CTO Jeong Gi-tae Expresses Technical Confidence
"I never feel technical limitations or think that we cannot win when competing with any company."
On the 23rd, Jung Ki-tae, Vice President and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Samsung Electronics Foundry Division, made this statement at the '7th Semiconductor Industry-Academia-Research Exchange Workshop,' held as a side event of the Semiconductor Exhibition (SEDEX 2024) at COEX in Gangnam-gu, Seoul. The event, organized by the Institute of Electronics and Information Engineers (IEIE) Semiconductor Society, was attended by numerous university professors, students, company officials, and researchers in the semiconductor field.
Vice President Jung emphasized, "From a technical perspective, there may be fluctuations in company competitiveness, but the fundamental technical capabilities are not lacking." He added, "In competition, company size is also important, and the larger the scale, the smaller the proportion of research and development (R&D) costs, which is advantageous. When combining Samsung’s semiconductor businesses?memory, foundry, and system LSI (fabless)?we are absolutely not behind other companies." He further stated, "Nowadays, design and process must be optimized together, and in this area, we are generating tremendous synergy effects, so we have sufficient technical competitiveness."
Jung Ki-tae, Vice President of Samsung Electronics Foundry Division, is giving a lecture at the "7th Semiconductor Industry-Academia-Research Exchange Workshop" held on the 23rd at COEX in Gangnam-gu, Seoul. Photo by Choi Seo-yoon
One audience member said, "I know well that Samsung Electronics engineers are highly skilled and that the technology is applied in various fields." However, they added, "But why is it so difficult to generate profits in the foundry business? I believe you, Vice President, have deeply considered this. It would be great if you could convey this more courageously to the top management."
They continued, "Looking at TSMC’s growth process, they have grown together by coordinating various semiconductor chip designs through the Multi-Project Wafer (MPW) method. It seems that this approach reveals differences between Samsung and TSMC."
Vice President Jung responded, "That’s a good point. We have been thinking about that a lot as well."
Vice President Jung stated that in the foundry business, not only technology but also cost efficiency is important. He said, "Regardless of the technology, the key factor to becoming a winner is cost. If you can meet the cost, you can find solutions to any problems afterward." In the foundry business, the core is not just competing with technical skills but how efficiently and cost-effectively high-quality semiconductors can be produced.
He also revealed the strategy for introducing next-generation High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) technology. Vice President Jung said, "We can be technically competitive enough, and we are preparing technologies such as silicon capacitors and 3.5-dimensional (3.5D) packaging for this purpose." Samsung Electronics plans to apply 3.5D packaging to next-generation HBM and introduce various advanced technologies such as active interposers. They have also nearly completed preparations for mass production of the next-generation component, the 'silicon capacitor,' which will replace the existing multilayer ceramic capacitors (MLCC).
Jung Ki-tae, Vice President of Samsung Electronics Foundry Division, is giving a lecture at the "7th Semiconductor Industry-Academia-Research Exchange Workshop" held on the 23rd at COEX in Gangnam-gu, Seoul. Photo by Choi Seo-yoon
Earlier, Vice President Jung delivered a presentation titled 'The Role of Foundry Technology in the Smart World,' highlighting the importance of foundry technology for realizing the smart world and Samsung’s competitiveness. He said, "The smart world is a world where various technologies such as autonomous vehicles, augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and robotics harmonize, and foundry technology makes this possible. Especially, high performance, low power consumption, various sensors, and advanced packaging technologies are key elements." He added, "Demand for foundry technology continues to increase in various fields such as AI, electric vehicles, and robotics," and "The semiconductor industry is growing by more than 10% annually."
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