IMAGIS said Chief Executive Officer Lee Dong-seop, who was appointed in March, has resigned after serving for just four months.

The company disclosed on July 31 that its board approved the resignation at a meeting held the same day. Lee stepped down before completing his term, which was scheduled to run through March 2029. The company did not disclose the reason for his departure.

Chairman Kim Jung-chul will return as chief executive. Born in 1964, Kim has led IMAGIS since the 2000s and is currently the company's largest shareholder with an 18.43% stake.

In March, IMAGIS appointed Lee, a former SK hynix executive, as CEO. At the time, the company said it planned to expand into physical AI and robotics-based solutions, adding that the appointment was intended to drive revenue growth and strengthen management accountability.

Since then, the company has secured a major new order. On June 8, IMAGIS announced an automotive semiconductor supply contract worth approximately 5.8 billion won. The deal was equivalent to 43.71% of the company's revenue of about 13.2 billion won in the previous year and marked a significant win as the company seeks to recover from three consecutive years of losses since 2023.

IMAGIS has projected revenue of 21.0 billion won for 2026, which would represent its highest annual sales since 2017.

The leadership change comes as the company works to capitalize on growing opportunities in automotive semiconductors and next-generation AI-related applications.

Samsung Electronics' next-generation gallium nitride (GaN) power semiconductor foundry project has encountered a setback during trial production, raising concerns that commercial production may be delayed beyond this year. The issue emerged after some test chips reportedly failed to operate under extended high-temperature conditions.

According to multiple industry sources on July 31, Samsung has established a dedicated 8-inch GaN semiconductor foundry line at its Giheung campus in Yongin with monthly capacity of approximately 1,300 to 1,500 wafers. The company recently conducted trial production of chips designed by fabless semiconductor companies. During testing, some of the chips reportedly stopped functioning after being exposed to temperatures of 100 to 200 degrees Celsius for roughly 1,000 hours.

GaN semiconductors are commonly used in high-voltage applications of up to 1,200 volts and in environments exceeding 200 degrees Celsius. Their ability to operate reliably under high-temperature conditions has made them increasingly attractive for electric vehicles, robotics and data center applications. Industry sources said the reported reliability issues could limit the usability of chips manufactured using the current process.

Samsung is said to be investigating the root cause of the problem. Industry sources identified the wafer manufacturing process as a leading area of focus. According to those sources, process modifications introduced to achieve targeted device performance may have contributed to the reliability issue.

GaN devices are typically fabricated on epitaxial wafers, in which a GaN layer is grown on a silicon (Si) wafer through an epitaxy process. If the quality or structure of the GaN layer is not fully optimized, defects can become more pronounced under high-temperature and high-voltage operating conditions. Samsung manufactures its own epitaxial wafers using metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) equipment.

A person familiar with the matter said Samsung may have focused on achieving the target threshold voltage of 2 to 3 volts for power semiconductors while overlooking potential effects on device longevity. GaN semiconductors generally require a threshold voltage of around 2 volts. If the threshold voltage is too low, the device may respond to very small currents and become more susceptible to operational errors.

Samsung reorganized its LED business in 2023 and established the Compound Semiconductor Solutions (CSS) division to focus on GaN semiconductors. The division originally planned to launch a dedicated GaN foundry line in 2025. However, weaker-than-expected conditions in the power semiconductor market prompted Samsung to postpone the schedule to the end of 2026.

Industry sources now believe the latest reliability issue could push the timeline back by several additional months. One Samsung GaN foundry customer, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Samsung had already entered the market later than competitors because the company prioritized major businesses such as memory semiconductors. Companies including Infineon Technologies, STMicroelectronics, Texas Instruments and Innoscience have already been shipping GaN semiconductors commercially for one to two years.

Some fabless semiconductor companies are reportedly evaluating alternative foundry partners until Samsung resolves the issue. Potential alternatives include GlobalFoundries, Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation and X-FAB. Unlike silicon semiconductors, where mask costs are typically high enough to encourage production at a single foundry, compound semiconductor mask costs are relatively lower, making it less burdensome to work with multiple manufacturing partners.

A Samsung Electronics representative said the company is still in the pre-production stage and is working through normal development challenges.

"It is part of the process of addressing trial-and-error issues before mass production," the representative said. "It is too early to determine whether these findings constitute a defect."