SK Hynix Receives Government Award in Commemoration of Inventors' Day

59th Invention Day Ceremony
'DRAM Development' Vice President Kim Jong-hwan and Team Leader Kim Woong-rae
Awarded the Iron Tower Industrial Medal and Prime Minister's Commendation

On the 21st, SK Hynix announced on the 22nd that Kim Jong-hwan, Vice President (in charge of DRAM development), received the Iron Tower Industrial Medal, and Kim Woong-rae, Team Leader (DRAM core design), was awarded the Prime Minister's Commendation at the '59th Invention Day Ceremony' held at the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Jung-gu, Seoul.

SK Hynix Vice President in charge of DRAM Development, Kim Jong-hwan (left), who received the Iron Tower Industrial Medal at the 59th Inventors' Day Ceremony, and Kim Woong-rae, Team Leader of DRAM Core Design (right), who received the Prime Minister's Commendation. Photo by SK Hynix Newsroom capture

Kim Jong-hwan, Vice President leading SK Hynix's DRAM technology development, was recognized for his contributions to AI memory development and received the Iron Tower Industrial Medal. Since 2021, Kim has overseen the company's DRAM development, successfully mass-producing the 4th generation AI memory, High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) 3, in June 2022. In August last year, he developed the 5th generation product, HBM3E. He also developed the next-generation intelligent memory, Processing-In-Memory (PIM), which adds computing functions to memory, and contributed to the development of Compute eXpress Link (CXL) memory, which integrates interfaces between memory and other devices into one, enhancing both product performance and efficiency. Kim stated, "Just as SK Hynix secured a leading position in the global AI memory market and elevated South Korea's status through the development of HBM3 and HBM3E, we will accelerate the development of next-generation AI memory to continue our leadership."

Kim Woong-rae, who received the Prime Minister's Commendation, was recognized for developing circuit-related design technologies introduced in the 10-nanometer class fine process for DRAM, achieving product performance improvement and cost reduction. He was also highly praised for developing ultra-high-speed and low-power operation technologies for mobile low-power DRAMs LPDDR4 and LPDDR5 and filing key patents, contributing to securing national intellectual property (IP). Kim said, "This achievement was made possible thanks to the company's generous investment and the members' united One Team mindset. I will continue to do my best to maintain leading technology in the DRAM field."

Every year on Invention Day (May 19), the Korean Intellectual Property Office awards government honors to contributors who have led national industrial development. The awards are divided into Industrial Medals, Industrial Decorations, Presidential Commendations, and Prime Minister's Commendations according to the merits.