Group lost $5.21 billion (4.85 trillion won) in combined market value today after Roh said in a televised news briefing he accepted lawmakers’ demands for an investigation.

The new legislation requires an independent investigator to spend up to 125 days looking into the allegations made about the firm. Its remit includes examining whether the firm made improper payments during campaigning for the 2002 presidential election.

State prosecutors have already begun an investigation into allegations of wrongdoing at Samsung, but in the bill MPs said that this could not “earn the people’s confidence”.

Samsung said that it would “co-operate” with the investigation. Local media has reported that prosecutors have banned top Samsung officials from leaving the country.

The investigation comes as South Korean authorities have stepped up anti-corruption activities, going after some of the country’s largest companies. Earlier this year, six Samsung executives pleaded guilty in the US to charges of fixing the price of microchips.

In February, the chairman of Hyundai Motor Company - one of South Korea’s biggest firms - was sentenced to three years in jail for embezzlement and breach of trust.

And last year South Korean prosecutors raided the offices of Citigroup in Seoul as part of a probe into the sale of a local bank to a US investment fund.

“This is an extraordinarily big event for Samsung, which can even result in a near breakup of the group,” said Jang Ha Sung, a professor at Korea University who led a group that sued Samsung Electronics for selling shares at a discount to an affiliate.

“Still, long-term investors from outside Korea may view the case as an opportunity for positive new changes for the South Korean economy as a whole,” Jang said.

Seoul, S Korea — Nov 26, ‘07 –Reuters is reporting on a former top legal executive at Samsung Group on Monday making fresh accusations against the country’s largest conglomerate, saying it had used subsidiaries to help create a $215.8 million (200 billion won) slush fund.

Samsung has previously denied charges by , who used to run a major legal division but now says he wants to blow the whistle on corruption.

Reuters further reports, “”Samsung has created a large-scale slush fund,” Kim told a nationally-televised news conference, the second this month accusing his former employer of impropriety.

As Samsung legal counsel he saw secret documents which laid out intricate arrangements between affiliates to channel money to the illegal fund, he said. Earlier this month, Kim accused Samsung of routinely bribing prosecutors and politicians to quash investigations concerning improper company management.

Last week, South Korea’s parliament voted to allow an independent counsel to investigate the Samsung Group.

Roh, who has about three months left in office, is considering vetoing the bill, his office has said.” More at Reuters.

SEOUL, South Korea — Nov 23, ‘07 — South Korea’s National Assembly passed a bill Friday demanding an independent investigation into allegations of bribery at the Samsung Group conglomerate.

The National Assembly approved a bill authorizing the investigation in a 155-17 vote, with 17 absentees. A probe would also look into whether Samsung Chairman Lee Kun Hee and executives illegally helped Lee’s son, Jae Yong, get control of Samsung units. Samsung and incoming prosecutor-general Lim Chai Jin, who is among those accused of taking bribes, denied the allegations.

Samsung’s former chief attorney, Kim Yong-Cheol, said earlier this month South Korea’s biggest industrial group amassed a slush fund to bribe powerful figures in the country including government officials and media.

An investigation must be started within 50 days, according to the bill, which needs President Roh Moo Hyun’s approval. Roh’s office “will consider various options,” including vetoing the bill, his spokesman Cheon Ho Seon told reporters. The probe will also look into the lobbying of presidential candidates during the 2002 election, when Roh beat Lee Hoi Chang, then-candidate of the Grand National Party. Lee is running again this year as an independent for the Dec. 19 election.

Lee Yong Chul, a former aide to Roh, said this week he received 5 million won ($5,400) in January 2004 from a lawyer at Samsung Electronics and immediately returned the money.

The bill was approved as prosecutors began their own investigation earlier this month, setting up a special unit to ensure independence.

The legislation calls for Roh to appoint an independent counsel out of three candidates recommended by the Korean Bar Association. The special prosecutor, aided by 33 assistant investigators, can investigate for up to 105 days.

Samsung Group, with about 130 trillion won in assets and 59 units, is the parent of Samsung Electronics, Asia’s biggest maker of chips and mobile phones. Other subsidiaries include Samsung Heavy Industries Co., the world’s second-largest shipbuilder, and Samsung SDI Co., the world’s second-largest maker of plasma display panels.

