[Editor's Note] At the 'Korea Electronics Show (KES 2023)', Asung Korea showcased electric vehicle drive inverters, radar sensors, and steering wheels with integrated touch and haptic functions. The automobile market is currently actively researching and developing various technologies and functions for ADAS, safety, and convenience, and electronic components are also demanding diverse functions and high-spec specifications, while at the same time, more technical support is needed than in the past. In line with this trend, Asung is shedding its image as a distribution company and expanding its status as a technology agency for total solutions for each component required for electric vehicles. Our magazine interviewed Jeon Ji-man, Senior Vice President of Asung Korea, who participated in KES 2023, to hear about Asung's automotive electronics exhibits.


■ What is the purpose of participating in the Korea Electronics Show and what are the exhibit items?

Asung has prepared a demo utilizing drive inverters, haptics, and radar sensors for the 2023 Korea Electronics Show.

This exhibition DEMO focuses on the battlefield market, but the inverters, haptics, and radar sensors on display are also being heavily reviewed in the INDUSTRIAL/CONSUMER market.

Asung provides stable supply and technical support for various electronic components required by various industries.

We are doing our best to enable our customers to procure parts and develop more quickly.

■ What are the features and special features of the exhibited drive motor demo?

In the case of the drive inverter used for the demonstration at this exhibition, it is an inverter that is actually installed and used in a vehicle. Asung changed the SiC module, which is a core component inside the inverter, to a STARPOWER product and demonstrated the drive by utilizing a gate driver board developed in-house.

Asung was able to secure Traction Inverter technology, which can be said to be the core of electric vehicle technology, through collaboration with STARPOWER and Polfair.

Several houses of the castleThe advantage of Asung Traction Inverter Solution is that it can provide total solutions for each component required in electric vehicles, including gate driver and control board solutions, based on incard and technical capabilities.

Asung provides professional technical support through its own technical support and collaboration with each vendor, including: △IGBT/SiC MODULES from STARPOWER, △FILM CAPACITORs for DC LINK from MURATA, △Gate driver ICs from ROHM, △Current sensors from CROCUS, and △POWER RELAYs from OMRON, which are necessary for inverter development and production.

We also provide technical support and consulting to customers who are considering inverters for the first time, as well as to Polpair, with whom we are working on inverter technology cooperation.

■ I think that since we handle a variety of products, we also need to support expertise. What is Asung Korea’s expertise in automobiles?

Asung has been supplying numerous parts to Korean battlefield customers for a long time, and based on this, it is reading the growth trends of the automobile market and preparing for changes.

In today's automobile market, demand for electronic components is increasing more than in the past due to the growth of electric vehicles and the addition of new technologies and functions such as safety, convenience, and autonomous driving.

Accordingly, electronic components are also required to have various functions and high specifications, and technical support is more essential than in the past.

As the automotive market changes, Asung will do its best to expand into various electronic components such as Passive Devices, Power ICs, Power Modules, and Sensors, and to form specialized hardware and software personnel to facilitate parts review by customers.

■ Asung Korea is expanding its status as a technology agency. I am curious about what strategies it is taking and what its results are.

Asung is strengthening its capacity for technical support through continuous investment.

As a result, voluntary technical support in the hardware/software areas became possible.

Additionally, we are able to provide our own technical support in the field of communications, which is essential for the Internet of Things.
We are preparing solutions such as CAT.M1 and WIFI, and are also providing technical support in the OIS field.

■ An experience zone for motion detection using Socionext's radar was set up at the Korea Electronics Show booth. Could you please explain the advantages and potential uses of this sensor?

The advantage of Socionext's radar sensor is 'easy to use'.

Using existing radar sensors required designing antennas and the know-how to process the complex RF signals coming into those antennas.


On the other hand, Socionext products have their antennas built into a small 9 x 9 mm chip, so there is no need for antenna design, and they complete RF calculations internally and output the distance and angle where movement occurred.

This allows customers to easily apply radar sensors to their products, as they only need to make judgments based on distance and angle values.

Due to these advantages, it is being considered for use in various products that require human detection, such as security sensors, automatic doors, streetlights, activity detection for the elderly living alone, and bed fall detection.

We are living in the IoT era. In the IoT era, the use of sensors that provide people with even a little bit of convenience is bound to increase, and among these sensors, the use of radar sensors with differentiated detection performance will gradually expand.

■ If you are supplying or planning to supply the above products, please tell us about them as well.

Socionext's best-selling product worldwide is the door bell.

In overseas single-family homes, it is being used to detect the yard with a wide radar sensor, and when a visitor approaches, the security camera starts recording and notifies the user.

In Korea, it is being applied to black boxes by famous overseas car manufacturers.

By sensing the vehicle's surroundings with low-power sensors while parked and only recording when people or vehicles approach, the vehicle's battery is prevented from discharging and efficient memory utilization is possible.

In addition, various products such as monitoring of the elderly living alone, lighting, and security sensors are being developed, and the use of such sensors is expected to see significant expansion in demand in the future as it differentiates customer products and improves convenience for end users.

■ A steering wheel with a combination of touch and haptic functions was exhibited. I am curious as to why a vibration function was included and what the market response will be. Also, the demo shown is a steering wheel, but I wonder if there are plans to release it with the feature in other products as well.

As the automobile market changes to electric vehicles, many changes are also taking place in interior design.

The driver's operating method is changing from the existing analog switch type to an integrated screen touch type and force sensor type switch.


The biggest difference from analog switches is that it is difficult for users to determine whether or not they are operating normally when actually operating them, and to compensate for this, some countries are regulating feedback on operations through haptic vibration.

Haptic consists of a motor that generates vibration and a haptic driver IC that operates the motor, and the user's operating feel can be set to suit the environment through on-site tuning.

Currently, research and development and mass production are being conducted in areas such as steering wheels, window switches, and gear shifts, and it is expected that haptic methods will be applied to all operating methods in automobiles in the future.

Based on its high level of understanding of haptic driver ICs, Asung is actively promoting its battlefield business to domestic automobile manufacturers and overseas brand partners.

■ A word to e4ds readers along with Asung Korea’s goals

Asung Korea is a company that provides customer service through challenges and innovations based on trust. We aim to grow into a company that makes everyone happy and contributes to society.

We will continue to make Asung Korea grow together with our domestic and overseas customers.

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