LG Innotek develops high-efficiency magnetic materials

An LG Innotek employee shows off the company's high-efficiency ferrite product, Wednesday. / Courtesy of LG Innotek

By Baek Byung-yeul

LG Innotek has developed high-efficiency ferrite for use in the power modules of TV display panels and in vehicle air conditioners and audio systems in a bid to diversify its business model, the electronic component company said Wednesday.

Ferrite is a magnetic material made of iron oxide. It is used to stably supply power to electronic devices. As home appliances get smaller and more plentiful and with the rise of electric vehicles, the company expects high-efficiency ferrite will be increasingly in demand.

LG Innotek said the ferrite boasts up to 40 percent less power loss than existing products. The company said it is highly reliable, working smoothly at extremely low and high temperatures between minus 40 degrees and 140 degrees Celsius, which makes it suitable for use in TVs and vehicles.

“The high-efficiency ferrite LG Innotek has developed helps manufacturers produce slimmer TVs,” an LG Innotek official said. “Carmakers can also manufacturer lighter electric vehicles or hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles to improve fuel efficiency.”

TV manufacturers using the product could make power modules as thin as 9.9 millimeters and improve energy efficiency by up to 5 percentage points, the company said.

By using LG Innotek's ferrite, carmakers could reduce the weight of AC-DC voltage converters by 10 percent and their energy efficiency could be improved by up to 1.2 percentage points, the company said.

Japanese makers with better technological capability have dominated the ferrite market. To catch up, LG Innotek started developing ferrite products in 2018.

The company thought it would take time to narrow the gap with the Japanese firms, so it decided to introduce simulation techniques based on digital transformation and artificial intelligence.

“Using supercomputers, we could automate the process of obtaining the composite ratio of the material and consequently could reduce the frequency and duration of experiments while increasing accuracy,” the company said.

With its effort, the company said it could reduce the development period to a year and four months though it usually takes four years.

The company said it aims to mass-produce the ferrite in the first half of 2021 and it has been conducting promotions targeting global electronics companies and carmakers.

“By developing the high-efficiency ferrite, LG Innotek is now able to more reliably supply products with high performance and quality to our customers,” Bae Seok, a research fellow at LG Innotek, said.