"DeepSeek Crisis, We Just Need to Do Better" Lee Kang-wook, Vice President of SK Hynix and HBM Developer

First SK Hynix Winner of the Kang Daewon Award at the Korea Semiconductor Conference
Named as the Successor to Dr. Kang Daewon, a Giant in the Semiconductor Field

"DeepSeek has emerged, but we just need to do better."

Lee Kang-wook, Vice President of SK Hynix (right), is taking a commemorative photo with Professor Park Jae-geun of Hanyang University, the presenter, after receiving the Kang Dae-won Award at the Korea Semiconductor Academic Conference held in Jeongseon, Gangwon Province on the 13th. Photo by Baek Jong-min, Tech Specialist

Lee Kang-wook, Vice President of SK Hynix, said this on the 13th after receiving the 'Kang Dae-won Award' at the Korea Semiconductor Conference held at High1 Grand Hotel in Jeongseon, Gangwon Province. Although the DeepSeek craze sparked concerns about a crisis in Graphics Processing Units (GPU), this statement expresses his determination to further accelerate the development of High Bandwidth Memory (HBM), a core component of GPUs.

On that day, Vice President Lee stood on the podium representing the industry alongside Professor Kim Jung-ho of the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), who is called the father of HBM. Lee appeared elated. He seemed to feel the weight of being named the successor to continue the achievements of Dr. Kang Dae-won, a Korean who made a major turning point in the semiconductor field, and to lead the development of HBM that has caused a stir in the era of Artificial Intelligence (AI). In his acceptance speech, Lee also said, "I am grateful to receive this precious award honoring Dr. Kang Dae-won, who wrote a new chapter in the development of the semiconductor industry."

This is also the first time someone from SK Hynix has received this award. At the first award ceremony, Samsung Electronics' Noh Hyung-dong received the Kang Dae-won Award in the circuit systems field. While scholars and engineers who researched SDRAM and Gate-All-Around (GAA) previously received the Kang Dae-won Award, this year both recipients are HBM researchers. Professor Kim Jung-ho laid the foundation for HBM, and Vice President Lee implemented HBM by stacking memory through semiconductor packaging technology. Lee said, "It is also an honor to be the first recipient in the semiconductor packaging field." Professor Kim also mentioned that HBM could blossom thanks to SK Hynix's leadership.

The Korea Semiconductor Society explained that Vice President Lee played an important role in SK Hynix securing a leading position in the HBM market and advancing as a global AI memory leader by successfully introducing an innovative packaging technology called MR-MUF (Mass Reflow Molded Underfill) during the development of the third-generation HBM product, HBM2E, in 2019. He continues to oversee HBM technology development and has successfully developed the fourth generation (HBM3) and fifth generation (HBM3E), playing a key role in maintaining SK Hynix's dominant position in the HBM market.

It was also thanks to Vice President Lee's efforts that SK Hynix was mentioned by SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won in January as being ahead of NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang's demands.

The Kang Dae-won Award was established to honor the late Dr. Kang Dae-won, a giant in the semiconductor field who laid the core foundation of modern semiconductor technology by developing the world's first transistor MOSFET and the floating gate, the basis of NAND flash, but who died in an accident at age 61 and never received a Nobel Prize. The Korea Semiconductor Conference's Standing Operating Committee has been awarding this prize to talents who follow Dr. Kang Dae-won since the 24th Semiconductor Conference held in 2017.