On 15^th December (U.S. local time), SK IE Technology’s brand of colorless cover material for flexible displays FCW (Flexible Cover Window) was announced to be selected as a CES 2021 Innovation Awards honoree in the wearable technology sector.

CES (Consumer Electronics Show) is an annual trade show organized by Consumer Technology Association (CTA) in Las Vegas, the U.S. It is the world’s most influential tech event expo that typically hosts presentations of new products and technologies in the consumer electronics industry. As an annual competition, CES Innovation Awards program honors outstanding design and engineering in consumer technology products across 28 categories.

*Source : CES Official Website

SK IE Technology’s FCW was introduced at CES 2019 and CES 2020. This year, its innovative design and engineering features scored highly across the evaluation criteria and became one of the Honorees of CES 2021 Innovation Awards.

 ▲ SK IE Technology’s FCW was selected as an Honoree of CES 2021 Innovation Awards (Source: CES Official Website)

| About SK IE Technology’s FCW

SK IE Technology’s FCW is a new display material that maintains the strengths of glass and compensates for its weaknesses by having foldable, rollable, stretchable, but unbreakable characteristics. It is mainly used for flexible displays such as foldable phones, rollable TVs, curved monitors, etc. that has foldable or rollable screens. FCW is in the spotlight as an innovative material that will realize the infinite transformation of the display form factor.

 ▲ Example of flexible displays that use SK IE Technology’s FCW

Furthermore, SK IE Technology successfully developed a hard-coating technology for colorless Polyimide (PI) to maintain the transparency while not being broken or having any folded mark even after being folded and unfolded for several hundred thousand times. The company also developed the functional coating technology that can prevent fingerprint contamination.

 ▲ Structure and major functions of SK IE Technology’s FCW

At the end of last year, SK IE Technology built an FCW plant in Jeungpyeong, Chungcheongbuk-do, South Korea, establishing a mass-production system. From July this year, it has been supplying FCW, which has been recognized for its quality and optimized for foldable phones, to global smartphone manufacturers. In line with the growth of the foldable phone market and increasing demand for flexible material in the future, SK IE Technology is considering building the second plant in Jeungpyeong.

 ▲ SK IE Technology researchers are checking the FCW products at Jeungpyeong plant, South Korea

SK IE Technology is the only Korean flexible material solution provider that ▲synthesizes basic raw materials, ▲manufactures colorless PI film, ▲has a special hard coating technology that improves durability and prevents scratches, and▲ proceeds the entire process, such as a functional coating that prevents the occurrence of fingerprint and functional coating technology that increases the light transmittance.

Meanwhile, SK IE Technology has also been leading the global wet separator market. Last month, its new LiBS (Lithium-ion Battery Separator) plant in Changzhou, China has started commercial operation, increasing SK IE Technology’s LiBS production capacity to 870 million m^2­ in total, including 530 million m² separator plant operating in Jeungpyeong, South Korea. SK IE Technology will continue to operate overseas factories under construction in China and Poland by 2023. Accordingly, it is expected to be equipped with the production capacity of about 1.37 billion m² by the end of next year and about 1.87 billion m² by the end of 2023.

Prior to this, in September, a board meeting was held to approve the implementation of a pre-IPO (Pre-Initial Public Offering) and sign a contract with financial investors. Through this, SK IE Technology has laid a foothold for the success of its IPO, which is scheduled for next year.