The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold8 has been a pretty popular device, but Samsung has faced several issues in meeting consumer demand. On top of battling rising storage and RAM prices, Samsung has apparently hit a third bottleneck – display driver integrated circuits (DDIs).
Display panel operation diagram (Samsung Display)
These are specialized chips that serve as the interface between the phone’s CPU and display panel. They control sub-pixels and rendering using thin-film transistors and control color and brightness levels for each pixel on the phone’s screen. According to a recent ZDNet Korea report, Samsung is currently tied to a sole supplier for its DDI chips – United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC).
Just last month, Samsung was falling behind on meeting consumer demand for the Fold8 and requested additional DDI chips, but UMC refused as it was already operating at maximum production capacity. That resulted in Samsung cutting its September production plans for the Z Fold8 and actually impacted revenue figures.
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold8
According to the report, Samsung is now actively looking to expand its DDI supplier list to include GlobalFoundries (GF). Samsung has particular interest in GF’s 22nm and 28nm production facilities and is speculated to use its DDI chips for entry-level Galaxy A-series phones by the end of 2027.