[Exclusive] Ex-SK Hynix Employee Took 77 Photos of HBM Technology on iPad to Move to China

Former SK Hynix Employee Offered Job by Huawei
Prosecutors: "Took Company Laptop Home for Remote Work"
"Took 77 Photos of Hybrid Bonding Materials with iPad"

Kim, a former SK Hynix employee who was put on trial for stealing technology in an attempt to move to Huawei, was found to have taken 77 photos of high-bandwidth memory (HBM) related materials using his iPad. HBM is an advanced technology owned by SK Hynix and is referred to as the engine of artificial intelligence (AI).

According to the indictment released by prosecutors on the 22nd, Kim decided to transfer to HiSilicon, a Huawei subsidiary, while working as an expatriate in China on February 7, 2022. For the purpose of preparing his resume, Kim brought his company-issued laptop to his home office. On or around May 20 of the same year, he accessed the company's 'HyDisk TF Document Box.' There, he took a total of 77 photos with his iPad of the 'Wafer Bonding (Wafer Bonding Lecture Material_20190522.pptx)' file, which contained hybrid bonding technology information, according to the indictment.

Hybrid bonding is an essential technology for implementing HBM. The materials photographed by Kim appear to include early-stage technology as of 2022 (specifically, the wafer-to-wafer (W2W) method applied to image sensors and NAND flash memory). However, the indictment did not indicate that Kim directly leaked this information to a Chinese company.

Kim's main focus was the CMOS image sensor (CIS), which was needed by HiSilicon, the company that had offered him a job. According to the indictment, between March 11 and March 14, 2022, while preparing his resume for this company, Kim referenced CIS trade secret PowerPoint materials and sent them to a HiSilicon human resources representative. However, his transfer to HiSilicon was put on hold, and about five months later, around August 17, he received another job offer from a different Chinese company. Prosecutors stated that Kim again submitted a resume to this company, attaching trade secret PowerPoint materials in the same manner.

That same year, Kim was caught during an internal audit at SK Hynix and, after an investigation by the Information Technology Crime Investigation Division of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office (headed by Ahn Donggeon), was indicted and detained on the 7th.

Around the same time, a Chinese national who was prosecuted for stealing technology from SK Hynix was sentenced to five years in prison and fined 30 million won in an appellate court ruling (Suwon High Court Criminal Division 2-1). In the first trial, the sentence was one year and six months in prison and a fine of 20 million won. The appellate court stated, "Since national core technology and trade secrets were leaked and not recovered, it is impossible to even estimate the financial damage suffered by the victim company and the Republic of Korea."