[THE INVESTOR] Samsung Electronics' new Galaxy S8 is reportedly facing manufacturing issues with its camera modules, as its supplier Patron is struggling to boost the yield rate, The Bell reported on March 31.

Citing unnamed industry sources, the report said, the production yield rate still remains at less than 70 percent, which means some 30 faulty products out of 100. The rate should be elevated to reach some 80 percent for stable supply. 

Samsung Galaxy S8

For the 5.8-inch S8, Samsung has combined two camera modules -- respectively for the front-facing camera and the iris scanner -- into one. The report said this unified camera module is trickier to produce even for Patron, the largest camera module supplier for Samsung.

The bigger S8 Plus uses separate camera modules produced by Power Logics.

“Considering Patron’s struggles, the unified camera module seems to be extremely hard to produce,” a source was quoted as saying. “Power Logics has allegedly increased the yield rate to more than 90 percent from March.”

By Lee Ji-yoon (jylee@heraldcorp.com)