According to the media report that the production line will be completed in the second half of 2024, and mass production will start in 2025, and will provide camera modules for Apple iPhone.

LG Innotek is one of Apple’s important camera suppliers, and the production line will double the production capacity of camera modules at the Vietnam factory.

LG Innotek’s Vietnam factory currently accounts for 30 percent of the company’s production of all camera modules, with the remaining 70 percent produced by South Korea’s Gumi and Paju factories. The investment is focused on meeting demand for camera modules in Apple’s iPhone models, the Elec said.

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LG Innotek said in a press release that the plant will begin mass production of flip chip ball grid array (FC-BGA) substrates, which will be used in Apple’s M-series processors in the future, in the second half of this year.

FC-BGA (Flip Chip-Ball Grid Array) substrates are high-density semiconductor packaging substrates that enable high-speed and multi-functionalization of LSI chips. Toppan has developed ultra-high-density wiring structure substrates using its original microfabrication technology and laminated wiring board technology to provide products that support the microfabrication needs of semiconductor processes.

The new FC-BGA plant is scheduled to be completed with a mass production system in the first half of the year, and full mass production will begin in the second half of the year. It will be built as an intelligent factory integrating the latest digital transformation technologies such as artificial intelligence, robotics, unmanned and intelligent.

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In addition, Japan Alps, an existing iPhone camera partner, is expected to struggle to secure orders from Apple this year. It is worth mentioning that Korean media also stated that the Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max will be the only lens equipped with a periscope lens this year, but next year the periscope lens will become the standard configuration of the Pro series.

In April last year, South Korea’s Jahwa Electronics said it would invest 191 billion won (approximately 991 million RMB) to build a factory to produce new OIS optical stabilizer devices.

At that time, some people in the industry pointed out that Apple visited Korean companies last year to find a supplier of periscope lenses. Therefore, foreign media believe that this new factory will exclusively supply Apple with the periscope zoom lens module required for the iPhone, and will be commercially available for the first time in 2023.

Interestingly, there are rumors that Apple has removed Samsung from its telephoto lens supply chain because the latter’s patents prevent Apple from using this technology in the 2023 iPhone. Therefore, Apple seems to have finally bypassed Samsung and reached a supply agreement with Jahwa Electronics.

Previously, sources said that Jahwa Electronics’ OIS patent has done a good job in creating foldable zoom technology. The technology would allow a periscope camera system to use prisms to fold the light entering the image sensor, enabling smaller camera modules to increase the iPhone’s optical zoom range.

Periscope lenses rely on prisms that bounce light to multiple internal lenses positioned 90 degrees from the camera sensor. This makes the lens much longer than a telephoto lens for better optical zoom. The telephoto lens on the iPhone 13 Pro models only offers 3x optical zoom and 15x digital zoom.

For comparison, the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra is equipped with a periscope lens that can achieve 10x optical zoom and up to 100x digital zoom. Rumor has it that Apple may opt for 5x optical zoom.

Information about Apple’s introduction of periscope lenses for the iPhone 15 series is actually very transparent in the supply chain.

Guo Mingchi previously pointed out that the iPhone 15 Pro Max released in 2023 and the iPhone 16 Pro / Pro Max released in 2024 will all use periscope telephoto lenses, of which the specifications of the periscope telephoto lenses of the iPhone 15 and iPhone 16 are similar. The detailed parameters are 12-megapixel 1/3-inch outsole, f/2.8 aperture, support for sensor shift (Sensor shift) anti-shake, and 5-6x optical zoom.

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According to Dong-A Ilbo, LG Innotek has now successfully taken an order for camera modules for Tesla’s Cybertruck, an electric pickup truck, with a supply period of more than 3 years and a maximum order size of 1.5 trillion won.

According to the report, the contract was actually officially signed on December 30 last year. Last June, it was reported that LG Innotek and a foreign company participated in the tender for the supply of camera modules, but Samsung Electro-Mechanics also participated in the tender, and the final results have now been revealed.

In fact, Tesla has been trying to diversify its key parts suppliers in recent years, and LG Innotek has been working with the company since it supplied a handful of car cameras to Tesla in 2021, and became an official parts supplier after gaining registration approval ahead of the big deal.

LG Innotek was founded in 1970, is the first comprehensive electronic parts company in South Korea, has developed into a global market leader in the global materials and accessories company, currently involved in mobile, display, semiconductor, auto and automobile and the Internet of things in the field of core materials and accessories.

An auto parts industry source pointed out that the unit price of a camera module generally does not exceed 10,000 won, and even for high-tech products, it does not exceed 15,000 won. Tesla, for example, has installed eight cameras in the Model 3 and Model Y to achieve semi-autonomous driving, which is the pure vision solution Tesla is pushing.

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The camera module is an ultra-compact module that enables telephoto camera functionality in smartphones. It is possible to implement a mirrorless camera’s zoom lens mechanism on a smartphone to achieve sharper images in the 85-125mm focal length range without degrading image quality during video recording.

