Agreement Signed to Support Training of Semiconductor Design Specialists
Adding 130nm BCDMOS Process Following 28nm
Samsung Electronics has decided to expand support for practical training in power management and communication chip manufacturing for domestic semiconductor major students. This will enable students to engage more actively in practical training, which costs tens of millions of won, allowing them to gain experience in semiconductor chip design and production.
KAIST announced that it will sign an agreement on the 23rd with Samsung Electronics to support the cultivation of semiconductor design professionals through the '130nm BCDMOS process support' program. BCDMOS (Bipolar-CMOS-DMOS) is a process suitable for power management applications and is mainly used in the design of low-power and wireless communication systems such as Internet of Things (IoT) devices, mobile devices, and wearable devices.
With this agreement, KAIST expects that starting this year, semiconductor major master's and doctoral students will be able to manufacture chips using the 130nm BCDMOS 8-inch process, following the 28nm logic process previously provided by Samsung Electronics. In the second half of this year, 20 teams will begin chip production, and from next year, 20 teams each in the first and second halves of the year will participate in chip manufacturing for two years. According to KAIST, the 28nm process provided this year involves 160 teams from 30 universities, with over 800 students producing chips.
Semiconductor chip manufacturing is an important process where graduate students implement the designs they have theoretically created onto actual wafers to produce physical chips. However, since the cost of producing a single wafer is at least 30 million won, it is difficult to gain chip manufacturing experience without support from companies or the government.
Park In-cheol, director of KAIST IDEC, said, “Samsung Electronics’ support for the 130nm BCDMOS process is expected to significantly contribute to improving research outcomes by providing practical manufacturing opportunities to universities researching in this field.”
The agreement ceremony will be held on the afternoon of the 23rd at the KAIST IDEC Dongtan Education Center, attended by key figures from both institutions, including Director Park In-cheol and Samsung Electronics Executive Director Park Sang-hoon. Along with the agreement ceremony, a design briefing session will be held for 19 teams from 13 universities participating in the 130nm BCDMOS process in the second half of 2024.
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