Seoul Semiconductor’s New Generation ‘WICOP’ Technology Brings Innovation to Electric Vehicle Headlamps

ANSAN, South Korea (October 15, 2020) – Seoul Semiconductor Co., Ltd. (“Seoul”) (KOSDAQ 046890), a leading global innovator of LED products and technology, announced the introduction of its next-generation WICOP UHL (Ultra High Luminance) Series LEDs, which reduce headlamp power consumption up to 20% for electric vehicles, with an improvement of heat dissipation performance up to 40%. The company will begin mass production in 2021 and with promotions to key customers.

Battery power consumption is one of the important requirements that determine the range of an electric vehicle, or the driving distance on a single charge. In order to reduce the power consumption, it is critical to reduce the overall weight of automobile parts.

The next-generation “WICOP UHL” Series LEDs exhibit up to 40% better heat dissipation performance than other products in the current LED market. By applying WICOP UHL to automobile headlamps, the weight of lamp heat sink structure can be reduced by 75%. The LED emitting area of the product is extremely small (approximately 0.5mm²), which enables a slim headlamp design. This new LED technology completely compensates for the disadvantages of heat dissipation, as the lighting emitting area is smaller, and thus it enables not only slim lamp design but also high performance.

WICOP (Wafer Integrated Chip on PCB), a fundamental technology of the new product, is the world’s first patented package-less LED technology developed by Seoul Semiconductor. Unlike flip chip technology that must be bonded in the semiconductor process, WICOP LEDs can be easily surface-mounted (SMT) in the general substrate bonding process. Mini LEDs also use the WICOP technology with a robust structure.

“This new product will be mass-produced from 2021 according to requests of global headlamp manufacturers. And it can be adopted for headlamps of all automobile brands and designs,” said representative of Seoul Semiconductor.

Seoul will showcase the WICOP UHL Series products at the Shanghai International Auto Lamp Exhibition (ALE), scheduled for October 15 – 16 in Shanghai, China.

Image caption: The weight of headlamp heat sink structures can be reduced by 75% by using WICOP UHL patented LED technology.

About Seoul Semiconductor

Seoul Semiconductor is the world’s second-largest global LED manufacturer, a ranking excluding the captive market, and has more than 14,000 patents. Based on a differentiated product portfolio, Seoul offers a wide range of technologies, and mass produces innovative LED products for indoor and outdoor lighting, automotive, IT products, such as mobile phone, computer displays, and other applications, as well as the UV area. The company’s world’s first development and mass production products are becoming LED industry standard and leading the global market with a package-free LED, WICOP; a high-voltage AC-driven LED, Acrich; an LED with 10X the output of a conventional LED, nPola; a cutting edge ultraviolet clean technology LED, Violeds; an all direction light emitting technology, filament LED; a natural spectrum LED, SunLike; and more. For more information, please visit www.seoulsemicon.com/en.