■HBM’s ‘Korean talent hunt’ spreads in all directions
Former researcher, former head of HBM division
Technology gap narrowed after moving to Micron
One quarter of technology outflows focus on semiconductors
The punishment is still only acquittal and probation.
“Concerns about utilizing retired executives at the national level”
SK Hynix’s HBM3E product photo. Photo provided by SK Hynix
The court blocked a researcher who retired from SK Hynix (000660) from moving to Micron Technology, a latecomer in the semiconductor industry. In particular, given that the employee in question is an expert in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) semiconductors, which are the core of artificial intelligence (AI) services that the world is focusing on, an emergency light has been turned on to protect next-generation technology.
According to the legal community and the semiconductor industry on the 7th, the 50th Civil Affairs Division of the Seoul Central District Court (Chief Judge Kim Sang-hoon) cited SK Hynix’s recent application for a temporary injunction against former researcher A. It was decided that if Mr. A violates this, he should pay 10 million won per day.
In its decision, the court said, “If the information acquired by Mr. A is leaked, Micron will be able to shorten the time it takes to acquire business capabilities equivalent to SK Hynix in the same field, while SK Hynix’s competitiveness in this regard will be significantly damaged. “There is a need to take these factors into consideration,” he stated. Mr. A, who retired from SK Hynix on July 26, 2022, worked as a chief researcher on the design team of the Memory Research Institute, a senior researcher on the design team of the DRAM Design and Development Division, the head of the HBM business, and the project design manager of the HBM design department. In particular, he has written an information protection pledge every year since 2015, stating that he will not be employed by the same company for two years after retirement. In July 2022, around the time of his retirement, he also wrote an agreement prohibiting transfers, which specifically specified the names of companies that should not be transferred, such as Micron, as well as a pledge to maintain confidentiality of national core technologies.
Although the court upheld SK Hynix’s request for a preliminary injunction against Mr. A, a former researcher who moved to its competitor Micron, there are still concerns that the ‘all-round talent hunt’ targeting the Korean semiconductor industry will intensify. This is because as the battle for leadership surrounding artificial intelligence (AI) semiconductors intensifies, the competition to secure related technology and talent is intensifying. As the talent outflow route has expanded from China to the United States and Europe, some say that it is urgent to strengthen punishment for technology leak crimes.
The court’s acceptance of the request for a temporary injunction filed by SK Hynix was largely due to the judgment that if the information obtained by Mr. A while working at SK Hynix were transferred to Micron, SK Hynix’s business competitiveness would inevitably be damaged.
An industry official said, “The most important thing in semiconductor development and productivity improvement is the experience and know-how gained over time. If this part flows to competitors, it can affect the speed of development and success.”
In fact, the semiconductor industry believes that as Mr. A moved to Micron, a considerable amount of SK Hynix’s DRAM and HBM core technologies would have flowed to Micron. Mr. A has been in charge of HBM-related work for a long time, serving as head of the HBM division and in charge of project design for the HBM design department at SK Hynix. There is also a view that Micron, a latecomer in the HBM market, has aggressively pursued recruiting Korean semiconductor elites as a major strategy for technological advancement.
Kim Hyeong-jun, head of the Next-Generation Intelligent Semiconductor Business Division, said, “It seems that Micron has targeted the executives in question to secure HBM technology,” adding, “Micron also has a factory in Hiroshima, Japan, so they are recruiting Korean engineers by offering high salary allowances. “There are a lot of them,” he explained. Another official said, “Micron skipped the 4th generation HBM and immediately announced mass production of the 5th generation. Isn’t there a strange causal relationship?”
Coincidentally, around the time of Mr. A’s job change, Micron quickly narrowed the technology gap with domestic companies in the HBM business. A representative example is Micron’s recent announcement that it has begun mass production of the 5th generation HBM, ‘HBM3E’, ahead of Samsung Electronics (005930) and SK Hynix. In this process, Micron boldly skipped the development of the 4th generation product and went straight to mass production of the 5th generation. NVIDIA, a key player in the AI semiconductor market, was also officially announced as a customer. Competition for next-generation development and mass production is intensifying by the day, with Samsung Electronics announcing that it had succeeded in developing the industry’s first 12-layer 36 gigabyte (GB) HBM3E immediately after Micron’s announcement.
According to market research company Trend Force, last year’s HBM market was divided between SK Hynix (53%) and Samsung Electronics (38%), with Micron (9%) following behind with a single-digit share.
A view of the SK Hynix semiconductor production line. Photo provided by SK Hynix
In the semiconductor industry, concerns are growing about the increasing leakage of core technology to competitors. Last year, a Samsung Electronics executive was caught trying to build a semiconductor factory in China by stealing the design drawings of a semiconductor factory, which were trade secrets. Former researchers at SEMES, a Samsung Electronics subsidiary, were caught using SEMES’ trade secrets to manufacture and export semiconductor wet cleaning equipment and were sentenced to prison. According to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, 39 of the 165 cases of overseas industrial technology leaks detected over the past eight years were concentrated in the semiconductor industry, with technology leaks being the most serious among industries.
Another point to note is that the scope of talent outflow is becoming increasingly widespread. In the past, the destination for domestic semiconductor manpower outflow was mainly China, but now the target is expanding to include American and European competitors. In addition to Micron, the number of big techs developing their own AI-related semiconductors is rapidly increasing, and Chinese memory companies such as Changshin Memory Technology (CXMT) are also targeting Korean semiconductor manpower as they jump into the early development of HBM. They are even more threatening because they are not only siphoning off talent from large corporations, but are also reaching out to the entire semiconductor ecosystem, including materials, parts, and equipment.
Concerns about technology being leaked to overseas competitors have grown, but the level of punishment remains lax. While the United States and Taiwan view leakage of national core technology as a serious crime and respond accordingly, Korea’s punishment is relatively light. According to the Supreme Court Judicial Yearbook, of the 33 first-trial cases handed over to trial for violations of the Industrial Technology Protection Act in 2021, 87.8% were acquitted (60.6%) and suspended sentences (27.2%). Some point out that ‘soft punishment’ is the fundamental reason for lowering the hurdle for talent outflow.
Director Kim said, “It is difficult to institutionally prevent all cases of switching jobs to competing companies,” and added, “In addition to strengthening punishment for technology leaks, we need to devise policies that can utilize engineers, including retired domestic executives, at the national and corporate level.” “I do it,” he said.
2024-03-07 21:05:00
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