Interview with Park Myung-jae, SK Hynix Vice President
Confident in Pioneering the HBM Market and Long-term Development
SK Hynix revealed that it took more than 15 years of long-term research and development efforts to lead the High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) market. Regarding rumors that the HBM development team from a competitor joined the company, it clarified that these claims are "groundless."
On the 27th, SK Hynix posted an interview with Park Myung-jae, Vice President of SK Hynix, who was recognized for his contributions to HBM design and received SK Group’s highest honor, the '2024 SUPEX Pursuit Award,' on its newsroom. The company stated, "HBM became widely known only about 2 to 3 years ago when generative artificial intelligence (AI) began to shake up the technology industry," adding, "therefore, some view SK Hynix’s HBM as a 'sudden success,' but that is not the case."
SK Hynix began developing related technologies in 2009, before first unveiling HBM in December 2013. The company recognized that Through-Silicon Via (TSV) technology was crucial to meet the demand for high-performance memory, and after about four years of development, it released the first-generation HBM in 2013. However, since HBM had not yet attracted significant attention, there were concerns during the development of subsequent generations, making continued development challenging.
Vice President Park said, "In the mid to late 2010s, the HBM design organization was openly called a remote outpost," explaining, "the company faced difficulties developing HBM2, and above all, market growth was slower than expected." He added, "As concerns about the business grew, pessimism poured in from the industry, but we were confident that if we developed the best products, services to utilize them would naturally emerge." He also explained that this outlook "became the driving force behind pushing forward the development of follow-up products, including HBM2E."
From the third-generation HBM product, HBM2E, SK Hynix set goals higher than external expectations and focused on product development. By collaborating with related organizations to solve challenges, it established key element technologies such as MR-MUF (a process of stacking semiconductor chips and injecting liquid protective material between chips to solidify) and HKMG (a next-generation process using materials with high dielectric constant (K) in DRAM transistor internal insulation layers to increase processing speed and reduce power consumption). It also secured various design and testing technologies.
As a result, SK Hynix gained the upper hand in the market leadership competition in the early 2020s when the fourth-generation HBM product, HBM3, was released. Vice President Park explained, "SK Hynix continuously innovated not only in technology but also in customer relations and quality at that time," adding, "finally, with HBM3 boasting overwhelming performance and characteristics, we secured a high market share and firmly established our position as the number one in HBM." He emphasized that competitiveness continues, saying, "Following the mass production of HBM3E (the fifth generation of HBM) in March this year, we were the first to supply the product to customers."
Some interpret that SK Hynix’s HBM competitiveness was strengthened as HBM development personnel from competitors moved to SK Hynix. Regarding this, Vice President Park said, "There is a groundless rumor that the competitor’s HBM team moved to our company and developed technology," adding, "our members who developed the technology entirely on their own could not help but feel their pride was hurt." He continued, "not a single person from the competitor joined our HBM design organization at that time," and "we will continue to strive to maintain our lead."
He expressed his ambition, saying, "As HBM diversifies into custom products, collaboration with customers and the foundry (semiconductor contract manufacturing) industry will become increasingly important," and "we aim to keep pace with trends and run steadily without wavering to maintain market leadership amid these changes."
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