To ensure sharp images in the 85-125mm focal length range, LG Innotek has developed a zoom actuator that provides sharp image quality in all ranges from 4 to 9x magnification. In addition, its actuator excels in precision, speed and durability, and consumes less battery.

LG Innotek plans to accelerate market penetration with its differentiated technology and business capabilities as global customer demand for optical zoom continue to grow, said Jeong Cheol-dong, CEO of LG Innotek.

While LG Innotek is working with Qualcomm on Android phones, LG Innotek is still likely to be a supplier of the optical zoom module for Apple’s iPhone 15, a feature sorely lacking in the iPhone 14 Pro.

LG Innotek is Apple’s largest partner in the field of optics. Citing Korean media ETNews reported in October this year that the company has started developing a folding camera. The folding camera is the first technology used in Samsung Electronics’ smartphone (Galaxy S20 Ultra), which was launched in January last year.

Samsung Electronics acquired Israel’s Corephotonics to acquire the core technology, and Samsung Electro-Mechanics developed and commercialized the folding camera. After Samsung had the core technology of folding cameras, the possibility of cooperation between Apple and Samsung had been mentioned. It just so happens that Samsung Electro-Mechanics also began to supply lenses to Apple, and whether the two sides succeeded in supplying folding cameras has raised concerns in the industry.

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FC-BGA (Flip Chip Ball Grid Array) is a printed circuit board used for semiconductor packaging. This technology is also the most important packaging format for graphics acceleration chips. It is mainly used to connect high-performance and high-density CPUs and GPUs to transmit electrical signals and power supplies, but it is very expensive due to technical difficulties.

Image source Pexels

So far, the FC-BGA market has been dominated by Japan’s Ibiden Corporation (IBIDEN), Shinko Denki and South Korea’s Hana Micron, which are the world’s largest professional manufacturers of printed circuit board development and production, but Samsung Electro-Mechanics, Daedeok Electronics, Korea Circuits, etc. Enterprises are investing heavily in the layout, especially Samsung Electro-Mechanics, which started shipping FC-BGA for servers last month and jumped to the world’s leading level.

Since Zheng Zhedong became the president, LG Innotek has withdrawn from the fields of high-density circuit boards (HDI) and light-emitting diodes (LEDs). After continuously reorganizing its business structure, it chose FC-BGA as a new growth point. The field invested 413 billion won and officially entered the market.

According to reports, LG Innotek has accumulated capabilities in radio frequency (RF) package system (SiP) substrates and 5th generation (5G) mobile communication millimeter wave antenna package (AiP) substrates with similar manufacturing processes. Products will also be more handy.

LG Innotek acquired LG Electronics’ Gumi A3 factory for 283.4 billion won in June this year and used it as a FC-BGA production base.

Since then, it has ordered manufacturing facilities and prepared dedicated production lines. Last September, they also presented their FC-BGA prototype to the world. Although the schedule is later than expected due to delays in device deliveries, LG is expected to start producing such products next year.

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The analyst noted that optical solutions will benefit from a surge in iPhone 14 orders in 4Q22 (30-40% increase in a single quarter), as the Pro / Max share is expected to reach a record 85% in 4Q22 (65% in 21Q4).

LG Innotek supplies parts for the Pro series, the flagship of the iPhone 14 series, which is expected to account for 58% of the first iPhone shipments (up 15% year-on-year).

Analysts believe that the reasons for the increase in the share of high-end models include:

(1) the lack of global competitors for the iPhone in 2022-2023;

(2) Despite the global recession and inflationary pressures, iPhone sales remained strong.

LG Innotek 2H22 forecast: OP is 1 trillion won (up 25% year-on-year):

(1) The share of Pro Series bound orders is growing.

(2) The upgrade of camera pixels drives the growth of ASP.

(3) A new front camera is adopted.

LG Innotek estimates 2H22 Optical Solutions revenue (80% of revenue for iPhones) at KRW 8.6 trillion (+46% HoH, +12% YoY), or 59% of the segment’s full-year revenue, with 3Q22 OP of 4,185 100 million won (+45% qq, +25% YoY), and 4Q22 OP was 540.3 billion won (+29% qq, +26% YoY).

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The latest reports from Korean media indicate that LG Innotek is also currently in talks with Tesla about supplying camera modules worth 1 trillion won.

The Korean media is reporting that LG Innotek is in talks with Tesla based on their public disclosure, but LG Innotek said that the talks are still ongoing and there is no definite news yet, but they also said that they plan to disclose the news again within a month once the details are confirmed.

The sources said that if LG Innotek and Tesla finally reach an agreement, they will supply camera modules to Tesla’s super factory in Austin, Texas. The superfactory is already producing the Model Y and capacity is continuing to increase.

Although LG Innotek and Tesla are in talks to supply camera modules, previous reports from foreign media indicate that even if they get an order of 1 trillion won, it will be lower than Samsung Electro-Mechanics’ 4 trillion to 5 trillion won, which means their share of Tesla’s camera modules will be much lower than Samsung Electro-Mechanics’.

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