Samsung Electronics said on Tuesday it has selected 15 research projects including innovative semiconductor material development under its research funding and incubation for future technology program this year.

The program established in 2013 aims to select candidate research projects for funding three times each year in three research fields of basic science, materials technology and information and communications technology.

The tech giant said it chose research projects for funding in four areas this time: innovative semiconductor materials, device and process technologies, next-generation displays, consumer robots, and diagnosis and healthcare solutions.

The selection of research projects to develop innovative semiconductor materials grabbed attention as it comes after growing voices for the local industry’s technology independence in semiconductor and LCD manufacturing against Japan’s export control based on its market dominance.

Samsung picked six research themes in the semiconductor sector including the next-generation memory semiconductor using ion transfer, new materials for stacking up over 100 layers on NAND flash memory, and next-generation semiconductor packaging technology using diamond, and five in the display sector including the overcoming the efficiency limit of blue-emitting OLED material, spatial modulation technology for holograms, and nanowire-based micro LED. Other research topics include the development of a peripheral nerve fiber optic sensor to detect pressure, temperature, distance, and vibration in the robot skin in the robot sector and the air purification technology that can distinguish and remove fine dust by size and type in the healthcare sector. There was no selected research topic in the sector of next-generation computing and system architecture, Samsung Electronics said.

The company has so far invested a total 682.6 billion won ($578.4 million) in 532 research projects from universities and research institutes, supporting creative research projects that have difficulty receiving financial support from the government.

By Kim Gyu-sik and Minu Kim

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