SEOUL — Nov 22, ‘07 — South Korea’s Samsung Electronics said on Thursday it plans to invest $2.21 billion (2.06 trillion won) to expand its eighth-generation liquid crystal display (LCD) line, Reuters reported.

“Samsung, which had been cooperating with Japan’s Sony for its No. 8 line, is making the investment on its own for this phase, a Samsung official said.” Reuters.

SEOUL, South Korea –BUSINESS WIRE– Nov 22, ‘07 — Samsung Electronics, the world’s largest provider of thin-film-transistor, liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD) panels, announced today that it has completed development of a flat panel X-ray detector (FPXD) for radiology machines, in collaboration with Vatech Ltd, a Korean medical machinery manufacturing company.

By using digital imaging with thin-film transistor (TFT) technology, the diagnostic process is enhanced in many ways. In addition to delivering a much more precise image, Samsung’s new FPXD imaging sensor can save medical labs considerable time and money because no film or development process is needed.

An X-ray detector is an elaborate imaging sensor that converts invisible X-ray images into digital signals, which are then instantly transformed into pictures. Today, the medical profession still relies primarily on costly, plastic-based analog film for X-ray photography applications, which can take an excessively long period of time to develop in many medical situations.

The new FPXD measures 45 centimeters (cm) wide x 46cm high (or 61cm diagonally) and boasts a 3072 x 3072 (9.4 megapixels) resolution providing ultra-high definition images.

The new Samsung FXPD technology has virtually an endless range of applications beyond conventional X-ray systems. For example, it can be adopted for more advanced diagnostics such as CAT scans, for building inspections (scanning rebar structures, etc.) and for airport security scanners.

To create its FPXD, Samsung attached photodiodes to a TFT substrate that was produced using its proprietary amorphous silicon technology. The X-rays are detected photon by photon and then converted into visible light, which in turn is converted to electrical signals that can be displayed as diagnostic images on a flat panel screen.

In addition, Samsung has created an image enhancement function to eliminate most digital image noise interference to provide the highest radiographic sensitivity in the industry.

Samsung’s expects that its new, FPXD one-stop, total solution will secure the leadership position in the growing market for medical equipment detectors.The device will be available worldwide beginning first quarter, 2008.

Seoul, Korea — Nov 05, ‘07 — A former Samsung Group legal executive went on live television on Monday to accuse South Korea’s biggest conglomerate of operating huge slush funds to bribe prosecutors and officials.

Samsung Group then issued a 25-page rebuttal rejecting all the accusations made by Kim Yong-cheol, former head of a key legal division of Samsung Group.

“Everything Attorney Kim has said is untrue,” Samsung quoted a high-ranking official as saying.

At his news conference, Kim said he wanted to blow the whistle on corruption and reveal a list of Samsung executives he said operated secret slush funds. He did not produce the list.

Kim charged the company with paying off politicians, members of the judiciary and bureaucrats in order to avoid legal scrutiny of affairs involving company management under chairman Lee Kun-hee and the transfer of his wealth to his children.

“Prosecutors were only a small group that Samsung was managing,” Kim said. “It was on a much larger scale with the Ministry of Finance and the National Tax Service.” Kim made his nationally televised comments in a packed Seoul church, where he said he was being supported by priests. More at Reuters.

Microsoft has told a South Korean court it wants to drop its appeal against a landmark Korean Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) antitrust ruling. “Microsoft has sought to withdraw its appeal,” the company said in a statement on Tuesday. “We are working with the KFTC and the Seoul High Court, but because the matter is pending before the court we cannot comment further.”The Fair Trade Commission said it had been notified by the high court of Microsoft’s decision to drop its appeal. A spokesman said the commission was undecided on its next step. The commission ruled in 2005 that Microsoft had abused its dominant market position, fining it 32.5 billion won ($35.41 million) and ordering it to separate its instant messaging programme from the Windows operating system.

After the court rejected a stay while the software company challenged the ruling, Microsoft said in October 2006 that it had made changes to its Windows Vista operating system to meet all of the commission’s demands.