Semiconductor Division of Samsung Electronics is known as its biggest money-making business, which could get a strategic production cut. However, the company is likely to post deficits of billions of won in the first quarter of this year amid weakening memory chip prices and higher inventories.

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According to the regulatory filing to DART by Samsung, its inventory assets reached an all-time high of 52.2 trillion won ($39.9 billion) as of the fourth quarter of last year, compared with last year’s 41.4 trillion won.

The South Korean tech titan’s chip business division accounted for the lion’s share of the total figure, with 29.1 trillion won in the same year, up nearly 12.6 trillion won from the same period tallied in 2021, the data showed.

Pent-up demand during the pandemic for home appliances, including TVs, has lost momentum, and aggressive rate hikes in major economies have significantly weakened consumer spending power.

This situation, on top of the inventory surge, has resulted in a sharp drop in chip prices. Market watchers believe the prices of PC DRAM and NAND memory chips are reportedly getting closer to their costs.

• KB Securities forecast the prices of DRAM and NAND chips will drop by a further 19 percent and 18 percent, respectively, in the January-March 2023 period.

While falling chip prices and soaring inventories affect Samsung’s earnings, the company is expected to take a turn into the red in this first quarter, logging operating losses of between 1.91 trillion won and 4.47 trillion won, reports FnGuide.

Despite witnessing a sharp drop in chip profits, Samsung maintains it will not be “artificially” cutting output and will keep up investment in its chips business. However, it has hinted at the possibility of a “natural” reduction through process conversion.

At Wednesday’s shareholder’s meeting, the company shared a downbeat forecast for its chip business this year but said it will continue to invest to secure clean rooms and technology advances in its efforts to “turn misfortune into advantage.”

“We will be flexible in executing infrastructure investment given volatile market conditions. We’re also planning to enhance our investment efficiency and improve the corporate structure.” Said Lee Jung-bae, president of Samsung’s device solution division.

Samsung and SK Hynix might reduce their production further to prevent soaring inventory assets and boost semiconductor prices. Market watchers say that reducing supply is the way to accelerate rebound in their chip businesses.

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Samsung Galaxy S23 series comes with a new design, new features, and the latest software. In addition, the Galaxy S23 series shows Samsung’s groundbreaking photographic capabilities such as stand-out selfies, cinematic video with less noise even in dark conditions, Auto Exposure with HDR, detailed photos, and more.

Let’s talk about the Galaxy HDR technology implemented in the Galaxy S23 series. But do you know what HDR is? If you do not know, then let us tell you that HDR (High Dynamic Range) is a technology that expresses bright and dark areas as widely as possible.

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When we take pictures or videos, we get images with suitable brightness through AE (Auto Exposure) operation which adjusts the exposure. However, when shooting indoors in backlit conditions or while looking out a window, bright and dark scenes coexist, resulting in images that are bright or dark depending on the scene.

Samsung Galaxy S23 HDR Technology

In Samsung Galaxy S23, the company uses the MF-HDR (Multiple Frame HDR) compositing method. It is a technology that takes pictures of different brightness by continuously adjusting the exposure, and then extracts the video information of the bright part from the bright picture and the video information of the dark part from the dark picture, and combines them into one picture.

Since the image is created by selectively combining bright and dark object information, an image with optimal brightness is created. However, since MF-HDR captures multiple consecutive scenes, there is a lag between scenes.

It means that a moving subject is prone to ghosting when the motion vector and image overlap, so it is recommended to use it in a shooting mode where the subject moves little.

On the flip side,  in motion picture mode, SF-HDR (single-frame HDR) technology is applied, and image sensor IDCG (Intrascene Dual Coverage Gain) technology is used to capture and synthesize bright and dark scenes simultaneously.

Image sensor iDCG technology generates electrons, that is, electrical signals, according to the brightness when light is incident on the photodiode of the image sensor, and the image sensor’s internal circuit (ADC: Analog Digital Converter and Logic Circuit) is used to convert the image sensor does for voltage. It goes through a process of change.

During the conversion of light into an electrical signal, electrons are placed in a cup called FD (Floating Diffusion) to measure the number of electrons. Determine a specific ratio based on the capacity of the cup and convert it to a voltage signal.

In the case of existing sensors, the capacity of the cup is limited to one, so it is difficult to take great pictures in environments with frequent changes in light and dark.

If the cup potential is large in a dark environment, it will be difficult to clearly express the dark part because the small light information cannot be converted into a sufficient voltage. It’s hard to articulate the bright parts well.

iDCG technology converts the existing one cup into two cups of different capacities, selects the smaller cup in a dark environment, selects the larger cup in a bright environment, measures twice, synthesizes in real-time, and HDR improves the performance of the image.

In the case of SF-HDR using 1 exposure, it is better for shooting moving images than MF-HDR using 2 exposures because of the sharpness of the subject’s movement. In addition to this, the company is preparing to bring HDR performance closer to the human eye through camera image sensors and ISP technology.

Samsung and Apple are the biggest rivals in the smartphone industry, fighting for the global crown. Apple has mastery in some aspects such as longer updates support and well-optimized software, while it’s nothing without the help of Samsung for displays.

According to a TheInformation report, there are complicated relationships in the tech industry and then there is the rocky marriage between Apple and Samsung for displays. The former needs cutting-edge displays for iPhones which makes it dependent on Samsung, while it blames Samsung for patent infringement.

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An ex-Apple employee revealed how Samsung is concerned to protect its display technology supremacy. The company naturally wishes to keep the biggest rival away from its cutting-edge display technology, by preventing Apple engineers to visit manufacturing facilities.

It’s reported that a team of Apple engineers went to South Korea to meet the Samsung display division’s team in 2017. Instead of a meeting, the company didn’t allow the workers to reach the display manufacturing units and even the office buildings.

Samsung reportedly asked Apple employees to return to their hotel rooms to communicate with their Samsung counterparts remotely. In addition, an incident happened in the past when Samsung was sending millions of LCD displays to Foxconn to be utilized in the Retina version of the iPad mini.

The US tech giant reportedly found a few minor defects in the screens, but Samsung declined to amend them, so Apple had to go ahead and deploy the supplied panels. No doubt, Samsung achieved mastery in display technology, which forces Apple to keep this unhappiest marriage alive.

Samsung is the biggest supplier for Apple’s iPhone 14 Pro panel orders, beating LG Display and China’s BOE. For the next-gen iPhone models, it is reported that the Korean tech giant will have a sweeping order from Apple, thanks to the ultimate OLED panels!

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