South Korean memory company SK Hynix reorganized its material, components, and equipment research and development. They combined them under a new foundational technology center directly reporting to its CEO, Kwek Noh-Jung.
According to ET News, SK Hynix has also worked to improve inter-organization cooperation and tech competitiveness in the R&D functions of individual departments or business units. But the latest reorganization does not include the Future Technology Institute, which is devoted to mid-to-long-term technology development, nor the departments in charge of manufacturing processes such as etching and deposition.
The report indicated that the executive in charge of the foundational technology center has been responsible for ThinFilm technology and has led the development of insulating film deposition technology and nitride compound metal film-related technology.
Samsung Electronics also has just gone through personnel and organizational restructuring. A new material and component center was set up under the manufacturing and technology organization, and the research, analysis testing, and other departmental organizations were integrated into the center.
The reason for the semiconductor industry to strengthen organizations related to materials, components, and equipment is that these are essential components of semiconductors and are directly related to product functions.
To realize 2-nm and 1-nm node processes, not only EUV lithography machines are needed, but masks and photoresists need to be changed as well. In addition, semiconductors used in artificial intelligence (AI) servers, such as high-bandwidth memory (HBM), must be manufactured with materials that do not deform due to heat. Therefore, materials, components, and equipment play a vital role in the advanced node processes and thus became the focus of the latest restructuring efforts.
Article translated by Judy Lin
