| Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong, third from left, takes a look at semiconductor packaging products at the company's plant in Cheonan, South Chungcheong Province, Friday. Courtesy of Samsung Electronics |
By Baek Byung-yeul
Lee Jae-yong, chairman of Samsung Electronics, vowed the semiconductor giant's unwavering commitment to keep nurturing chip experts in the industry and investing in the sector as these measures are key to retaining its leadership in the highly competitive market, according to Samsung, Friday.
Samsung said the chairman visited the company's plants in Cheonan and Asan, both located in South Chungcheong Province, to check their capabilities in next-generation semiconductor packaging technologies and their medium- to long-term business strategies.
“Though we are in a difficult situation, there should be no shaking in nurturing experts and investing in future technologies,” Lee told executives during his visit to the Cheonan plant.
The meeting featured Kyung Kye-hyun, president and CEO of Samsung's DS Division; Lee Jung-bae, president of memory business; Choi Si-young, president of its foundry business; and Park Yong-in, president of its LSI business.
The chairman inspected the Cheonan plant's production line which uses advanced technologies such as high bandwidth memory (HBM) and wafer level package (WLP), Samsung said.
The process is essential to ensure reliable transmission of electrical signals and process external appearance of chips.
Lee's visit to the chip packaging production line shows it has emerged as a boon for the chip industry at a time when capabilities to supply customized chips have become essential for competitiveness in chip manufacturing.
With IT companies developing their own chips, Lee's move shows Samsung is concentrating on how the company can contain various kinds of chips in one substrate.
“Semiconductor package technology with high performance and low power consumption is increasingly required in various fields such as AI, 5G and vehicle components. The importance of advanced package technology is soaring as an alternative to overcome the limitation of miniaturization of chip circuits less than 10-nanometer,” Samsung said.
The chairman also had a meeting with the package technology development team in Asan's Onyang.
“During the meeting, employees shared their pride as developers, goals for developing new technologies and workplace difficulties with the chairman. The chairman also thanked the employees for their dedication and efforts,” Samsung said.
Since becoming chairman of Samsung Electronics last October, Lee has been visiting company facilities around the country. He also has continued to communicate with Samsung's partner firms.