In order to expand the domestic ecosystem of the system semiconductor industry, five promising startups will be selected for the fabless challenge and supported by Samsung Foundry MPW.

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups, in collaboration with Samsung Electronics, held the 'Fabless Challenge', an event to select and support promising fabless companies, on the 29th at the Korea Federation of SMEs DMC Tower.

The Fabless Challenge is an event that has been held since 2022 to strengthen the system semiconductor ecosystem and seek joint growth between fabless and foundries. Recruitment began in July of this year, and five promising fabless startups were ultimately selected through expert evaluations.

△Gwanak Analog △Damotech △Bose Semiconductor △Alpha Solutions △One Semicon 5 promising fabless companies were selected and Samsung Electronics will provide priority use of the foundry MPW production process and support for process technology, etc. The Ministry of SMEs and Startups supports development costs of up to 100 million won per company.

Gwanak Analog (CEO Kim Soo-hwan) was selected for the Edge AI-SoC implementation project for implementing a standalone text-to-speech (TTS) system, and Damoa Tech (CEO Jeong Hu-min) will develop a chip to prevent safety issues caused by moisture-induced misoperation when driving a car by developing a non-contact touch sensor module that is resistant to moisture environments.

Bose Semiconductor (CEO Jaehong Park) is developing an NPU accelerator SoC for autonomous driving, and Alpha Solutions (CEO Wook Kim) plans to focus on developing a 5nm HDMI/Display Port combo IP for UCIe and implement AI chiplet IP for ultra-high resolution and ultra-high speed implementation in next-generation VR/AR/XR. One Semicon (CEO Changhyun Kim) plans to respond to the continuously growing server market through the development of a DDR5 8Gbps Registering Driver.

Vice Minister of SMEs and Startups Oh Ki-woong said, “It is very urgent to foster system semiconductors, especially excellent fabless companies, in order for the semiconductor industry, a key domestic industry, to make a leap forward.” He added, “The SMEs and Startups Ministry will actively work to foster promising fabless companies and promote mutually beneficial cooperation to achieve balanced development between fabless and foundries.”