TECHNOLOGY LEAKS TO CHINA

[Anchor Lead]

Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix hold the largest shares in the global D-RAM market. Several people from domestic equipment manufacturing firms have been arrested for leaking the two companies' technologies to China.

[Pkg]

A chemical substance is poured onto a chip substrate to remove impurities that occur during manufacturing. This important step accounts for a third of the semiconductor manufacturing process.

[Soundbite] LEE JONG-HO(SEOUL NATIONAL UNIV.) : "This process not only cleans the surface, but also influences its structure and material, determining the performance of the entire integrated circuit."

The ratio of chemicals, cleaning speed and pressure differ between chipmakers. This determines performance and the methods are highly confidential. The National Intelligence Service has obtained information that the core semiconductor cleaning technologies of domestic chipmakers had been leaked overseas, and transferred the case to prosecutors. After a six-month probe, the prosecutors indicted 16 employees and executives from a domestic semiconductor equipment manufacturing firm. They are facing charges of leaking SK Hynix's latest semiconductor manufacturing and cleaning technologies to a Chinese chipmaker over a period of two years from August 2018. One of the suspects is alleged to have stolen the technologies while concluding a joint development contract with SK Hynix in 2018. Over three years, from March 2017, the perpetrators also allegedly stole the blueprint of a world-first chip cleaning device developed by a Samsung Electronics subsidiary and used it illegally to develop equipment that was intended for export to China. Prosecutors said the suspects illegally acquired the technology from a former employee of Samsung's subsidiary. The prosecutors added the equipment that was developed using the leaked technology has not been exported to China yet.