First Strategic Materials Conference in Korea - a Success

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SEMI announced today that the first SEMI Strategic Materials Conference(SMC) was held in Korea COEX in Seoul on May 18. This deep technical conference program attracted 258 attendees from 81 companies. Advanced materials critical to scaling technology in semiconductor manufacturing industry bring challenges including innovation speed, cost effectiveness, performance, quality management and environmental issues.

With the theme “A Decade of Materials,” SEMI Korea organized the inaugural SMC Korea that brought the key semiconductor issues into focus and provided networking opportunities for this specialized community. The agenda included presentations on market outlook, new technology trends, challenges and opportunities of emerging new materials, chemical, quality management and collaboration by 14 speakers from Air Products, ASM Korea, Dow Chemical, Entegris, Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, Tokyo Electron, Yole Développement and others.      

The keynote at SMC Korea was presented by Kurt Ronse, director of Advanced Lithography Program of imec. He spoke on advanced lithography and patterning materials for the next decade. Ronse stated that Moore’s Law of continuing IC die area and cost reduction was becoming increasingly difficult – and advanced and strategic materials were key in enabling the physical scaling. He added that all advanced patterning techniques critically depend on increasingly stringent materials properties.

Two attorneys, Joo-Hyoung LEE and Tae-Hyun YOON from KIM & CHANG, the largest law firm in Korea, presented in the policy and regulation session. They presented an overview of K-REACH, a critical issue for chemical materials. They highlighted trends and companies’ challenges and responses in the industry in this increasingly critical area.  

Hyunwoo KIM, vice president of Samsung Electronics, highlighted the importance of collaboration between customers and suppliers for the development of new materials and innovative technology. This message from one of the top global chipmakers underscored the importance of this forum working together in the area of semiconductor materials being enabling to the industry.

“We were pleased to hold the first Strategic Materials Conference, SMC Korea,” said Hyun-Dae Cho, president of SEMI Korea. “We hope the conference provided attendees with important insights into the semiconductor materials industry and also provided key networking opportunities.”

Official Sponsors of SMC Korea 2016 include Air Products, Merck, and SK Materials. 

About SEMI

SEMI connects more than 1,900 member companies and more than a quarter-million professionals worldwide to advance the science and business of electronics manufacturing. SEMI members are responsible for the innovations in materials, design, equipment, software, and services that enable smarter, faster, more powerful, and more affordable electronic products. Since 1970, SEMI has built connections that have helped our members grow more profitably, create new markets, and address common industry challenges together. SEMI maintains offices in Bangalore, Beijing, Berlin, Brussels, Grenoble, Hsinchu, Moscow, San Jose, Seoul, Shanghai, Singapore, Tokyo, and Washington, D.C.