[Asia Future Business Forum] Choi Chang-gyu, Vice President of Samsung Electronics, "A Semiconductor Company Excelling in AI Utilization"

Choi Chang-gyu, Head of Samsung Electronics SAIT AI Research Center, Announces Expansion of AI Technology Application in Semiconductor Business

"Samsung Electronics is committed to becoming the semiconductor company that best utilizes artificial intelligence (AI) in the world. We aim to apply AI technology in many areas, not only in manufacturing such as design and processes but also in marketing and customer communication."

Choi Chang-gyu, Vice President and Head of Samsung Electronics SAIT (formerly the Comprehensive Technology Institute) AI Research Center, said this on the 17th at the '2023 Asia Future Enterprise Forum' held at Lotte Hotel in Jung-gu, Seoul. SAIT is the division that develops core technologies essential for Samsung Electronics' future growth, and its AI Research Center focuses on increasing AI applications in the semiconductor business through dedicated technology research.

On the day, Vice President Choi introduced cases of AI adoption promoted by Samsung Electronics Semiconductor (DS Division) under the theme "AI and Semiconductors Creating the Future." This includes researching semiconductors suitable for large-scale computing systems faced in the AI era and applying AI in semiconductor manufacturing processes for circuit design, yield management, and metrology (inspection).

At the "2023 Asia Future Business Forum" held on the 17th at Lotte Hotel in Jung-gu, Seoul, hosted by Asia Economy, Choi Chang-gyu, Vice President and Head of Samsung Electronics SAIT AI Research Center, is giving a special lecture on the topic of "The Future of AI." Photo by Yoon Dong-ju doso7@

Vice President Choi stated that as AI technology advances and adoption increases, the required level of computing performance also rises. Since this cannot be handled by graphics processing units (GPUs) alone, he added that the concept of 'memory-centric computing,' where the importance of memory grows, has become a significant paradigm.

To respond to this, Samsung Electronics is introducing new memory technologies and products such as High Bandwidth Memory (HBM)-Processing In Memory (PIM) and Compute Express Link (CXL). Vice President Choi explained, "After the existing Double Data Rate (DDR) interface, we are progressing research in a direction that creates significant future value by introducing computational memory through CXL links and others."

Reducing various costs incurred in the semiconductor manufacturing process by adopting AI is also a major task. Currently, it takes 3 to 6 months to produce semiconductor chips from wafers, but as the process moves below 2 nanometers (nm; 1 nm = one-billionth of a meter), it could take up to a year. Given the enormous costs and time involved, minimizing risks in the middle of the process is essential.

Vice President Choi said, "We use AI to select defective wafers because if equipment breaks down or wafers are faulty midway, there is no reason to continue the process until the end. We are also developing AI technology that controls quality by identifying wafers that seem defective but can be made into good products by following the equipment route."

At the "2023 Asia Future Business Forum" held on the 17th at Lotte Hotel in Jung-gu, Seoul, hosted by Asia Economy, Choi Chang-gyu, Vice President and Head of Samsung Electronics SAIT AI Research Center, is giving a special lecture on the theme of "The Future of AI." Photo by Yoon Dong-joo doso7@

For yield management, attention is focused on digital twin technology. A digital twin refers to the virtual representation of real-world machines or equipment in a computer environment. Vice President Choi explained, "It is difficult to judge good or defective products and reflect corrections in the fab after all products are completed, so we are exploring twin models that simulate the physical fab." This means building a virtual fab to increase prediction accuracy before wafers leave the fab and resolve issues immediately.

He emphasized, "Although we talked about manufacturing now, we plan to apply AI technology in many areas including marketing and customer communication. As AI is said to be the infrastructure of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, all companies will need to become AI companies in the future."

The Asia Future Enterprise Forum is an event hosted annually by Asia Economy, now in its 11th year. This year's forum was held under the theme "The Future of Enterprises Led by AI." It aimed to bring together AI experts and ICT company representatives to discuss the current state and future of AI in Korea and the related ecosystem.