Korean Company Acquires Taiwanese Firm, Secures High-Power Semiconductor Process Lamp Technology Previously Dependent on Imports

A domestic equipment company has acquired a Taiwanese semiconductor parts manufacturer. Through this acquisition, the company has secured manufacturing technology for high-power semiconductor process lamps, which had previously been entirely dependent on overseas sources.

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy announced on August 28 that it had supported FNS Tech's acquisition of the Taiwanese semiconductor parts manufacturer Asahi Lamp through its investment-linked technology acquisition support program. The scale of this acquisition is approximately 10.8 billion won.

FNS Tech also acquired the American company InnoPad in 2013 with support from the Ministry, and through the chemical mechanical polishing pad (CMP PAD) technology obtained from that acquisition, it is currently supplying major domestic semiconductor companies such as Samsung Electronics.

The recently acquired Asahi Lamp possesses tungsten halogen lamp manufacturing technology used in semiconductor rapid thermal processing (RTP) and epitaxial deposition (EPI) processes, and supplies its products to companies including Applied Materials in the United States and TSMC in Taiwan.

Currently, there is no domestic production base for high-power semiconductor process lamps, so all such lamps are sourced from overseas. The Ministry expects that this acquisition will contribute to securing stable parts supply and expanding the market in the short term, and to enhancing the stability and competitiveness of the domestic semiconductor industry supply chain through technology localization in the mid- to long-term.

The Ministry and the Korea Investment Institution Association for Materials, Parts, and Equipment (KITIA) are supporting Korean companies in securing overseas technologies by assisting with deal sourcing, due diligence, and technology evaluation. This year, they have newly introduced support for supply chain strategy development, and are pursuing an extension of the 5-10% tax credit for acquisitions of foreign corporations related to materials, parts, and equipment until 2028.

Na Seonghwa, Director General for Industrial Supply Chain Policy at the Ministry, stated, "Overseas mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are a second form of research and development (R&D) that can simultaneously secure both technology and market share," and added, "We ask that our companies actively utilize government support to acquire overseas technologies."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.