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Sunik System, which surpassed 500 billion won in sales for the first time last year with OLED deposition equipment, is expanding its business area to smart glasses and next-generation solar cells. Until now, Japan has led the large OLED deposition equipment market, but its strategy is to target the energy sector beyond displays based on technology.
Kim Hye-dong, CEO of Sunik System, recently met with Mail Business and explained, “The display industry fluctuates depending on the customer’s facility investment,” adding, “We are trying to secure a stable sales base by expanding the technology accumulated in OLED to OLEDoS for smart glasses and next-generation solar cells.” He added, “Solar cells are similar to OLED’s manufacturing process, but the market’s investment cycle is different, which is advantageous for business diversification.”
Sunik System is a company specializing in OLED deposition equipment for smartphones and IT devices. Deposition is a technology that heats a light-emitting material to form a gas and then applies it thinly and delicately on a glass plate. The OLED material is easily damaged when it comes into contact with air or moisture, so it works in a vacuum state.
The main competitor is Japan’s Canon Toki. As Canon Toki led the 6th generation equipment market, which is mainly used to produce OLEDs for smartphones, Sunik System took the lead in developing large-scale equipment for the 8.6th generation, which is the next generation. The 8.6th generation equipment can produce more screens at once using larger glass plates than before. It is advantageous to lower the production cost of medium and large OLED used in laptops and tablet PCs.
The achievements led to orders. Of the six 8.6th generation OLED production lines of Chinese display company BOE, Sunik System will supply equipment for four lines, while Canon Toki will supply equipment for the remaining two lines. CEO Kim explained, “Securing technology to precisely match large glass substrates and metal masks in ultra-high vacuum environments is the factor that won the competition. BOE decided to invest right after using equipment in its first production line.”
The company’s performance has also skyrocketed. Last year’s sales reached 515.8 billion won, the highest ever. It increased more than eight times from 62.4 billion won in 2023. Operating profit amounted to 111.5 billion won, with operating profit ratio reaching 22%. Currently, large OLED equipment accounts for 60-70% of sales.
However, performance fluctuates greatly depending on the customer’s investment schedule. In the first half of this year, it recorded 36.3 billion won in sales and 8.7 billion won in operating losses. The balance of orders that will lead to sales is solid at 642 billion won as of the end of June. The high dependence on Chinese customers is also a task to be solved. CEO Kim said, “As large investment projects of Chinese customers are reflected in sales, the proportion has increased. We are creating a balanced business structure by expanding our application areas in addition to domestic and foreign customers and OLED equipment.”
Smart glass-related equipment is the area where orders are increasing right now. Sun-ik System supplies deposition equipment that makes ole-dose for smart glasses. Oledos is a technology that implements clear images by densely placing small pixels on silicon substrates, and is used in augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) devices.
Sunik System estimates that it has a global share of more than 90% in the deposition equipment market for Oledos. Orders for production lines increased from one to two per year until last year to three in the first half of this year alone. The price of deposition equipment supplied to one production line exceeds 30 billion won.
Just as the OLED market has grown rapidly with the advent of smartphones, demand for new types of displays is increasing in the AI era, CEO Kim said. “Big tech companies are drawing a future where they check information in real time through glasses without taking out their mobile phones.”
Following smart glass, the field that is being prepared as a long-term growth engine is next-generation solar cells. The key is the material ‘perovskite’. It can be manufactured at a lower temperature than conventional silicon solar cells, reducing production costs. Sunik System has developed equipment that makes the layer thin and uniform that helps electrons move inside solar cells using OLED deposition technology. In July and August this year, we supplied equipment for quasi-quantification to overseas customers.
CEO Kim said, “If the first verification results come out at the end of this year, we can expect to win orders for equipment for mass production from next year,” adding, “We expect sales to occur in the perovskite sector to be at the end of 2027.” Sunik System predicted that the related deposition equipment market will expand from 1.5 trillion won in 2030 to 15 trillion won in 2040.
It will also promote the development of AI technology to increase the precision and productivity of deposition equipment. In August, Sunik System was selected as a target for AI-based OLED deposition equipment in the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy’s “Super Eul” company development project. Super Eul refers to a material, parts, and equipment company that has core technologies that are difficult to replace even large companies. Based on government support, Sunik System plans to develop a technology that AI diagnoses equipment abnormalities and optimizes working conditions.
It is also increasing production facilities in line with the expansion of its business. When all of the new plants in the Brain City in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province are operated this month, the total production space will be expanded by 1.8 times.
“No matter how advanced AI is, display is as important an industry as semiconductors as people have to see the results with their eyes,” CEO Kim said. “We will expand the scope of growth from display to energy by deeply accumulating a single deposition technology.”
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2026.10.20 14:32
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